Texas Small Businesses Grow by Exporting to India, Backed by Ex-Im Bank
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Despite the current liquidity crisis, two small businesses in Houston, Tex., are adding jobs and expanding sales by exporting four oil and gas drilling rigs to India, backed by a $47.8 million loan guarantee from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank).
Ex-Im Bank's board of directors approved the guarantee of a loan from UPS Capital Business Credit (UPS Capital), Windsor, Conn. to back the sale by Applied Machinery Corporation and Indam International, Inc., of onshore rigs to SREI Infrastructure International (SREI) of West Bengal, India.
Ex-Im Bank gives us another avenue to generate revenue during the current global financial crunch, said Applied Machinery Chief Operations Officer James T. McDevitt. In the future, if some foreign buyers in markets like Colombia and Indonesia don't have the financing to bring us their business, we hope to continue working with Ex-Im Bank to support their purchases.
Applied Machinery, a rig manufacturer, already shipped the first rig to India, and the second rig is on a boat en route, said McDevitt. Thanks in part to these exports, our workforce has gone from 250 employees to 350 in one year.
Indam International, a 10-employee supply house and trading company and a first-time user of Ex-Im Bank, is exporting the other two oil rigs, manufactured by Letourneau Technologies, Inc., Longview, Tex., and Stewart & Stevenson, Houston, Tex.
We were able to make this sale because of Ex-Im Bank and UPS Capital, said Indam International President Karam Dhillon. We've been able to add four jobs in our office for a total of 10 employees. Now we can look at other markets and expand our sales there. This type of transaction helps the local and national economy by creating manufacturing in the U.S.
SREI, a non-banking financing institution, plans to lease the oil rigs to two of its clients: Quippo Oil & Gas, a New Delhi-based drilling contractor and affiliate of SREI; and Tuff Drilling Private Limited, which has been awarded a contract to drill wells in Gujarat State by an oil and gas exploration and production company.
Through its intended purchase of the UPS Capital long-term floating rate loan, PEFCO (Private Export Funding Corporation) will be providing much needed liquidity to the financial markets.
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.