A worker shortage has delayed the completion date of
DuPont’s cellulosic ethanol plant outside Nevada, according to the executive
director of the Nevada Economic Development Council and an industry market
research group.
Last February, DuPont officials said they expected the
$200 million-plus facility to be operational before the end of 2014. DuPont has
said the plant will produce up to 30 million gallons of corn-stover derived
cellulosic ethanol each year.
According to LaVon Schiltz, executive director of the
NEDC, the construction delay was caused by difficulties the project’s main
construction contractor, Fagen Inc. of Granite Falls, Minn., has faced in
recruiting enough workers.
“They have had some problems getting enough of all the
different types of construction workers, which are pretty high-tech
construction-type workers that travel all over the United States,” Schiltz
said. “I know they’ve had some problems finding enough of them, because there’s
a lot of construction going on in those types of avenues.”
Messages left with Fagen requesting more details about
the delay were not returned.
According to Industrial Info Resources, an industry
market research group based in Sugar Land, Texas, the delay has been caused by
a shortage of pipefitters and millwrights, and a substantial amount of pipe
work has yet to be completed.
IIR reported that a previous completion date of Jan. 1
had been delayed to sometime in March as a result.
Survey results published last October by the Associated
General Contractors of America, an industry trade association, showed that 84
percent of responding construction contracting firms operating in the Midwest
were having trouble finding qualified workers.
Reached for comment, DuPont spokeswoman Kelly Woerdehoff
declined to address or acknowledge the labor shortage or give a specific
expected completion date. However, Woerdehoff provided the Ames Tribune a
general statement on the construction delay that she attributed to Jan
Koninckx, the company’s global business director for advanced biofuels.
“We continue to make progress on our Nevada, Iowa,
biorefinery and expect mechanical completion in (the first quarter) of 2015,
followed by a commissioning period that will take several months as we ensure
safety, quality and performance to meet our rigorous standards,” the statement
said.
Keith Gibson, the DuPont plant manager, provided the same
statement but said company rules prohibited him from elaborating on it.
Source: Ames
Tribune
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