U.S. MANUFACTURERS TO SUPPLY FIREFIGHTING VEHICLES FOR EXPORT TO GHANA WITH EX-IM BANK BACKING

U.S. companies, including four subsidiaries of Oshkosh Corp., headquartered in Oshkosh, Wis., will supply 121 customized firefighting vehicles and related equipment for export to the Republic of Ghana, backed by a $41 million loan guarantee from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank).

The U.S. exporter is Project Development International Inc. (PDI), a small and specialized project-management company in Dunedin, Fla.

"This deal demonstrates the solid business opportunities for U.S. exporters in sub-Saharan Africa that Ex-Im Bank can help them achieve. This large export to Ghana will help maintain American jobs at these companies and expand their market share in Africa," said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg.

"The support from Ex-Im Bank was like wind under our wings during the years of development of this project. We value Ex-Im Bank's expertise and the exceptionally long repayment terms for the loan that were essential to this successful sale of quality U.S.-made firefighting equipment," PDI President James Lalumiere said.

Four Oshkosh-owned companies are participating in the export. Pierce Manufacturing Inc. in Appleton, Wis., will supply 90 pumper trucks, 10 tanker trucks and four aerial ladder trucks. Jerr-Dan Corp. in Greencastle, Pa., will supply 13 recovery trucks. Iowa Mold Tooling Co. Inc. in Garner, Iowa, is providing four service vehicles and spare parts. Oshkosh Specialty Vehicles Inc. in Harvey, Ill., is supplying four mobile breathing air compressors.

Two U.S. sub-suppliers are also participating. Bauer Compressors Inc. in Norfolk, Va., is supplying high-pressure breathing air equipment to Oshkosh Specialty Vehicles. Smeal Fire & Apparatus Co., a small business in Snyder, Neb., is providing the turntable ladders for the four Pierce aerial ladder trucks.

The export will help Oshkosh maintain employment of its highly skilled workforce in the wake of the recession of 2008-2009 that is continuing to affect domestic orders due to lagging local and state tax revenues.

"We are appreciative of the Export-Import Bank's strong support which is the first step in making this order a reality. Oshkosh looks forward to delivering 120 vehicles from four of our businesses and continued growth throughout Africa," said Tim Raupp, Oshkosh Corporation senior vice president and executive director of International Operations for Fire and Emergency.

The transaction is being financed by an Ex-Im Bank-guaranteed loan from Societe Generale in New York, N.Y. The repayment term is eight years. The credit is secured by the full faith and credit of the Republic of Ghana through its Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.

The Ghana National Fire Service will purchase the equipment through Ghana's Ministry of Interior Service. The exports will replace existing vehicles, add new equipment for urban fire fighting and help the agency in its planned expansion of fire stations.

The principal supplier, Pierce Manufacturing Inc., was established in 1913 and has manufactured firefighting trucks and related vehicles since the 1940s. The company currently employs approximately 2,250 workers at its production facilities in Appleton, Wis., and in Bradenton, Fla.

Oshkosh Corp. designs and builds a broad range of specialty trucks, truck bodies and access equipment. Oshkosh has a workforce of more than 12,600 employees at its headquarters in Oshkosh, Wis., manufacturing operations in 11 different states and operations around the world.

PDI is a project management company established in 1980 for U.S. and international construction industries. In the last decade, the company has diversified into all aspects of planning, scheduling, and material and equipment procurement.

Ex-Im Bank, an independent, self-sustaining federal-government agency, exists to fill gaps in export financing, strengthen U.S. export competitiveness, and create and maintain U.S. jobs. The Bank provides a variety of financing mechanisms, including working capital guarantees to help small and medium-sized U.S. businesses, export-credit insurance to protect against nonpayment by foreign buyers, and loan guarantees and direct loans to assist foreign buyers of U.S. goods and services.

In fiscal 2009, overall Ex-Im Bank financing totaled $21 billion, and authorizations supporting small-business exports reached a historic high of $4.4 billion, nearly 21 percent of total authorizations. Ex-Im Bank authorized $412 million, including working capital guarantees, for U.S. exports to sub-Saharan Africa in fiscal 2009.

In the first eight months of fiscal 2010 (through April 2010), Ex-Im Bank authorized $14.7 billion in loans, guarantees and insurance - 70 percent of the total amount authorized in fiscal 2009. For more information, see Ex-Im Bank's Web site at www.exim.gov.

US EXPORT COUNCIL PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO US COMPANIES SEEKING ACCESS TO HIGH GROWTH MARKETS OVERSEAS. http://usexportcouncil.com/

US 2nd Quarter 2008 trade with GCC exceeds previous year by 60%

US reported total trade of $47.8bn with the GCC for the second quarter of 2008, or 60.1% higher than the value for the same period last year. By country, Saudi Arabia was the largest partner, with total trade valued at $32.2bn or 67.4% of the total trade with GCC, while trade with UAE was valued at $7.5bn or 15.7%. Trade with the other GCC-member countries was valued at $8bn, as trade with Kuwait was valued at $5bn, trade with Qatar reaching $1.2bn; Oman, $1.1bn; and Bahrain, $627m.

US import of petroleum and petroleum products from Saudi Arabia, valued at $26.4bn pushed total imports from the country to a total of $26.8bn, or 83.3% of total imports from GCC. Similarly, 95% of US imports from Kuwait were petroleum and petroleum products. On the other hand, imports of the same products from UAE constituted only 15%of US imports from UAE. Imports of Aluminum and of Pearls, precious and semi-precious stones/metals contributed 17.7% and 13%, respectively.

UAE was the largest export market of US in the GCC, absorbing 44% of US exports to the region. Major exports to UAE were transport equipment ($1.8bn) consisting predominantly of Aircraft and associated equipment, and Road vehicles - including air cushion vehicles - (valued at $888m). On the other hand, major exports to Saudi Arabia were Road vehicles ($1.1bn) and Power generating machinery and equipment, valued at $394m. The former consisted primarily of motor cars. Although at much lower values, these products likewise dominated US exports to the other GCC countries.

Large US imports of petroleum and petroleum products from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait resulted in trade deficits for US of $21.5bn and $2.6bn, respectively. On the other hand, US realized a surplus from Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and UAE of $158m, $325m, $803m, and $6.2bn, respectively.

Saudi Arabia remains as US largest import market, but export pattern changes:
Saudi Arabia is US's biggest supplier of petroleum products in the GCC. With imports from the GCC dominated by the said products, Saudi Arabia continues to dictate the level and pattern of US imports from the GCC. This is clearly seen from the value of yearly imports from the GCC from 1992 to 2007. On the other hand, imports from UAE and the rest of the GCC remained relatively small, though slightly increasing in the recent years.

In the 1990's Saudi Arabia dominated export trade between US and GCC countries, while exports to UAE remained stable and almost equal to the combined exports to remaining GCC countries. Changes in the pattern started in the beginning of 2000 when exports of aircraft and associated equipment and parts to UAE accelerated. Thereafter, exports to Saudi Arabia started to decline, while exports to UAE and the other GCC countries grew. By 2005, UAE became the largest export market to US in the region.

Despite surges in US export to UAE in prior year, it was only in 2005 that annual value surged to an annual growth of more than 100%. During the year, US exports of transport equipment to the UAE reached $4.4bn, or 52% of the total value of the US exports to UAE.

In 1996, US imports of garments from UAE were valued at $206m, or 42% of the total. A decline had been noted in the succeeding year, with the value dropping $122m in 2007, representing only 9% of the total imports of US from UAE. On the other hand, US imports of nonferrous metals increased from barely $3m in 1996 to $318m in 2007, leading to corresponding growth in share of only 1% to 24%. US imports of petroleum and petroleum products likewise increased from only $38m to $287m over the same period.

Although value of trade with UAE represents but a drop in the bucket with respect to US total trade with the rest of the world, annual summary indicators of level and composition of trade for 2000 to 2007 show that both exports and imports of US to and from UAE are increasing.

US EXPORT COUNCIL PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO US COMPANIES SEEKING ACCESS TO HIGH GROWTH MARKETS OVERSEAS. http://usexportcouncil.com/

Manufacturing downturn spreads to Asia: John Kemp

Unambiguous declines in container trade around the Pacific Rim in the last month confirm the downturn has gone global.

Hopes that Asia's export-led economies would successfully "de-couple" and generate enough domestic and intra-regional demand to offset weakness in North America and Western Europe have proved over optimistic.

The best way to track global manufacturing activity and changing trade flows in near real-time is through data on container shipping.

Almost all the world's trade in manufactured items moves in intermodal containers. The number of loaded containers handled by major ports and railroads provides the most accurate and timely measurement of manufacturing activity and the direction of flows.

Container data is faster than official estimates of manufacturing production (available with an average lag of 1-4 weeks) and captures volume changes better than monthly trade figures (which focus on declared customs values rather than quantities).

The severity of the U.S. downturn and its adverse impact on Asia's exporters has been readily apparent for more than a year in the data on loaded shipping containers imported into the United States via the west coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach (most of them containing manufactured items and semis from Asia).

Container imports peaked in H2 2006 and have been trending down for two years, as a weakening dollar, falling construction activity and stagnating manufacturing output cuts demand for everything from imported steel pipes to electronic components

But until recently, it appeared Asia was weathering the downturn better. There were hopes strong demand within the region for infrastructure and consumption might enable it to de-link growth from its major export markets.

Some even dared hope the global train could be recoupled in reverse order - with Asia replacing the United States as the locomotive and the advanced economies tagging along behind as the carriages. Strong demand in Asia might allow the western economies to export their way out of recession.

As recently as August 2008, container exports from the United States across the Pacific back to Asia were 18 percent higher than in the same month twelve months earlier.

Crucially, the number of containers handled in Hong Kong (one of the key entrepots for China and terminal for the country's exports) and Singapore (the key regional trans-shipment hub) was still increasing year-on-year as late as August, indicating the region's economy continued to expand.

But as the banking crisis intensified in September, the region appears to have slipped into recession. U.S. exports across the Pacific are now falling sharply, down 18 percent on year-ago levels in November

Containers handled in both Hong Kong and Singapore are falling for the first time in more than five years

Container data showing a sharp downturn in global manufacturing output is consistent with the weekly data on railcar loadings in North America showing the number of intermodal containers hauled on U.S. railroads down 11 percent compared with the same period last year

A reasonable estimate is that global manufacturing output is running 5-10 percent below the level at the end of 2007, making the current downturn broader and deeper than anything since the demobilisation of the wartime economies in 1946.

DE-COUPLING AND INTEGRATION

While Asia's export-led economies have not been able to avoid the slump spreading out from the United States and Western Europe, there is a risk the global economy will de-couple in another, altogether less healthy, way.

In a development that will worry policymakers concerned about rising protectionist pressures, recent data on trade and financial flows suggest the world economy is becoming less integrated.

For the past two decades, the volume of both manufactured items moving across international borders and financial flows between investors and banks in different countries has been increasing rapidly.

Integration accelerated notably in the last five years as corporations outsourced an increasing proportion of component and assembly activity to emerging markets.

Trade integration has been accompanied by financial integration, as exporters in Asia and the Middle East accumulated claims on deficit countries such as the United States, while investors and businesses in North America and Western Europe increasingly diversified their portfolios and operations by buying assets in emerging economies.

Commentators have tended to focus on the "imbalances" accompanying these global flows - with the United States running a large current account deficit, while Asia and the Middle East ran surpluses and accumulated U.S. Treasury and mortgage-backed debt.

But a focus on the imbalances, which are relatively small in comparison with the total flows, risks obscuring the more important point that all economies have become much more open to trade and finance over the last 20 years. The world economy is more integrated than at any time since before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

However, shrivelling trade flows in the face of a worldwide recession, liquidation of overseas asset holdings by U.S. investors, and unwinding of carry trades involving the yen, all suggest these increased linkages are fraying.

Activity is pulling back as businesses and households batten down the hatches to ride out the storm.

While that is probably inevitable in the short term, it risks weakening business and investment support for further liberalization of trade and investment flows in future.

It is easy to exaggerate the risk of a new protectionism. But the dis-integration of global manufacturing and investment flows will make it harder for senior politicians to resist pressure for protection in specific cases, probably granted under the label of industrial adjustment and restructuring, with the risk this could snowball into the tit-for-tat defence of sensitive sectors.

A re-run of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff and Imperial Preference of the 1930s is unlikely. It will, however, take a considerable act of political courage next year to complete the modestly ambitious but much-delayed Doha Round of trade talks, and maintain political consensus for progressive integration rather than call for a temporary "time out" on further liberalization.

By John Kemp (John Kemp is a Reuters columnist)

US EXPORT COUNCIL PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO US COMPANIES SEEKING ACCESS TO HIGH GROWTH MARKETS OVERSEAS. http://usexportcouncil.com/

Rising Manufactured Goods Exports Offer Good News On Beleaguered Economy

Manufacturers Account for 75 Percent of U.S. Merchandise Export Growth.

The trade figures released by the Commerce Department today showing that manufactured goods exports continued a rapid growth pace in August, up 15 percent over August 2007, offers "a positive counterpoint to the otherwise grim economic news from Wall Street," said Frank Vargo, Vice President for International Economic Affairs of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). 

For the year to date, from January through August, manufactured goods exports were up 16 percent over the comparable period of 2007," Vargo said. "Year to date manufactured goods imports were up 5 percent. The more rapid growth of exports over imports has led to a decline in the manufactured goods trade deficit, which is running 16 percent smaller than the same period last year."

"Thus exports, and particularly manufactured goods exports, which account for 75 percent of total U.S. export growth, continue to be the strongest part of the U.S. economy," Vargo said. 

"The brightest spot in the trade picture continues to be U.S. trade performance with our free trade partners," Vargo said. "While there is a widespread perception that free trade agreements are responsible for much of the U.S. trade deficit, which is clearly incorrect. In fact, U.S. manufactured goods trade with our partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA), the Central American Free Trade agreement(CAFTA), and all other U.S. free trade partners is in surplus by $10.4 billion through August. If this trend continues, manufactured goods trade with our free trade partners for the full year of 2008 will be in surplus by more than $15 billion. Manufactured goods trade with countries who are not free trade partners will be in deficit by about $450 billion. 

"That is why the NAM has been pressing hard for Congress to approve the pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and Korea," Vargo said. "It is abundantly clear that free trade agreements are part of the solution, not the problem."

The National Association of Manufacturers is the nation's largest industrial trade association, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the NAM has 11 additional offices across the country. Visit the NAM's award-winning web site at www.nam.org for more information about manufacturing and the economy. 

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 10, 2008 
CONTACT: GREG WRIGHT
(202) 637-3084