(This article originally was published in LVEDC's Q1 2025 Commercial Real Estate Report).

From steelmaking to semiconductors, Lehigh Valley has been a hub of manufacturing innovation. One of the trailblazing machines invented here, the Fuller-Kinyon® Pump, revolutionized the cement industry and empowered the construction of America’s cities. 

Now, more than a century later, that groundbreaking machine is coming home and being produced in the Lehigh Valley. Global manufacturer FLSmidth Cement - which has its U.S. headquarters in the Lehigh Valley, a renowned cement producing region - recently opened a 122,000-square-foot factory in Allen Township that will employ 60.

“This is home. This is where everything else is located,” said Fred Wuertele, a longtime FLSmidth executive who now serves as an advisor.

The operation is one of the latest additions to the Lehigh Valley’s diverse manufacturing economy, among the Top 15% of manufacturing regions in the U.S. based on Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

More than 700 manufacturers collectively produce an output of $9 billion annually. That’s 16% of Lehigh Valley’s $56 billion GDP. Nationally, manufacturing is 12% of GDP.

Nearly 37,000 people are employed in manufacturing, and one of every four new jobs in the Lehigh Valley over the past five years has been in manufacturing. That growth is a leading reason why Lehigh Valley was named the No. 3 mid-sized market for economic development in 2024, by Site Selection magazine.

Manufacturing space has a historically low vacancy rate in the Lehigh Valley in comparison to other industrial spaces.

In the first quarter, CBRE reported the I-78 and I-81 Corridor had a 3.5% vacancy rate for manufacturing uses and 9% for logistics.

“A slight uptick in logistics space availability opens the door for manufacturers to enter or expand in the Lehigh Valley’s established market,” said Kristin Cahayla-Hoffman, Vice President of Business Development and Attraction at Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC).

FLSmidth Cement is part of FLSmidth, a company that was founded in Denmark in 1882, as a one-man consulting company. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Since this article originally was published, FLSmidth Cement was acquired by Pacific Avenue Capital Partners on June 20, 2025).

Today, its operations span the globe with nearly 8,000 employees in more than 60 countries. It is a leading supplier of productivity and sustainability solutions to the global mining and cement industries.

Its goal is to provide solutions for zero-emissions mining and zero-emissions cement production by 2030, supporting a green transition built upon sustainable materials.

“Lehigh Valley’s manufacturing economy is growing because innovative companies such as FLSmidth recognize the advantages to making their products here,” Cahayla-Hoffman said. “FLSmidth has been a mainstay in the Lehigh Valley for a long time. We look forward to the continued contributions they will make in one of the country’s richest regions for cement production.”

Among the equipment to be produced at FLSmidth Cement’s new facility is the Fuller-Kinyon® Pump. It uses air to push pulverized material through pipes, a process known as pneumatic transfer.

The pump was invented in the Lehigh Valley during World War I, by namesake Alonzo Kinyon of the Fuller-Lehigh Company. Mixing powdered material such as coal dust with air allowed it to flow freely inside pipes without fear of explosion.

Fuller-Lehigh Company later was rebranded as the Fuller Company and was purchased by FLSmidth in 1990. At the time, Fuller was making the pumps about 80 miles south of the Lehigh Valley in Lancaster County.

FLSmidth closed that location in 2022, moving the operations to Illinois and Arizona.

The company recently split into two divisions – cement and mining. Because the Illinois and Arizona locations are now part of the mining division, the cement operations had to be moved from those facilities.

Returning to Lehigh Valley was the obvious choice.

“This is where it all started,” Wuertele said.

FLSmidth Cement’s U.S. headquarters is only 15 minutes away, in Allentown, providing efficient access to about 200 sales, engineering, and project management professionals. The company also has another, much smaller manufacturing location in the Lehigh Valley, which makes carbon fiber blades in Whitehall Township.

There’s a reason why FLSmidth Cement has its U.S. headquarters in the Lehigh Valley, and why the Fuller-Kinyon® Pump was invented here - Lehigh Valley is a hub of cement manufacturing.

It is the birthplace of the American Portland cement industry, the most widely used type of cement globally, because of rich deposits of high-quality limestone. Cement manufacturers operating today include Keystone Cement Co., Heidelberg Materials, Buzzi Unicem USA, and Holcim.

Wuertele said the Lehigh Valley’s skilled workforce is another reason behind the decision to locate here. 

The workforce within an hour’s drive is nearly 1.8 million strong. It is fueled by more than 10,000 graduates a year from the Lehigh Valley’s 11 colleges and universities, and another 1,000 students annually who complete their studies at the region’s three career and technical schools.

The talent that companies such as FLSmidth rely on are drawn by the many professional and personal opportunities the Lehigh Valley offers. The economy is diverse and supports a historic high of 340,000 jobs. Median household income has risen to $81,000, higher than the national average.

At its new facility in the Lehigh Valley, in addition to the Fuller-Kinyon® Pump, FLSmidth will produce and service pumps, compressors including the Fuller Ful-Vane compressor, rotary feeders, and other equipment and keep an inventory of related spare parts.

The Ful-Vane compressor also previously had been manufactured in Lancaster County, since 1929. It provides transport air for Fuller-Kinyon® Pump systems and also is used by many industries outside of cement, including for the movement of digestor gas for wastewater treatment, methane in refineries and liquefied petroleum gas terminals, ammonia in cold storage facilities, and flash cooling of lettuce and other vegetables from farms to grocery stores.

“This is an impressive machine that works hard in many industries outside of our core cement market,” Wuertele said.

(Photo of Fuller-Kinyon® Pump by FLSmidth Cement. Other photos by Rick Kintzel).