Machinery Still Revs the Economy, But Logistics and Life Sciences Are Where the Growth Is

Judging by the number of e-commerce and health-related facility investments all around us in this pandemic year, you’d expect those categories to vault to the top of any global ranking by industry sector.

They didn’t quite reach the summit, but logistics (+19.3%) and life sciences (+12%) show the biggest — and only — growth rates among the Top Industries of 2020, as judged by the number of projects tracked by NAICS code in the Conway Data Analytics Database. The database since the 1980s has tracked facility investments by corporate end users across all world geographies and all industry sectors.

Life sciences rises from No. 7 to No. 5 in this year’s rankings, led by projects from the likes of Samsung Biologics in Incheon; Merck in the UK and Seqiris, the subsidiary created by Australia’s CSL Ltd. in 2015 after acquiring the Novartis influenza vaccine business and combining it with vaccine subsidiary bioCSL. The company announced in November it will build the only cell-based influenza vaccine manufacturing facility in the Southern Hemisphere. Based in Tullmarine, in the Melbourne Airport Business Park, the facility is expected to be operational in 2026 and will support 1,000+ STEM jobs in Victoria as well as a supply chain worth more than $300 million annually. The Victorian Government will also contribute to the project.

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