U.S. Census Bureau News
U.S. Department of Commerce
Washington, D.C. 20230

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8:30 A.M. EDT THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2009

For information contact:  
(301) 763-3629 CB09-56		
Jeffrey McHugh  or Ben Shelak

A Profile of U.S. Exporting Companies, 2006 - 2007

The U.S. Census Bureau, Department of 
Commerce, releases the report,  A Profile of U.S. 
Exporting Companies, 2006 - 2007.  This report 
provides information on identified companies and 
their known export value.  Identified U.S. 
exporters are defined as companies that can be 
linked to export transactions.  The known value is 
the value of export transactions linked to specific 
companies.  The number of identified exporters 
increased by 7.4 percent in 2007.  The known 
value increased by 12.6 percent.

In 2007 the "identified U.S. exporters" accounted 
for $1,031 billion in exports or almost 89 percent 
of the total value of exported goods ($1,162 
billion). In 2007 the number of identified U.S. 
exporters was 266.5 thousand, up from the revised 
2006 estimate of 248.0 thousand.  In 2006, the 
known value was revised to $915.8 billion.

Because not all export shipments can be linked to 
specific companies, the number of exporters may 
be understated. Approximately 12 percent of the 
2006 and 11 percent of the 2007 total export value 
could not be linked to specific companies. This 
portion of the total export value includes exports 
by individuals, governments, low-value estimates, 
and documentation filed with missing, unknown, 
or incomplete company identifiers. Export   values   
are taken from detailed export documentation used 


to compile the official U.S. trade statistics. 
Company size and type information are taken from 
administrative records and census or survey data 
on file with the Census Bureau.



The overall findings for 2007 and revised findings 
for 2006 are shown in Table 1, which shows the 
proportion of exports that were successfully 
matched to companies in the 2007 Business 
Register.  The 2006 figures in this report are 
revised from data released in the 2005-2006 
exporter profile.  The revisions are based on the 
ability to match additional records.

Who Exports?

During 2007, 11 percent (29.0 thousand) of all 
identified exporters were multiple location 
companies; these companies accounted for almost 
78 percent of the known export value (Exhibit 1a).  
In contrast, (237.5 thousand) single location 
companies, making up 89 percent of the exporting 
companies, contributed 22 percent of the known 
export value.  Trade with related parties accounted 
for 36 percent of the known export value by 
multiple location companies compared to 15 
percent by single location companies (Exhibit 3a). 

Exhibit 1a shows that manufacturers accounted for 
the largest portion of the 2007 known value, 65 
percent with 27 percent of the identified exporters.  
"Other companies" and wholesalers accounted for 
over 14 percent and 20 percent of the known 
export value, respectively; unclassified exporters 
accounted for the remainder.  The "other 
companies" category includes manufacturers of 
prepackaged software and books; freight 
forwarders and other transportation and 
warehousing firms, which often act as agents for 
the true exporter; business, engineering, and 
management services; oil and gas extraction 
companies; coal mining companies; and 
communication services companies. 

The number of multiple location companies 
increased by nearly 16 percent in 2007.  All 
company types increased; manufacturers increased 
by more than 8 percent, wholesalers by more than 
20 percent, "other companies" by over 20 percent, 
and "unclassified companies" by just over 1 
percent.  The number of multiple location 
companies with the number of employees 
unknown declined by 52 percent in 2007; of these, 
manufacturers dropped by 23 percent, wholesalers 
by 61 percent, and "other companies" by 58 
percent.

The 2007 Export Concentration by Top Companies 
shows the export concentration by percent of 
known export value.  Of the known export value 
for 2007, 60 percent was accounted for by the top 
500 companies.  Over half of the total known 
export value was accounted for by the top 250 
exporters.  The top 100 manufacturers contributed 
over one-third of the total known export value and 
over one-half of all exports by manufacturers.

Among the company types, the top 50 
manufacturers accounted for over 43 percent of the 
known export value of the manufacturing sector. 
The top 50 firms represented almost 32 percent of 
the known export value for wholesalers and about 
36 percent of the known value for "other 
companies" (Exhibit 2a).

Large-Sized Exporters 

Large identified exporting companies (those 
employing 500 or more workers) were responsible 
for 70 percent of the known export value, but 
represented only 3 percent of all identified 
exporters (Exhibit 1a).  Large companies also 
dominated manufacturers' exports, with 4 percent 
of manufacturing exporters (2,887 of 71,563) 
accounting for 84 percent of manufacturing export 
value ($569 billion of $675 billion). Similarly, 
large wholesalers, who comprise less than 1 
percent of the wholesalers who export, accounted 
for more than 37 percent of the value of known 
exports by wholesalers.  Large companies in the 
"other" category represented over 3 percent of the 
identified exporters and almost 51 percent of the 
known value in the "other" category.  Roughly 39 
percent of large manufacturers' export value was 
to related parties (Exhibit 3a).

Small- and Medium-Sized Exporters

Small- and medium-sized exporters (those 
employing fewer than 500 workers, including 
number of employees unknown) comprised over 
97 percent of all identified exporters and 
accounted for 30 percent of the known export 
value.  The following findings were extracted from 
Exhibit 1a:

	96 percent of manufacturing exporters were 
	small- or medium-sized companies; however 
	they contributed almost 16 percent of the 
	sector's $675 billion in exports.

	99 percent of wholesalers were small- or 
	medium-sized companies; they accounted for 
	nearly 63 percent of the sector's $204 billion 
	in exports. 
	
	Almost 97 percent of "other companies" were 
	small- or medium-sized companies; they	 
	represented 49 percent of the sector's $147 
	billion in exports.

Export Markets
	
The country groups used in the 2007 Profile have 
been revised from those used in earlier Profiles 
(Exhibits 5a, 5b, and 5c).  Multiple countries were 
added to and removed from the Europe country 
group, the Euro Area, the European Union, and the 
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries  
(OPEC).  Please refer to World Area Country 
Groupings for Exhibits 5a and 5b.
	
Most identified exporting companies (58 percent) 
traded with only one foreign country.  A small 
percentage of companies, 0.4 percent, shipped to 
50 or more countries; these companies accounted 
for 49 percent of the known export value (Exhibit 
4a).
	
In 2007, about 84 percent of all companies 
exported to at least one of the top 25 U.S. trading 
partners.  The largest number of companies 
shipped to Canada, followed by Mexico, the 
United Kingdom, Germany, and China, with  
China replacing Japan in the top five for the first 
time in 2007 (Exhibit 5a). 
	
Exports by State
	
The Census Bureau releases data on exports by 
state based on the origin of movement (OM).  The 
OM data series is based on where the goods began 
their movement to the port of exit as reported on 
the export document.  Exhibit 6 shows the number 
of companies exporting from each state during 
2006 and 2007 based upon the OM definition.  
(Note that the same company can be shown as 
exporting from multiple states.) 
	
	In 2007, the top five states, based on the 
	number of identified exporting companies, 
	were California, Florida, New York, Texas, 
	and Illinois. Exporters in these five states 
	represented almost 41 percent of the total 
	known export value.
	
	States/territories recording the largest 
	increases in known export value in 2007 were 
	Montana (33 percent), Louisiana (29 percent), 
	North Dakota (29 percent), Idaho (27 percent), 
	and the Virgin Islands (27 percent). 
	
Comparison of 2006 and 2007 Results
	
The relative proportions of exports accounted for 
by manufacturers, wholesalers, and "other 
companies" based upon both number of exporters 
and value of exports remained consistent from 
2006 to 2007.  Below are a number of noteworthy 
year-to-year changes (Exhibits 1c and 5c):
	
	The number of identified exporting companies 
	increased by 18,472 or over 7 percent.  The 
	single location companies increased by 14,555 
	and the multiple location companies increased 
	by 3,917.
	
	The number of small- and medium-sized 
	companies increased by nearly 8 percent from 
	241.3 thousand in 2006 to 259.4 thousand in 
	2007, while the number of large companies 
	increased by 5 percent from 6,723 to 7,076.

	The number of wholesalers increased by 
	almost 6 percent from 82.9 thousand in 2006 
	to 87.7 thousand in 2007.  Additionally, the 
	number of manufacturers increased by 5 
	percent from 68.1 thousand in 2006 to 71.6 
	thousand in 2007.

	Among the top 25 U.S. trading partners, the 
	United Arab Emirates (17 percent), India (13 
	percent), Brazil (13 percent), and Saudi Arabia 
	(12 percent) showed the largest percentage 
	increases in the number of identified exporting 
	companies.  There were no declines in the 
	number of identified exporting companies for 
	any of the top 25 U.S. trading partners 
	between 2006 and 2007.

Some portion of these changes may reflect changes 
in the match rate rather than an actual change in 
the number of exporters.  During the process of 
identifying individual companies, it was not 
possible to investigate every unmatched case.  
Priority was given to identifying unmatched 
companies having high values of trade.  As a 
result, the information on small exporters is most 
likely understated.  Also, users should not assume 
that the unidentified exporters reflected the same 
distribution of company types and sizes as the 
identified (known) exporters.  Comparisons 
between the number of companies exporting in 
given categories or different years might be 
somewhat misleading due to differences in the 
percent of value we were able to match to specific 
companies.  In addition, the more than 12 percent 
increase in total export value from $1,037 billion 
in 2006 to $1,162 billion in 2007 had an uncertain 
effect on the match rate.

Copies of the exporter profiles are available by 
calling (301)763-2227 or at http://www.census.gov 
/foreign-trade/aip/index.html#profile.


TABLE OF CONTENTS
	
	
	
Exhibit 1a.	2007 Exports by Company Type and Employment Size	6
Exhibit 1b.	2006 Exports by Company Type and Employment Size	8
Exhibit 1c.	Percent Change Between the 2006 and 2007 Results	10
Exhibit 2a.	Top Companies' Share of the 2007 Export Market by Company Type	12
Exhibit 2b.	Top Companies' Share of the 2006 Export Market by Company Type	13
Exhibit 3a.	2007 Exports to Related Parties by Company Type and Employment Size	14
Exhibit 3b.	2006 Exports to Related Parties by Company Type and Employment Size	16
Exhibit 4a.	2007 Exports by Company Type and Employment Size to Number of Partner Countries	18
Exhibit 4b.	2006 Exports by Company Type and Employment Size to Number of Partner Countries	19
Exhibit 5a.	2007 Exports by Company Employment Size to World Areas and Selected Countries	20
Exhibit 5b.	2006 Exports by Company Employment Size to World Areas and Selected Countries	22
Exhibit 5c.	Percent Change Between 2006 and 2007 Exports to World Areas and Selected Countries 	24
Exhibit 6a.	2007 Exports by State of the Origin of Movement, Number of Exporting Companies, 
		Value, and Percent Change Between the 2006 and 2007 Results	25
Exhibit 6b.	2006 Exports by State of the Origin of Movement, Number of Exporting Companies, 
		and Value	26
	
	
Technical Documentation
	
This section contains critical information on sources and reliability of data, as well as definitions of terms and 
methodological procedures that users should consider before attempting to interpret or analyze the statistical 
data presented in this report.  Failure to do so may affect the result.


NOTE: All percentages given for company size are based on known value.


Table 1: Distribution of Exports by Identified and Unidentified Exporters
(Value in millions of dollars.  Details may not sum to total due to rounding.)

2007 Export Value
% of 2007 Value
2006 Export Value
% of 2006 Value

Total exports
1,162,479  
100.0 
1,036,635
100.0 

Low-value estimates
26,913  
2.3 
22,997
2.2 

US & foreign governments
1,580  
0.1 
1,672
0.2 

Revisions
-229  
<-0.1
-508
<-0.1

Identified exporters* (known value)
1,031,007
88.7 
915,752
88.3 

Exported merchandise in both 2005 and 2006
969,686
83.4 
884,558
85.3 
   
Exported merchandise in only 2005 or only 2006
61,321
5.3 
30,938
3.0

Unidentified exports
103,210 
8.9 
96,722
 9.3

*Number of Identified Exporters 

2007
2006
Exported in Both Years
Exported in 2007 Only
Exported in 2006 Only

266,457
247,985
166,689
99,768
81,284

* Note: Percentages may not add up to 100.0 percent due to rounding

