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SALEM -- Mike Mancuso said with two petro-chemical cracker plants planned for this area, it's important to take advantage of the "window" of opportunity that site planners for downstream products operations will be looking for.
Mancuso is the executive director for the Salem Sustainable Opportunity Development Center Inc., and the words "shovel ready" do not ring hollow with him.
Petro giant Shell Oil has been involved in site preparation for it Monaca, Pa., plant for about three years. It's about five years away from ramping up production.
PTT Global Chemical, a Thailand company, is moving step-by-step forward with plans for a Belmont County plant that would produce 1 million metric tons per year of ethylene.
Ethylene is a central component in the manufacture of plastics. A final decision on the that plant is expected later this year.
Mancuso said he sees the cracker plant and the downstream economic development as bigger than the shale boom that hit eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and West Virginia in 2012.
"There are a thousand opportunities," he said. "This is actually bigger than the shale boom itself because these are jobs that will stay for years."
The cracker plant raw materials are used in a multitude of products, he said, noting pellets, for example, could be used by a company like Ventra Salem LLC, a plastic manufacturing plant that supplies the auto industry.
Both suppliers and buyers want pellets as close as possible to defray transportation cost and stretch profit margins.
"It's huge, "Mancuso said, even saving a couple of cents a ton.
"If you tighten the supply chain you lower costs."
He said while at the end of the day Salem will be a small player, "we're close enough to the action."
That's one reason why he is looking ahead to the Petrochemical Engineering and Construction Conference in Pittsburgh June 19-20.
Major Petrochemical Owner/Operator and Contractor companies (from the Northeast and beyond) will assemble "under one roof to address key challenges related to the successful execution of planned projects in the region," the conference website said.
"It's no secret that the petrochemical industry in the Northeastern U.S. and Canada is on the verge of a potential boom (with over $12 billion in planned projects in the pipeline) with a series of mega projects planned for Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Canada," according to the website.
Mancuso is working with the Eastern Ohio Development Alliance, an independent, non-profit organization aimed squarely at promoting economic growth throughout this region.
He is working to show off two or three Salem properties in the EODA booth at the conference.
The EODA consists of 16 eastern and southeastern counties inducing Athens, Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Coshocton, Guernsey, Harrison, Holmes, Jefferson, Monroe, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Tuscarawas and Washington.
Mancuso said the three primary locations in Salem include a 30-acre area south of the Fresh Mark plant, the former Sebring Container plant on state Route 14 and the old Salem Stamping plant, just on the west side of the Dean B. Cranmer overpass at West State Street and Sharp Ave.
"Those are the three immediate opportunities that would need more work," he said, adding there are others that may need utilities, that are partially in and out of the city limits and need some investment.
"The biggest thing, and I can't stress this enough, is we have an 18- to 24-month window, a window of opportunity to take advantage of this whole cycle of them buying property to come on line when the cracker plant comes on line," he said.
He added, "The key is shovel ready," noting Salem has reduced taxes and incentives "that make it extremely easy for businesses to do business here.
"I look around and I think we are the best positioned of any city."
He noted the Sebring Container facility has a rail cut behind it.
"That's as shovel ready as we can get," he said, "to get product here by rail" and "we are lucky enough to be smack in the epicenter."
While the final decision won't be until later, if the Belmont County cracker plant is approved it will bring "two major cracker plants coming on line within about a year of each other … in about five years," Mancuso pointed out while noting this is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
He suggested anyone interested with property available can contact him at 330-337-7669.
"I can walk them through the process and show them what to do to get them in the mix," Mancuso said.