Chemical Plant Construction in East Houston: Labor Shortage Amid Boom

In Houston, More than $35 billion in petrochemical plant construction is in progress and the building boom has created a labor shortage, as stated by C.A. Shields, marketing manager at the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership.

“Industrial facilities are being built on the eastside requiring thousands of construction workers and companies are hiring,” Shields says. “Because so many workers are needed for so many projects, we’ve seen a shortage in certain areas of the workforce.”

Exxon Mobil, Chevron Phillips, Dow Chemical and several others have major expansion projects under way.

Among the multibillion-dollar petrochemical plant projects under way on the Gulf Coast: Exxon Mobil Chemical with some $6 billion in projects in Baytown and Mont Belvieu; Chevron Phillips has the same amount of projects in Baytown and Old Ocean. In Freeport, Dow Chemical has $4 billion in projects and in Channelview, La Porte, and Corpus Christi, LyondellBasell has some $1.3 billion with additional ones pending.

The eastside of Houston along the Ship Channel and in the Bayport Industrial District has the infrastructure, pipeline network, truck, rail, port, to support some of the world’s largest manufacturing complexes, says Shields.