Ex-Im Bank Authorizes $3.4 Billion in Financing at Fiscal Year-End Supporting Over 20,000 U.S. Jobs
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The board of directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) today approved $3.4 billion in financing to support U.S. exports from a wide variety of companies in the aerospace, oil and gas, locomotives, solar-energy and other industries. The Bank estimates that this financing will support more than 20,000 jobs in the United States.
The Ex-Im Bank board meeting was held today, September 30, the last day of fiscal year 2011. Most of the transactions given final approval today previously had been reviewed and approved by the Bank's board in late July and August, subject to a 35-day congressional notification period that ended for each transaction earlier in the week.
This has been a historic year for Ex-Im Bank in terms of total authorizations and the number of American jobs supported by Ex-Im financing. The Bank has responded to a record level of financing requests this year to provide export financing on behalf of U.S. companies expanding foreign sales and sustaining and creating jobs. We have been able to do this without cost to the U.S. taxpayer, said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg.
Ex-Im Bank is a self-sustaining federal agency that receives no net appropriation from the U.S. Congress and charges interest and fees to fund its transactions.
Approved transactions included:
Pemex (Various U.S. Exporters) — $1 billion in authorizations for Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexico's national oil-and-gas company. The authorizations will support sales of U.S. equipment and services to Pemex for its onshore and offshore projects. The authorizations include a $200 million small-business facility to finance Pemex's purchases from U.S. small businesses across the country.
Air India (The Boeing Company) — $1.3 billion in loan guarantees supporting Boeing commercial aircraft sales to Air India. In addition to these final commitments, the board also approved a $2.1 billion preliminary commitment to support future deliveries of Boeing aircraft to Air India. Upon approval of the conversion of the preliminary commitment into a final commitment, the transactions in total will support the export of 30 Boeing aircraft to the state-owned, national flag carrier of India.
Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (GE) — $425 million direct loan to support the sale of 196 GE Evolution Series locomotives and locomotive kits manufactured by GE Transportation Systems in Erie, Pa., to JSC Lokomotiv, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), the state-owned, national railway of Kazakhstan. The contract is GE's largest to date with KTZ since it began selling to the railway in 2003 and is the first contract supporting locomotive kits for new GE diesel locomotives. The sale will directly support 530 jobs at GE's Erie and Grove City, Pa., facilities with additional jobs at many of GE's U.S. suppliers, bringing the total estimated number of U.S. jobs supported to approximately 2,900.
Tatith Solar, India (SolarWorld Industries America Inc.) — $19 million direct loan to support the sales of solar photovoltaic panels from SolarWorld Industries America Inc. in Hillsboro, Ore., and construction services from various U.S. suppliers to Tatith Energies Gujarat Private Ltd. The panels will be used in a five-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic crystalline power project in the state of Gujarat. The transaction is the sixth solar-energy project that Ex-Im Bank has supported in India in FY 2011.
Supply-Chain Financing — $666.4 million working capital guarantee to support supply-chain financing by Citibank N.A., in New York, N.Y., to Boeing's small-business suppliers. Ex-Im Bank's guarantee will support a $740.5 million facility under the Bank's Supply Chain Finance Guarantee to finance accounts receivable due from the Boeing Company to its U.S.-based suppliers for a term of 12 months. The facility will be administered under Citibank's existing supplier finance program and will extend financing support to Boeing's nationwide network of small-business U.S. suppliers.
About Ex-Im Bank:
Ex-Im Bank is an independent federal agency that helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by filling gaps in private export financing at no cost to American taxpayers. The Bank provides a variety of financing mechanisms, including working capital guarantees, export-credit insurance and financing to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. goods and services.
Ex-Im Bank approved approximately $25 billion in authorizations in FY 2011 through August 2011 — an all-time Ex-Im record. This total includes more than 2,500 U.S. small-business transactions. Ex-Im Bank's authorizations through August 2011 are supporting more than $30 billion in U.S. export sales and 213,000 American jobs in communities across the country. For more information, visit the Bank's Web site at www.exim.gov.