Natural gas is helping to revive American manufacturing. Natural gas is likely to create thousands of manufacturing jobs as many manufacturing companies build or expand their plants in order to take advantage of the low price of natural gas. Natural gas is an extremely important feedstock for chemical manufacturing and a major input to fertilizer manufacturing.
Natural gas is one of the world’s most important energy sources. It is useful for heating and cooking purposes and can be used as transportation fuel. Natural gas forms below the earth’s surface as a result of millions of years of heat and pressure. Like coal, it was one of the first fossil fuels harnessed for energy needs.
Increased availability of inexpensive natural gas in the U.S. has had a direct impact on many manufacturing industries including:
- Steel
- Iron
- Fabricated metals
- Machinery
- Plastic
- Rubber
- Resin
- Organic chemicals
It is believed that the energy revolution is helping the United States to regain its footing in the manufacturing sector. The manufacturing sector has been a critical part of the national economy’s rebound from the recession, especially in the metropolitan areas where employment continues to grow. In fact over the past few years, manufacturing employment has grown by an average annual rate of 1.7 percent. The energy intensive industry has played a key role in manufacturing expansion.
The abundance of natural gas in the United States produces many economic benefits for the manufacturing industry including cost savings, greater investments to expand U.S. manufacturing facilities as well as increased levels of employment.
Today, many European countries are moving their manufacturing to the U.S. in order to take advantage of the abundance of natural gas. In fact, there is such an abundance of natural gas in the U.S. that the capacity is enough to satisfy the existing consumer demand in addition to the new manufacturing demand.
With natural gas and oil more readily available than ever in the U.S., a surge in plastic, rubber, resin and chemical manufacturing has been seen within the country’s metro areas. The expanded demand for new pipelines and mining equipment has also resulted in an increase of sales and employment in steel, iron, fabricated materials as well as machinery manufacturing in the metro areas.
Bay Industrial Group offers manufacturers solutions that solve a variety of complex manufacturing challenges. For more information please contact Bay Industrial Group today.