Dickinson, Texas, Small Business Doubles Workforce, Breaks into Kazakhstan Market with Ex-Im Bank Support
WASHINGTON, D.C. — B&W Fluid Dynamics, Inc. (B&W), Dickinson, Tex., a provider of cleaning services in the refining and petrochemical industry, has doubled its staff and is now selling to buyers 12,000 miles away in Kazakhstan thanks to a $509,908 working capital loan guaranteed by the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank).
The Ex-Im Bank-guaranteed financing provided by Sterling Bank, Houston, Tex., supported a standby letter of credit for the issuance of performance bonds that were required of B&W for the $5 million Kazakhstan contract.
Because of the Ex-Im Bank support, we were finally able to obtain the financing necessary to secure a very large contract and open our market in the Republic of Kazakhstan, said B&W President Jason Brubacher. We had nine employees, and added nine more to fulfill this contract.
It is exactly these types of export sales by small businesses such as B&W Fluid Dynamics — sales that might not happen without us — that Ex-Im Bank seeks to support, said Ex-Im Bank Chairman Philip Merrill. Small business is important business at Ex-Im Bank.
Explains Sterling Bank Senior Vice President and Manager of International Banking Raymond deSola: Because of Sterling Bank's focus on owner-operated businesses, we work with many small and middle-market companies that are looking for financing of international sales for the first time. Here in Texas there are many companies that do business internationally, because of our ties to the oil business, but much of this business goes through larger domestic parties. Then one of these smaller companies wins a big foreign contract and asks 'What do I do? How do I issue this performance bond?' The Ex-Im Bank Working Capital Guarantee Program allows us to do these deals for our customers.
Sterling Bank uses Ex-Im Bank frequently for these types of transactions, according to deSola. As an Ex-Im Bank Delegated Authority Lender, Sterling can provide Ex-Im Bank-guaranteed financing on a streamlined basis without prior approval from the Bank.
Ex-Im Bank, the official export credit agency of the United States, is in its 71st year of helping finance the sale of U.S. exports, primarily to emerging markets throughout the world, by providing loan guarantees, export credit insurance and direct loans. The bank has no minimum transaction size. In fiscal year 2004, Ex-Im Bank authorized financing to support $17.8 billion of U.S. exports worldwide. For more information, visit www.exim.gov, or contact Ex-Im Bank's Southwest Regional Office at (281) 721-0465.