Trade Statistics

Feeling the effects of the global recession and declining agricultural and oil prices, Louisiana's worldwide merchandise exports declined sharply in value in the first quarter of 2009 compared to one year earlier, according to a report issued today by the World Trade Center of New Orleans. This follows a record-breaking year in 2008 with exports from the state reaching nearly $42 billion.

Louisiana’s total export shipments for January-March 2009 declined 33.5 percent to $7.6 billion, compared to the first three months of 2008, while total U.S. exports dropped by 22.5 percent, according to the WTC report. However, even with its lower exports for the January-March period, Louisiana moved up to 7th in the state rankings from 9th place for all of 2008.

The decrease in total vessel weight for Louisiana’s exports for the first quarter of 2009 was 16.5 percent, compared to the first three months of last year, while total U.S. exports measured in tonnage registered an 11.1 percent decline.

Agricultural products ($3.7 billion, a fall of 27.8 percent); petroleum and coal products ($1.22 billion, a 50.7 percent decline); chemicals ($1.2 billion; a 27 percent decline); and processed foods ($577 million, a 48.4 percent decline) ranked as Louisiana's top exports for the January-March 2009 period.

"The full lag effect of the worldwide downturn is now hitting Louisiana’s exports across the board, and especially agriculture, petroleum, and chemical products. We’re hopeful that the gradual recovery that appears to be starting in China and some other countries will eventually spread worldwide,” said Larry Collins, Director of International Services with Louisiana Economic Development.

Louisiana's principal export markets for the first three months of 2009 were China, Japan and Mexico. The state’s shipments to China actually increased 19.5 percent, reaching $1.5 billion in the first quarter as exports to almost all other major markets declined.

"The recent gradual rise in oil prices may generate export opportunities for Louisiana suppliers of oilfield services and equipment,” said Donald van de Werken, Director of the New Orleans U.S. Export Assistance Center. “For example, 18 large foreign delegations traveled to Houston a few weeks ago for the Offshore Technology Conference seeking relationships with U.S. suppliers of oilfield services, equipment, and technology.”

The WTC report was generated by the World Institute of Strategic Economic Research (WISER) from U.S. Census Bureau data. It covers the exports of both Louisiana-originating products and some major commingled bulk commodities (especially grain and coal) that are produced in other states, shipped abroad from Louisiana's ports, and recorded as Louisiana exports because of the difficulty of identifying the actual states of origin.

"This is an opportune time for Louisiana companies to become engaged in exporting or importing as the U.S. and other markets bottom out and begin to recover,” said Eugene Schreiber, Managing Director of the World Trade Center.

The following three charts summarize the data reported above.

Trade reports that provide information on 32 industry categories of Louisiana exports (NAICS) and 97 commodities (HS) to more than 200 countries worldwide, as well as export totals of other U.S. states, are available on the WTC’s website by clicking the links below.

Rank	Description	Q1 2008 YTD	Q1 2009 YTD	%2008- 09
	Total all Countries	11,461,066,836	7,627,805,734	-33.45
1	China	1,263,716,981	1,510,514,040	19.53
2	Japan	740,989,431	593,579,727	-19.89
3	Mexico	747,203,483	448,737,433	-39.94
4	Canada	572,456,483	411,308,571	-28.15
5	Netherlands	716,358,096	358,213,087	-50
6	Egypt	520,553,005	307,834,706	-40.86
7	South Korea	411,943,725	257,320,280	-37.54
8	Taiwan	40,875,309	209,998,740	413.75
9	Venezuela	244,589,245	193,570,573	-20.86
10	Belgium	172,578,785	191,192,240	10.79

Rank	Description	Q1 2008 YTD	Q1 2009 YTD	%2008- 09
	Total all Industries	11,461,066,836	7,627,805,734	-33.45
1	Agricultural Products	5,105,946,560	3,689,051,673	-27.75
2	Petroleum And Coal Products	2,479,709,400	1,222,024,681	-50.72
3	Chemicals	1,637,762,132	1,203,252,962	-26.53
4	Food And Kindred Products	1,116,434,385	576,608,565	-48.35
5	Machinery, Except Electrical	242,064,987	230,010,245	-4.98
6	Transportation Equipment	174,774,623	118,327,622	-32.3
7	Minerals And Ores	84,334,517	95,595,827	13.35
8	Primary Metal Manufacturing	64,498,554	74,240,360	15.1
9	Fabricated Metal Products, Nesoi	67,900,562	57,432,947	-15.42
10	Paper	99,679,140	55,239,175	-44.58

Rank	Description	Q1 2008 YTD	Q1 2009 YTD	%2008- 09
	Total all States	317,394,777,619	246,770,227,737	-22.25
1	Texas	46,364,997,377	36,375,575,155	-21.55
2	California	34,812,370,448	27,631,282,694	-20.63
3	New York	20,620,930,391	13,833,182,480	-32.92
4	Washington	18,434,797,576	12,346,090,883	-33.03
5	Florida	12,088,478,806	11,354,550,622	-6.07
6	Illinois	12,630,977,600	10,424,951,435	-17.47
7	Louisiana	11,461,066,836	7,627,805,734	-33.45
8	Ohio	10,491,209,075	7,587,855,078	-27.67
9	Pennsylvania	8,073,890,459	6,885,382,074	-14.72
10	Michigan	10,946,838,794	6,778,359,807	-38.08

Data provided by World Institute for Strategic Economic Research (WISER) from U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Division

All data Origin of Movement Series. For full reports, visit the WTC website at www.wtcno.org/tradestats