The Plains is home to the third-smallest industrial gas market out of the eight regions of the US. Despite this, revenues generated by the commercial industrial gas activities amounted to over $1.6bn in 2016, up from $1.1bn in 2006, an average annual growth rate of 3.5%.
This growth approximately follows that of GDP in the region, which was tracked at an average annual growth rate of around 3.2% per annum (p.a.) from 2006-2016. The region’s economy had historically relied on arable farming and cattle ranching to drive growth but since 2000 the region has diversified its output, with a major new contribution hailing from the ongoing oil boom being witnessed in North Dakota. In fact, the state is now the second-largest oil producer in the country, and its broader base of industries has been reflected in the evolution of the industrial gas market by end-user through the years.
Industrial production growth (as measured by IPI) fared worse than GDP growth in the Plains region in the 2006-2016 timeframe, a trend which was most notable during the financial crisis, with a 11.3% decline in IPI during the worst year of the crisis. However, industrial production has improved in recent years, and inflation in the US has also generally remained low and steady over the last decade. In 2016 the rate of inflation across the country stood at 1.3%.
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