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This is Michigan: Detroit is ripe for an export boom, study saysBY JOHN GALLAGHER
From auto parts shipped to Canada to a soccer stadium designed for a South Korean city, metro Detroit firms are among the nation's leaders in exporting goods and services to other nations. A study to be released today by the Brookings Institution, based in Washington, D.C., ranks metro Detroit ninth among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas for the dollar volume of its 2008 exports, $26.9 billion. Detroit ranks fifth in export-related jobs, with 239,910 area residents producing goods and services for export, the study said. Detroit's exports are heavy with auto parts, but increasingly include professional services. As Detroit struggles to reinvent its economy, the potential for service exports to contribute is enormous, said John Austin, a member of the state Board of Education and a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution who contributed to the report. "It's easy to see car parts moving around the world. We're doing great in Brazil, and GM's doing fine in China," he said. "But we don't see this growth share of our exports to the world in high-end knowledge services -- medicine, design, accounting, deal-making. "The fact that Detroit is really one of the top places and punches above its weight shows the future of an economy." The report, titled "Export Nation: How U.S. Metros Lead National Export Growth and Boost Competitiveness," underscores the importance of exports to urban economies. "True economic recovery and job growth in America will depend on substantial growth in the amount of goods and services we sell to other nations," said Bruce Katz, vice president and director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings and one of the principal authors of the report. "Metropolitan areas already lead the nation in export production, and they will be the vanguard of export growth." Manufactured goods accounted for about 75% of Detroit's $26.9 billion in 2008 exports, and transportation equipment led the list. But professional services are growing in importance. In 2008, the year studied by the report, nearly $7 billion worth of service, or 25% of Detroit's total exports, were in professional services. Among metro Detroit service firms working overseas: Southfield-based Rossetti, an architectural firm, is designing the Sungui soccer arena in Inchon, South Korea, and a housing-entertainment complex in Beijing. The Detroit office of the Deloitte accounting firm provides business consulting to clients in various nations. New ways to growAustin pointed to Cascade Engineering, based in Grand Rapids, a company that traditionally made plastic-injected molded parts for the auto and furniture industries. Faced with a slimmed-down auto industry, the firm has been developing new product lines, including a lightweight water filter called the Biosand. It's a plastic injection, non-electric device that weighs less than 10 pounds and can provide up to 75 gallons a day of clean drinking water. Austin said that's a natural for export markets like China, which is struggling to clean up its drinking water. "One of the messages that's real important as we struggle to reinvent our place in this global economy is to realize that Detroit and Michigan and the whole industrial Midwest have been benefiting from global trade," he said. "We have much to gain from increased global connections and increased trade. We shouldn't fear the rise of China and the rest of the globe." Markets in Brazil, India, ChinaThe report reveals a number of little-known facts about Detroit as an exporter.
Contact JOHN GALLAGHER: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com |
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