Dayton-Cincinnati corridor plays major role in export business

About 8 percent of Ohio’s private sector jobs reportedly linked to exported goods

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By Jack Torry, Washington Bureau Updated 10:50 AM Sunday, June 13, 2010

WASHINGTON — NCR is gone. So is the General Motors facility at Moraine. And the Dayton-area economy last year was hammered by the U.S. recession.

Yet throughout the corridor running from Greater Dayton in the north to Cincinnati in the southwest, a number of small and large companies are finding hope by increasing sales to such faraway places as China, Mexico and Europe.

They’re exporting products, not jobs.

“Exporting is much more viable for smaller companies than it has been in the past,’’ said Curt Cultice, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Commerce.

After a disastrous 2009 in which Ohio exports fell by 25 percent from the previous year, there are signs the state’s export industry is making a major rebound.

According to the Commerce Department, Ohio’s exports leaped by 27 percent during the first quarter of this year compared to the first quarter of last year. Although nationally exports dropped slightly in April, the trend line is still well above last year. At the current pace, Ohio companies could come close to the 2008 record of $45.6 billion in goods exported.

Trade policies remain controversial in Ohio — and in Dayton, where anger seethes over jobs lost overseas. But for some companies here, foreign sales are the difference between profit and loss.

In 2008, the latest statistics available, the Dayton metropolitan area was the third-largest exporting market in Ohio. When combined with Cincinnati, the largest export market, companies in southwest Ohio exported more than $22 billion worth of goods.

“We just had tremendous growth in exporting,’’ said Jim Bowman, president of Rexarc International of West Alexandria, which has been in business for more than 75 years. “It’s a cliche, but the world is getting smaller. So if you are shipping across state lines, it’s not that much more of a stretch to ship over country lines.’’

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