U.S. Census Bureau News

U.S. Department of Commerce  Washington, D.C. 20230


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8:30 A.M. EDT Tuesday, April 13, 2010


For information contact:  (301) 763-3629				CB10-44		
Jeffrey McHugh, Ryan Coleman or Andreana Able

A Profile of U.S. Exporting Companies, 2007 - 2008


The U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce, releases the report,  A Profile of U.S. 
Exporting Companies, 2007 - 2008.  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 7.5 percent in 2008.  
The known value increased by 11.0 percent.

In 2008 the identified U.S. exporters accounted for $1,148 billion in exports or almost 89 percent
of the total value of exported goods ($1,287 billion). In 2008 the number of identified 
U.S. exporters was 288.7 thousand, up from the revised 2007 estimate of 268.5 thousand.  
In 2007, the known value was revised to $1,034 billion.

Because not all export shipments can be linked to specific companies, the number of exporters may 
be understated. Approximately 11 percent of both the 2007 and the 2008 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.


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

Table 1: Distribution of Exports by Identified and Unidentified Exporters
(Value in millions of dollars.  Details may not sum to total due to rounding.)
	                   2008 Export    % of         2007         % of 
	                     Value	2008 Value  Export Value 2007 Value
Total exports	            1,287,443	 100.0       1,162,479	    100.0 
Low-value estimates	     29,982       2.3          26,913	      2.3 
US & foreign governments     1,889  	  0.1 	       1,580	      0.1 
Revisions	            -12,694      -1.0	        -134	     <-0.1
Identified exporters*
(known value)	            1,147,669	  89.1 	      1,034,046       89.0 
   Exported merchandise in
   both 2007 and 2008	    1,110,750	  86.3        1,002,413       86.2
   Exported merchandise in
   only 2007 or only 2008    36,919	  2.9         	31,501         2.7
Unidentified exports	    120,595 	  9.4        	100,170	       8.6
*Number of Identified Exporters 
 2008	 2007	Exported in Both Years	Exported in 2008 Only	Exported in 2007 Only
288,747	268,526 	183,624	               105,123	               84,898

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

The overall findings for 2008 and revised findings for 2007 are shown in Table 1, which 
shows the proportion of exports that were successfully matched to companies in the 2008 
Business Register.  The 2007 figures in this report are revised from data released in the 
2006-2007 exporter profile.  The revisions are based on the ability to match additional records.

Who Exports?

During 2008, 10 percent (28.2 thousand) of all identified exporters were multiple location companies;
these companies accounted for 76 percent of the known export value (Exhibit 1a).  In contrast, 
(260.5 thousand) single location companies, making up 90 percent of the exporting companies, contributed
24 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 14 percent by single location companies 
(Exhibit 3a). 

Exhibit 1a shows that manufacturers accounted for the largest portion of the 2008 known value, 62 
percent with 25 percent of the identified exporters.  Other companies and wholesalers accounted
for 16 percent and 22 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 decreased by nearly 3 percent in 2008.  All company types
increased; manufacturers increased by nearly 2 percent, wholesalers by 8 percent, other companies
by just over 10 percent, and unclassified companies by just below 20 percent.  

The number of multiple location companies with the number of employees unknown increased by 99 
percent in 2008; of these, manufacturers rose by 38 percent, wholesalers by 141 percent, and 
other companies by 114 percent.

The 2008 Export Concentration by Top Companies shows the export concentration by percent of known 
export value.  Of the known export value for 2008, 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 nearly 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 companies represented over 33 percent of the known 
export value for wholesalers and about 40 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 
69 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 (2,801 of 73,130) accounting for 84 percent of manufacturing export value ($596 billion of 
$710 billion). Similarly, large wholesalers, who comprise less than 1 percent of the wholesalers who 
export, accounted for more than 38 percent of the value of known exports by wholesalers.  Large 
companies in the other category represented just over 1 percent of the identified exporters and 
53 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 31 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
over 16 percent of the sector's $710 billion in exports.

* 99 percent of wholesalers were small- or medium-sized companies; they accounted for nearly 62 percent
of the sectors $248 billion in exports. 

* Almost 97 percent of other companies were small- or medium-sized companies; they represented 
47 percent of the sectors $184 billion in exports.

Export Markets

The country groups used in the 2008 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 2008 about 83 percent of all companies exported to at least one of the top 25 U.S. t
rading partners.  The largest number of companies shipped to Canada, followed by Mexico, 
United Kingdom, Germany, and China (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 journey to the port of export.  
Exhibit 6 shows the number of companies exporting from each state during 2007 and 2008 based 
upon the OM definition.  (Note that the same company can be shown as exporting from multiple states.) 

* In 2008, 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 2008 were Mississippi
(42 percent), West Virginia (41 percent), Louisiana (38 percent), Wyoming (33 percent), and Utah 
(31 percent). 

Comparison of 2007 and 2008 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 
2007 to 2008.  Below are a number of noteworthy year-to-year changes (Exhibits 1c and 5c):

* The number of identified exporting companies increased by 20,221 or 7.5 percent.  The single 
location companies increased by 21,070 and the multiple location companies decreased by 849.

* The number of small- and medium-sized companies increased by nearly 8 percent from 261.4 thousand 
in 2007 to 281.7 thousand in 2008, while the number of large companies decreased by 0.3 percent from
7,102 to 7,079.

* The number of wholesalers increased by 8 percent from 88.0 thousand in 2007 to 95.0 thousand in 
2008.  Additionally, the number of manufacturers increased by 2 percent from 71.7 thousand in 2007
to 73.1 thousand in 2008.

* Among the top 25 U.S. trading partners, the United Arab Emirates (20 percent), Saudi Arabia 
(13 percent), Germany (11 percent), and Brazil (10 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 2007 and 2008.

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 10 percent
increase in total export value from $1,163 billion in 2007 to $1,287 billion in 2008 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.	2008 Exports by Company Type and Employment Size					6

Exhibit 1b.	2007 Exports by Company Type and Employment Size					8
	
Exhibit 1c.	Percent Change Between the 2007 and 2008 Results					10
	
Exhibit 2a.	Top Companies Share of the 2008 Export Market by Company Type				12

Exhibit 2b.	Top Companies Share of the 2007 Export Market by Company Type				13

Exhibit 3a.	2008 Exports to Related Parties by Company Type and Employment Size			14

Exhibit 3b.	2007 Exports to Related Parties by Company Type and Employment Size			16

Exhibit 4a.	2008 Exports by Company Type and Employment Size to Number of Partner Countries		18

Exhibit 4b.	2007 Exports by Company Type and Employment Size to Number of Partner Countries		19

Exhibit 5a.	2008 Exports by Company Employment Size to World Areas and Selected Countries		20

Exhibit 5b.	2007 Exports by Company Employment Size to World Areas and Selected Countries		22

Exhibit 5c.	Percent Change Between 2007 and 2008 Exports to World Areas and Selected Countries 	24

Exhibit 6a.	2008 Exports by State of the Origin of Movement, Number of Exporting Companies, 
	        Value, and Percent Change Between the 2007 and 2008 Results                     	25

Exhibit 6b.	2007 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.
