R.I. export growth is broadening

PHOTO COURTESY THE COOLEY GROUP
READING THE SIGNS: A billboard made using a recyclable material exported by The Cooley Group. The company’s president says international revenue is up 70 percent over the past two years.
PHOTO COURTESY THE COOLEY GROUP READING THE SIGNS: A billboard made using a recyclable material exported by The Cooley Group. The company’s president says international revenue is up 70 percent over the past two years.

Rhode Island export growth is broadening beyond scrap metal.
International sales of chemicals, electronics and machinery by Ocean State companies led to a 4.1 percent increase in exports in 2012, the third-consecutive year of annual gains.
In a positive sign for the local economy, the increase came despite price declines in scrap metal. Rhode Island’s leading export since 2006, scrap exports fell 7.7 percent from 2011 to 2012, according to U.S. Commerce Department figures.
Instead, value-added and technology-based products – pharmaceuticals, computer equipment, ships and advanced textiles – made gains.
“If we look back over the past two years, our international revenue is up 70 percent,” said Dan Dwight, president of The Cooley Group, in Pawtucket, which makes commercial awnings, billboards and engineered fabrics for products such as oil-containment booms and fuel-tank liners.
International business accounts for about 10 percent of Cooley’s sales, but Dwight said it has become a priority and attributed the gains to an international focus more than any external forces such as trade agreements or monetary policy.
“It is a combination of factors and complete emphasis on growing the company internationally,” Dwight said. “Also, we have become good at global collaborations with strategic partners and leveraging them in foreign markets to sell our products.”
Cooley now sells to 60 countries, with an emphasis on emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Perhaps because Rhode Island exports come from a wide array of industries and unique small companies, there were few easily attributable patterns in the flow of goods.
Three of the four largest importers of Rhode Island products, Canada, Germany and Mexico, all brought in less from the Ocean State in 2012 than they did the year before.
But many other traditionally smaller importers increased their purchases.
Italy, whose economy has been languishing, more than doubled its Rhode Island imports in 2012, to $131.9 million, becoming the fifth-largest destination for Ocean State goods. Three other eurozone countries, the United Kingdom, France and Belgium, also increased their Rhode Island imports. Ray Thomas, associate director of the Chafee Center for International Business at Bryant University, which helps Rhode Island businesses expand international trade, said the state is small enough that some large individual orders are capable of swinging the figures from year to year.
It also means that boosting exports here often involves finding the right trade partners for the right companies, rather than trying to open up markets for whole industries.
“We are such a small-business state we have to match-make,” Thomas said.
Although scrap-metal exports fell in value by $54 million in 2012, volume shipped remained stable, with the decline the result of falling prices, according to the R.I. Economic Development Corporation.
Waste and scrap still accounted for 27 percent of all Ocean State exports, down from 30 percent in 2011.
With new facilities and infrastructure improvements in Providence over the past year, international scrap sales could rise again in 2013.
Looking at where in the world the next export opportunities are likely to come from, Thomas said even though the Far East hasn’t been a big importer of Rhode Island products so far, opening up that market is high on the state’s list of priorities.
In 2012, Rhode Island exports to Japan increased by $50.2 million; China, $14.2 million; Taiwan, $12 million; South Korea, $883,000 and Singapore, $210,000.
The United States recently reached a trade agreement with South Korea. Even though the country is only the 15th-largest importer of Rhode Island goods, the state is leading a trade mission there next fall to make new connections.
“We haven’t seen the impact yet from the free-trade agreements with Korea, but it has become a more attractive market because our goods will be more competitive,” Thomas said.
In Latin America, Rhode Island exporters saw a $15.1 million export gain in the Dominican Republic, site of a state trade mission last year, and progress in Central American countries subject to the CAFTA agreement of 2005, including a $6.8 million increase in Guatemalan exports and $4.1 million increase to Costa Rica. Looking at what Rhode Island products became more attractive to foreign customers in 2012, foreign machinery sales – including industrial, service industry and construction machines – rose 46 percent, increasing by $78.6 million from 2011.
The marine industry, another focus of Rhode Island economic-development efforts, saw exports of ships and boats jump 49 percent to $23.9 million from $16 million.
Electronics sales were strong, with communications equipment up 46 percent, electromagnetic and control instruments up 19 percent, semiconductors and components up 17 percent, and navigational, measuring and computer equipment up 4 percent.
Chemical exports rose $47.8 million, or 16 percent, to become the second-largest category behind waste and scrap. Foreign sales of pharmaceuticals led the chemical category by more than doubling to $60.8 million in 2012, from $23.7 million in 2011.
Katherine Therieau, director of international trade for the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, said Ocean State companies that have had success with exports include Advanced Interconnections of West Warwick, Astro-Med Inc. of West Warwick, Mearthane Products Corp. of Cranston, Reade Advanced Materials of East Providence, Ultra Scientific of North Kingstown, Biomedical Structures of Warwick and Hope Global of Cumberland.
“With exporting there are a lot of complexities that lead to new hiring, such as logistics, international finance, accounts receivable, international marketing, lawyers and an export compliance team [that] understands the documentation,” Therieau said.
At North East Knitting Inc., in Pawtucket, which makes elastics, tapes and webbings, Vice President Michael DaRosa said exports are still only a small part of his company’s sales. The success of American exporters, however, has encouraged him to make a push in the European medical market soon.
“We have been meeting about more sales in Europe, because the dollar is an advantage and they like our quality,” DaRosa said. •

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