NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that goods and exports from the New Orleans – Metairie, LA, metropolitan area reached a record $34.9 billion last year, ranking eighth in the nation.
New Orleans goods exports increased by $4.9 billion, or 16.2 percent, from 2013 to 2014, helping New Orleans to remain a top metropolitan area for exports in 2014. The findings were part of the International Trade Administration’s 2014 Metropolitan Area Export Overview released this week highlighting goods and exports from U.S. metropolitan areas in 2014.
“New Orleans is on a roll, and this news is yet another indication of our continued growth that includes a strong export industry,” said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “With the recent attraction and expansion of local and international companies operating at the Port of New Orleans and throughout our city, we have turbocharged our growth and job creation efforts. We will continue to push full steam ahead to make New Orleans stronger and more resilient for every family.”
“More and more U.S. businesses understand that 96 percent of their potential customers live outside the United States, and that selling their world-class goods in the global marketplace is critical to their bottom line,” said U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. “New high-standard trade agreements are one way the Obama Administration is working to help open more markets for U.S. companies. We remain focused on helping to increase the number of companies that take advantage of these exporting opportunities, creating jobs and strengthening both the local New Orleans and national economy.”
According to the report, the New Orleans metropolitan area in 2014:
• Registered a fifth consecutive year of increased goods exports
• One of 139 metro areas to achieve record goods export levels
• New Orleans sent 32.4 percent of its goods exports to markets where the United States has trade agreements
• Key merchandise export categories included petroleum and coal products, agricultural products, processed foods, chemicals, and beverage and tobacco products
• China, Mexico, France, Colombia, and the Netherlands were leading destinations for New Orleans’ goods exports
New Orleans Business Alliance President and CEO Quentin L. Messer, Jr., said, “While New Orleans’ maritime industry may always not seem visible to the general public, this ranking affirms the outsized impact of the spirit of collaboration among the talented team at the Port of New Orleans, the incomparable logistics and warehousing firms, shipyards, maritime law firms and transportation companies, and many others that work and support this sector. Their global reach carries with it the momentum of our economic growth and will help us attract new foreign direct investment. We congratulate them on all this achievement.”
In the ten years since Hurricane Katrina, the Port of New Orleans has overcome great obstacles. Initially, the Port reopened to commerce just 12 days after the storm to prove to the world that New Orleans and south Louisiana mattered and was open for business. In the years that followed, Port activity has reached new highs, nearing the half million mark for containers handled, surpassing the one-million-passenger threshold in the city’s cruise industry, setting a 14-year high in tonnage handled, and re-imagining the more than 1,000 acres of industrial property into a center for logistics, staging and warehousing of cargo.
Since Katrina, the Board has invested $296.3 million in capital expenditures in the last decade. Those investments include terminal expansions, completely renovated transit sheds, upgraded infrastructure and new state-of-the-industry cruise terminals.
