News

Sioux Steam Cleaner Corporation in Beresford, S.D., is a small business manufacturer of steam cleaners and other industrial water-related products that is planning to expand production within two years, thanks to a new outlook on exporting that the company's management has developed with the help of several organizations working with the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank).

With the assistance of Ex-Im Bank's Midwest regional office in Chicago and the Trade Acceptance Group Ltd., a trade finance company in Edina, Minn., Sioux Steam Cleaner recently received an Ex-Im Bank Small Business Policy to insure receivables on foreign sales to Central and South America, and Asia. The company is also a member of the Construction Industry Manufacturers Association (CIMA), a member of Ex-Im Bank's Trade Association Partners Program (TAPP).

Currently about 25 percent of our sales are exports, but in the past, we needed to have the money up front, which limits opportunities. With Ex-Im Bank's insurance, we can start offering better terms and aggressively go after the business that we know is there in foreign markets, said John Gray, marketing manager of Sioux Steam Cleaner Corporation. Gray said that, in addition to the Trade Acceptance Group Ltd., which is the broker of the insurance policy, his company also received assistance from the local office of the U.S. Department of Commerce and Ex-Im Bank's City/State Partner, the South Dakota International Business Institute in Aberdeen, S.D. Sioux Steam Cleaner is also learning more about Ex-Im Bank's export financing through its membership in CIMA.

Through TAPP, we are educating our members about the export opportunities that Ex-Im Bank's financing can help them realize, said Nick Yaksich, vice president of Government Affairs at CIMA. Now is the time for small and medium-sized manufacturers to explore foreign markets where Ex-Im Bank is well positioned to assist our members.

CIMA is one of more than 50 trade associations working through TAPP, which allows Ex-Im Bank to leverage its marketing efforts to hundreds of potential customers. The trade associations inform their members about Ex-Im Bank's export financing programs and refer interested members to the Bank's six regional offices (New York, Washington, D.C., Miami, Chicago, Houston, and Long Beach, Calif., and satellite offices in San Jose and Orange County, Calif.) and more than 35 state and local entities providing access to Ex-Im Bank through its City/State Partners Program.

Ex-Im Bank is an independent U.S. government agency that helps finance the sale of U.S. exports, primarily to developing markets throughout the world, by providing loans, guarantees, and export credit insurance. In fiscal year 1999, Ex-Im Bank helped to finance nearly $17 billion of U.S. exports worldwide.