This week, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Gilbert Kaplan announced the 2018 goods export data for the nation’s 392 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA), highlighting that U.S. metro areas exported $1.5 trillion in merchandise. From 2017 to 2018, exports from MSAs increased by $110.3 billion, or 8.1%, with 259 metros (two-thirds of the total) reporting positive export growth, and 94 (24%) reaching record-level exports. Presented here is a complete color-coded map showing all 392 metros and a list of the Top 10 exporting metros.
These data are based on an Origin of Movement (OM) ZIP-code-based series. A bit of digging into the International Trade Administration’s methodology reveals that the methodology “allocates exports to states and localities based on the address of the United States Principal Party in Interest (USPPI) of record … The USPPI of record is not necessarily the entity that produced the merchandise; hence, the series does not furnish complete and reliable data on the production origin of U.S. exports.” Only half of these Top 10 cities appeared in this year’s Top Metro rankings by Site Selection. — Adam Bruns
Top 10 MSAs by Exports 2018
MSA
2018 (Full Year)
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land; TX
120,714,348,881
New York-Newark-Jersey City; NY-NJ-PA
97,692,369,176
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim; CA
64,814,557,594
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue; WA
59,742,928,935
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin; IL-IN-WI
47,287,787,440
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn; MI
44,131,350,233
New Orleans-Metairie; LA
36,570,444,699
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington; TX
36,260,871,500
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach; FL
35,650,214,616
El Paso; TX
30,051,967,228
PROJECT WATCH
USA
Automotive supplier Athena-SCE will add 5,800 sq.ft. to its existing facility in Mount Pleasant, Tennessee, with a $3 million investment that will create 36 additional jobs. The facility is intended to be fully operational by the end of 2019.
Ice Cream maker Equi’s recently announced that it will relocate its current factory to a larger facility, still in Hamilton, UK, located in central Scotland in Lanarkshire, where the Clyde and Avon rivers meet. The new facility, which is four times larger than the existing factory, will utilize an $800,000 funding package from Scottish Enterprise to finance the move. The company has continued to expand its product range to wholesale customers, causing the company to outgrow its current facility.
U.S. data center leasing is on pace to exceed 2018’s record level, says CBRE’s latest North American Data Center Trends Report. Northern Virginia, the largest data center market in the world, accounted for 126.4 MW of net absorption in H1 2019, an astounding 74% of net absorption in the seven primary U.S. markets.
Top 10 Most Active U.S. Data Center Markets
Market
H1 2019 Absorption
Market
H1 2019 Absorption
Northern Virginia
126.4 MW
Phoenix
6.0 MW
Houston
14.4 MW
Southern California
5.8 MW
Silicon Valley
13.7 MW
Chicago
4.8 MW
Dallas-Fort Worth
11.2 MW
Charlotte/Raleigh
3.2 MW
New York Tri-State
6.3 MW
Minneapolis
2.3 MW
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Conway Executive Vice President Ron Starner posed for this photo at the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory during last week’s TrustBelt Corporates & Consultants Forum. Officially the world’s largest baseball bat, the steel structure is an exact-scale replica of Babe Ruth’s 34-inch Louisville Slugger bat, weighs 68,000 pounds and towers 120 feet into the sky.
In 2015, Wilson Sporting Goods bought the Louisville Slugger brand from Hillerich & Bradsby, which still owns Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory and the production facility. H&B first arrived in Louisville in 1856.
