Louisiana has about 2,800 manufacturing and processing plants. The alumina plant at Baton Rouge extracts alumina from bauxite shipped from Jamaica and Surinam. A plant at Chalmette makes aluminum from the alumina.  Chemical plants manufacture more than 700 products, including rubber and rayon.  Huge petroleum refineries operate at Shreveport, Baton Rouge, and Lake Charles.

    Natural gas fields near Monroe provide the raw materials for carbon black.   Texas is the only state that produces more carbon black than Louisiana.