Made in America: New Commerce Department report shows U.S. metro areas set goods export record in 2015

Editor’s note: Each Sunday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Made In America,” a round-up of state and global manufacturing news.

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NEW COMMERCE DEPARTMENT REPORT SHOWS U.S. METRO AREAS SET GOODS EXPORT RECORD IN 2015
The U.S. Department of Commerce on Thursday (Sept. 8) released a new report that shows U.S. metropolitan areas exported more than $1.3 trillion in merchandise exports in 2015, accounting for 89% of all goods exported from the United States.

The 2015 Metropolitan Area Export Overview states that 156 metro areas exported more than $1 trillion of goods to consumers around the globe. The Obama administration continues to focus its services on helping firms sell ‘Made in America’ products to global consumers, which it says will support additional growth and good-paying jobs, said Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.

Memphis-West Memphis was the only metropolitan area with an Arkansas connection that scored in the top 50 MSAs for exports. For more information, including fact sheets and stats, visit here.

BUSINESS EXPANSION PROJECTIONS AT HIGHEST LEVEL SINCE EARLY 2015
Buoyed by higher profit growth expectations, business executives are predicting an increase in corporate expansion for the coming year, according to the third quarter AICPA Economic Outlook Survey, which polls chief executive officers, chief financial officers, controllers and other certified public accountants in U.S. companies who hold executive and senior management accounting roles.

Survey takers now expect profits to rise 2.6% over the next 12 months, or more than three times the rate (0.7%) projected at the start of the year. Some 70% of business executives also say they expect revenue to increase in the coming year, two percentage points higher than last quarter and seven percentage points more than in the first quarter.

Some 62% of executives expect their businesses to expand in the next 12 months, the highest rate since the first quarter of 2015. The largest companies — those with more than a billion dollars in revenue — reported the biggest shift in sentiment, with two-thirds now saying they expect to grow, up from 50% last quarter. Those companies, however, are least likely to say they need new employees and are looking to hire immediately (10% versus 21% for all companies).

GE EXPANDS REACH INTO ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING AND 3D TECHNOLOGY, BUYS EUROPEAN COMPANIES FOR $1.4 BILLION
Industrial giant GE announced plans this week to acquire two suppliers of additive manufacturing equipment, Sweden-based Arcam AB and SLM Solutions Group AG of Germany for $1.4 billion.

Both companies will report to David Joyce, President & CEO of GE Aviation. Joyce will lead the growth of these businesses in the additive manufacturing equipment and services industry. In addition, he will lead the integration effort and the GE Store initiative to drive additive manufacturing applications across GE.

The U.S. conglomerate, which is rapidly transforming its digital and technology expertise across all of its industrial subsidiaries, said it expects to grow the new additive business to $1 billion by 2020 at attractive returns and also expects $3-5 billion of product cost-out across the company over the next ten years.