News

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Export-Import Bank of the United States today approved a $9.9 million medium-term loan guarantee to support the export by Chart, Inc., New Prague, Minn., and Cosmodyne, LLC., Seal Beach, Calif. of industrial gas manufacturing equipment to Guatemala.

Productos del Aire de Guatemala, S.A. (Productos), Guatemala City, is purchasing a new plant and equipment to replace and upgrade existing Productos facilities. UPS Capital, Windsor, Conn., is the guaranteed lender on the transaction.

By supporting U.S. exports to Guatemala, and to the Central America Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR) region as a whole, Ex-Im Bank is furthering its goal to help U.S. companies create and maintain jobs while fostering economic growth and prosperity in that part of the world, said Ex-Im Bank Vice Chairman Linda Conlin.

Conlin is participating in a business development mission to the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica Sept. 28-Oct. 2 headed by U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez. The purpose of the mission is to promote U.S. exports and investment in the region and highlight opportunities for U.S. businesses resulting from the CAFTA-DR accord.

Ex-Im Bank anticipates its regional business will grow significantly over the next year, with total outstanding financing reaching $1 billion in 2009, Conlin said. Implementation of the free trade agreement and the resulting increase in U.S. exports will ensure that the CAFTA-DR region remains an important strategic market for American exporters and Ex-Im Bank in the future.

The Gutierrez mission will include officials of U.S. government financing agencies as well as executives of nine companies representing a cross section of U.S. industries. Mission participants will meet with Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez on Monday, Sept. 29, and with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias on Tuesday, Sept. 30, as well as conferring with a variety of government and business leaders and with local U.S. Chambers of Commerce.

As for the Guatemala transaction just approved by Ex-Im Bank, Cosmodyne designs and manufactures cryogenic air separation plants producing liquid nitrogen and liquid argon for the industrial gas, aerospace and medical industries throughout the world. Chart manufactures cryogenic and low temperature products for the purification, liquefaction, distribution, storage and application of gases.

Productos produces and distributes industrial and medical gases such as oxygen, helium, hydrogen, argon and nitrogen primarily to hospitals.

Ex-Im Bank is the official export-credit agency of the United States. The independent, self-sustaining federal agency, now in its 74th year, helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by financing the sale of U.S. exports, primarily to emerging markets throughout the world, by providing loan guarantees, export-credit insurance and direct loans. In fiscal year 2007, Ex-Im Bank authorized $12.6 billion in financing to support an estimated $16 billion of U.S. exports worldwide.

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Editors: Press availabilities will be offered in the Dominican Republic at the Presidential Palace at 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 29, and in Costa Rica at the Presidential House at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 30.