U.S. CENSUS RELEASES 2001-2002 EXPORTING COMPANIES PROFILE
A U.S. Census Bureau report found that the nation’s export industry in 2001 comprised 238,284 companies, accounting for $623 billion in exports or 85 percent of the total export value of $729 billion.
The agency’s report, “A Profile of U.S. Exporting Companies, 2000-2001,” released Feb. 20, defined U.S. exporters as those companies linked to the export transactions.
Export values are taken from detailed export documentation used to compile the country’s trade statistics. Company size and type information are taken from administrative records and Census or survey data on file with the agency.
Census estimated that 15 percent of the 2000 and 2001 total export values could not be linked to specific companies. “The remaining portion of the total export value was accounted for shipments by individuals or governments, low-value estimates, and documentation filed with missing, unknown, or incomplete company identifiers,” the agency said.
According to the report, more than 61 percent of the known export value for 2001 was controlled by the top 500 U.S. companies, and these firms were primarily involved in manufacturing.
U.S. companies exported to Canada more than any other country in 2001, followed by Mexico, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany.
The top five exporting states based on total number of exporters in 2001 were California, Florida, New York, Texas and Illinois. “These data are based on the reported state of the origin of movement, the state from which the goods began their journey to the port of exportation,” Census said.
The full report can be downloaded from Census’ Web site: http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/aip/index.html#profile.