A Big Month For California Exporters

California’s exporters turned in a particularly exuberant performance in November, according to Beacon Economics’ analysis of foreign trade data released by the U.S. Commerce Department.

For the month of November, the state’s merchandise export trade totaled $15.22 billion, a nominal 14.2% increase over the $13.33 billion in exports recorded in November 2012. By comparison, overall U.S. merchandise exports rose by 5.9% over the same period.

The uptick in California was led by a solid $1.38 billion jump in manufactured exports, which rose by 16.8% to $9.63 billion from $8.25 billion in November 2012.

Meanwhile, the state’s exports of non-manufactured goods (chiefly agricultural produce and raw materials) totaled $2.45 billion, up $489.7 million or 25% from $1.96 billion in November 2012. Re-exports were comparatively unchanged, from $3.12 billion in November 2012 to $3.14 billion this past November, an increase of just 0.6%.

California’s year-to-date $153.53 billion merchandise export trade for 2013 is running handily ahead of the $148.34 billion recorded in 2012. “After a sputtering start to the year, California’s exporters are finishing 2013 with a remarkably strong surge,” said Jock O’Connell, Beacon Economics’ International Trade Adviser. “I’d have said they were going like gangbusters, except that no one recalls that expression.”

The uptick in manufactured exports is also helping to bolster California’s overall economy. “After a slow start relative to the rest of the nation, California stepped up and added 4,300 new manufacturing positions over the past year,” said Jordan Levine, Beacon Economics’ Director of Economic Research. “It’s a positive sign after several decades of decline associated with the loss of much of our aerospace industry in the 1990s and the technological change that has accompanied the computer age.”

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