PA Reaches New Export Record as Companies Use State's Help to Find More Overseas Business; Foreign Companies Investing More

Landmark Private-Sector Services Study Helping to Fuel Administration Efforts; State's Trade Reps Visiting Pennsylvania Sept. 13-30

HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Department of Community and Economic Development announced today that Pennsylvania helped more companies find new markets and shattered its record for export sales and foreign-direct investment during the 2009-10 fiscal year.

Pennsylvania reported $644 million in new export sales and foreign-direct investment during the period, which was 12 percent higher than the previous record performance in 2008-09.

China is now Pennsylvania's second largest export market thanks to its 66 percent increase in sales during 2009-10. Canada remains the largest destination for Pennsylvania-produced goods and services, while Mexico is now third. Pennsylvania companies are also exporting more to places like Brazil, Ireland, Malaysia and the Netherlands.

And, as the Obama administration undertakes efforts to double U.S. exports in the next five years, the growth of Pennsylvania exports during the first half of this year outpaced national exports by more than five percent.  If this rate of growth continues, export sales for all Pennsylvania companies could break the state's all-time record, which was $34.6 billion in 2008.

A recent landmark private-sector services study commissioned by DCED and Team PA Foundation, and performed by Pareto Growth Inc., found that companies that export only goods pay higher wages, hire more employees, and are more likely to survive economic downturns than non-exporting companies. Companies that export both goods and services do even better, the report said.

Looking at 2006, Pareto found that Pennsylvania's 2,200 service sector exporters reported average yearly sales of $7.4 million and employed 35 employees, while service businesses that did not sell their services abroad averaged just $100,000 in sales and employed nine employees.

While Pennsylvania exporting companies represent just 1 percent of all companies in the commonwealth, they employed 7 percent of the state's private-sector workforce.

The value of exports as reported by the state's Center for Trade Development has doubled since Governor Edward G. Rendell launched his World Trade PA initiative in 2006. Additionally, the volume of export sales skyrocketed 779 percent since 2003.

"Pennsylvania's trade show support and in-country contacts provide a reliable path for lead generation in our Latin American markets," said Perry Loh, owner of Loh Enterprises, a Clarks Summit-based supplier of medical equipment. "I would be hard-pressed to name a more cost-effective method to increase export sales."

Besides recruiting firms to attend trade shows in foreign countries and offering the business expertise of Pennsylvania's trade representatives throughout the world, one vital way the commonwealth helps companies visit new markets is by providing market access grants, which help defray foreign travel costs.

"Market access grants recently helped us attend an industry trade association meeting in Brisbane, Australia, where we met with more than 30 buyers and generated several orders," said Mallesh Hiriyur, chairman of IMPX Traders Inc., a King of Prussia-based seller of food grain.

During the record-breaking fiscal year that just ended, Pennsylvania's trade representatives in Shanghai and Beijing reported the largest sales by Pennsylvania-based companies – a combined $80 million – while Taiwan reported $67 million in sales, which included a $54 million transaction by West Chester-based Weston Solutions for the construction of the new American Institute in Taiwan.

Schramm Inc. is one of the companies that has done more business in China, and it credits Pennsylvania's trade initiatives for its success.

"Our business is up more than 70 percent from last year and China has provided nice growth," said Ed Breiner, president and CEO of Schramm Inc., a 100-year-old Chester County company that supplies the hydraulic drill industry. "Pennsylvania's assistance has helped us with transportation, market penetration, and importation issues in this important, growing and ever-changing market."

To continue helping Pennsylvania companies get into the exporting business, 21 of the commonwealth's overseas trade representatives will travel throughout the state from Sept. 13-30 to meet with companies and explain how the administration's vital trade initiatives can help increase business.

For more information about Pennsylvania's efforts to help companies find new markets, visit www.newpa.com.

Media contact: Mark Shade, 717-783-1132

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development