Saturday, 27 November 1999

Arizona again among top exporting states

http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/142-6488.html
By Sara Hammond
The Arizona Daily Star



Arizona continues to be among the top states for export growth.
For the first nine months of the year, Arizona's exports increased 2.39 percent compared with the same period in 1998, according to the Arizona Department of Commerce.
The national average rate of growth was 0.68 percent.
Value-wise, Arizona ranks 16th in the nation, with $8.7 billion worth of goods exported. By rate of growth, Arizona follows only Michigan, Massachusetts, Georgia and Indiana.
Mexico remains the state's leading trading partner, with $2.3 billion worth of goods and services sent to Arizona's neighbor to the south.
Other top importers of Arizona products are Canada, Japan, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
Electrical machinery - including integrated circuits and semiconductors - topped the list of Arizona's exported goods with a value of $4.2 billion, up 22 percent over the first three quarters of last year.
Arizona is the third-leading export state for both integrated circuits and semiconductor devices.
The value of exported machinery - items such as gas turbines, computers and components, and office machinery - was $1.5 billion, a 30 percent decrease.
Also declining after nine months was the aircraft-and-spacecraft category, at $484 million, down 25 percent from a year ago.
Optics and medical instruments were up 10 percent, at $441 million. Plastics recorded a 32 percent increase at $321 million.
``We are very pleased that the state continues the recovery experienced during the first two quarters of 1999,'' said Sally Spray, director of the Commerce Department's international trade division.


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