Valley ranks 99th among 369 areas in U.S. in exports

STAFF REPORT

Exports from area companies have been growing and were strong enough to rank the area 99th out of 369 metropolitan areas in the U.S. in the first half of last year.

A federal agency released statistics Thursday that showed that local exports were $1.34 billion in 2006, which was an 11 percent increase over 2005.

For the first half of 2007, the latest time period available, local exports totaled $729 million. That places 2007 on a pace to top 2006 by about 9 percent.

In the first half of last year, the Youngstown-Warren area ranked just behind Bakersfield, Calif., which had had $730 million in exports, and just ahead of Rockford, Ill., which had $725 million. The local metropolitan area includes Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer County in Pennsylvania.

The top-ranking area was New York, which had $39.7 billion in exports.

The International Trade Administration said total exports from the U.S. in the first half of 2007 was $559.9 billion. That puts last year on a pace to top the 2006 total of $1.04 trillion, which was 15 percent higher than 2005.

Although growth in the national economy has slowed, economists have said that exporting has been a strong point.