42.4.1604    MANUFACTURING

(1) A manufacturing corporation is one engaged in the mechanical or chemical transformation of materials or substances into new products or the production of energy by means of an alternative renewable energy source as defined in 15-6-225, MCA. The manufacturing facilities for the transformation of materials or substances into new products are usually described as plants, factories, or mills and characteristically use power driven machines and materials handling equipment. Corporations engaged in assembling component parts of manufactured products are also considered to be manufacturing, if the new product is neither a structure nor other fixed improvement. Included in this definition is the blending of materials such as lubricating oils, plastics, resins, or liquors.

(2) The materials processed by manufacturing include products of agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, and quarrying, as well as products of other manufacturers. The new product may be "finished" in the sense that it is ready for utilization or consumption or it may be "semifinished" to become a raw material for another corporation engaged in further manufacturing. For example, the product of the copper smelter is the raw material used in electrolytic refineries; refined copper is the raw material used by copper wire mills; and copper wire is the raw material used by certain electrical equipment manufacturers.

(3) The materials used by manufacturing establishments may be purchased directly from the purchasers, obtained through customary trade channels, or secured without recourse to the market by transferring the product from one establishment to another which is under the same ownership. Manufacturing production is usually carried on for the wholesale market, for interplant transfer, or to order for industrial users, rather than for direct sale to the domestic consumer.

(4) If it is difficult to determine the classification between manufacturing and other divisions of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), the department shall classify according to its best judgment.

(5) The following activities, although not always considered as manufacturing, are so classified:

(a) milk bottling and pasteurizing;

(b) fresh fish packaging;

(c) apparel jobbing (assigning of materials to contract factories or shops for fabrication or other contract operations) as well as contracting on materials owned by others;

(d) publishing;

(e) ready-mixed concrete production;

(f) leather converting;

(g) logging;

(h) wood preserving;

(i) various service industries to the manufacturing trade, such as typesetting, engraving, plate printing, and preparation of electrotyping and stereotype plates, but not blueprinting or photocopying services;

(j) electroplating, plating, metal heat treating, and polishing for the trade;

(k) lapidary work for the trade;

(l) fabricating of signs and advertising displays. 

(6) There are also some manufacturing-type activities performed by corporations which are primarily engaged in activities covered by other divisions of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), and are thus not classified as manufacturing. A few of the important examples are:

(a) agriculture, forestry, and fishing (Processing on farms is not considered manufacturing if the raw materials are grown on the farm and if the manufacturing activities are on a small scale without the extensive use of paid labor. Other exclusions are custom grist milling, threshing, and cotton ginning);

(b) mining with the dressing and beneficiating of ores; the breaking, washing, and grading of coal; the crushing and breaking of stone; and the crushing, grinding, or otherwise preparing of sand and gravel and nonmetallic chemical and fertilizer minerals other than barite classified as mining;

(c) construction (Fabricating operations performed at the site of a construction by contractors are not considered manufacturing. The prefabrication of sheet metal, concrete, and terrazzo products and similar construction materials shall be classified as manufacturing);

(d) wholesale and retail trade, with corporations engaged in the following types of operations included in wholesale or retail trade:

(i) cutting and selling purchased carcasses;

(ii) preparing feed at grain elevators and farm supply stores;

(iii) stemming leaf tobacco at wholesale establishments;

(iv) production of wiping rags;

(v) breaking of bulk and redistribution in smaller lots, including packaging, repackaging, or bottling products such as liquors or chemicals;

(vi) primarily selling products to the general public which are produced on the same premises from which they are sold, such as bakeries, candy stores, ice cream parlors, and custom tailors.

(e) services with tire retreading and rebuilding, sign painting and lettering ships, and the production of motion picture films classified as services and with repair activities, with the following exceptions, classified as services:

(i) ship and boat building and repair;

(ii) the rebuilding of machinery and equipment on a factory basis; and

(iii) machine shop repair.

(7) Alternate renewable energy sources defined in 15-6-225, MCA, include solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, conversion of biomass, fuel cells that do not require hydrocarbon fuel, small hydroelectric generators producing less than one megawatt, and methane from solid waste.

History: 15-31-127, 15-31-501, MCA; IMP, 15-6-225, 15-31-124, MCA; NEW, Eff. 4/6/76; AMD, 2000 MAR p. 1346, Eff. 5/26/00; AMD, 2002 MAR p. 1094, Eff. 4/12/02; AMD and TRANS, from ARM 42.23.513, 2004 MAR p. 1965, Eff. 8/20/04; AMD, 2010 MAR p. 1208, Eff. 5/14/10.