EXIM Chairman Kimberly Reed Marks Made in America Week with Visit to Florida Business Air Products to Celebrate 16,700 U.S. Jobs Made Possible Through Largest Transaction in EXIM's 86-Year History
PORT MANATEE, FLORIDA - Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) President and Chairman Kimberly A. Reed yesterday visited Air Products, a provider of liquefied natural gas (LNG) technology and equipment. Coil-wound heat exchanges manufactured by Air Products are being used in the development of an EXIM-supported LNG project on the Afungi Peninsula in northern Mozambique, the largest transaction in EXIM's 86-year history.
Air Products, which is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania, employs 300 workers at its Port Manatee location. Chairman Reed met with Air Products employees and toured the Port Manatee facility.
In May 2020, EXIM's Board of Directors unanimously authorized $4.7 billion for an integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in northern Mozambique, supporting 68 suppliers and 16,700 U.S. jobs across eight states, including Florida, as well as Georgia, Louisiana, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas, and the District of Columbia, over the five-year construction period. Follow-on sales are expected to support thousands of additional jobs across the United States. The 2020 EXIM authorization amended the original $5 billion 2019 authorization and increased the number of U.S. jobs supported.
"As part of Made in America Week 2020, I was honored to visit Air Products' Port Manatee facility and see outstanding Florida workers on-site as they manufacture massive 'Made in the U.S.A.' EXIM-backed equipment destined for export to Mozambique," said Chairman Reed. "This project, which represents the employment of thousands of workers across multiple industries and states, will strengthen our U.S. economy and positively transform the sub-Saharan Africa country of Mozambique."
Chairman Reed also noted, "as was previously underscored when our EXIM Board approved this historic transaction, private financing was not available for this project given its size, complexity, and risk-necessitating support from EXIM. We were told that China and Russia were slated to finance this deal before our EXIM Board quorum was restored by the U.S. Senate exactly seventeen months ago today. This is a great example of how a revitalized EXIM, thanks to President Trump's leadership and bipartisan support from Congress, can help ensure the use of 'Made in the USA' products and services, without ceding ground to countries like China and Russia."
As part of EXIM's historic 2019 reauthorization, Congress directed EXIM to establish a Program on China and Transformational Exports The Program's purpose is to advance the United States' comparative leadership in the world with respect to China and strengthen America's competitiveness through EXIM's support of transformational U.S. exports-and the U.S. jobs that make them possible-as U.S. companies seek to compete and win in the global marketplace.
The transaction also supports the Trump Administration's Prosper Africa Initiative, a whole-of-government economic effort to substantially increase two-way trade and investment between the United States and Africa.
Yesterday, Chairman Reed presented keynote remarks to The Economic Club of Florida in Tallahassee where she previewed today's visit to Air Products. Chairman Reed's full remarks can be accessed here and will be broadcast on National Public Radio WFSU.org member Stations on Friday, October 9 at 7:00 p.m.
EXIM Chairman Reed and Senior Staff at Air Products
ABOUT EXIM:
EXIM is an independent federal agency that promotes and supports American jobs by providing competitive and necessary export credit to support sales of U.S. goods and services to international buyers. A robust EXIM can level the global playing field for U.S. exporters when they compete against foreign companies that receive support from their governments. EXIM also contributes to U.S. economic growth by helping to create and sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs in exporting businesses and their supply chains across the United States. In recent years, approximately 90 percent of the total number of the agency's authorizations has directly supported small businesses. Since 1992, EXIM has generated more than $9 billion for the U.S. Treasury for repayment of U.S. debt.
For more information about EXIM, please visit www.exim.gov.