THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996 TAG: 9606010218
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 63 lines
Hampton Roads may be one of the largest ports in the nation, but companies based in the region don't export as many of their products as manufacturers in other major metropolitan areas.
While the region is the nation's 24th largest metropolitan area and the largest port on the East Coast, Hampton Roads ranks 89th in a survey of export sales released this week by the U.S. Commerce Department.
The Commerce Department reported that businesses in Hampton Roads sold $807 million of goods overseas in 1994. That compares with $5.2 billion for the Richmond area, which ranks 18th out of the 256 metropolitan areas surveyed.
On a positive note, Hampton Roads' export sales did grow 19.3 percent compared with $677.2 million in 1993.
The Commerce Department's statistics indicate the location of the company that sells the goods not necessarily where the products are made.
Led by the automobile industry, Detroit was the nation's export sales leader with $27.5 billion in sales. Yet, much of the automobiles manufactured by the Big Three auto makers based there are made at manufacturing plants elsewhere.
Richmond's ranking as a top exporter was likely boosted by being the headquarters to several Fortune 500 manufacturers. No major manufacturers are headquartered in Hampton Roads, with the exception of Newport News Shipbuilding.
``Our manufacturing is skewed toward shipbuilding, which has built ships almost exclusively for the Navy for some time,'' said John Whaley, chief economist for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.
``We're getting hurt because of the composition of our manufacturers, the lack of any headquarters for major manufacturers and there does not appear to be a compelling reason for manufacturers to locate in Hampton Roads simply to have access to port facilities,'' Whaley said.
Transportation costs are typically a very small portion of a product's ultimate value, so a plant's location is less important than such factors as the quality and cost of labor.
Hampton Roads does boast cargo terminals that handled nearly $16 billion of exports, according the Virginia Port Authority.
Most of those exports come from outside the region, however. Exports are shipped to cargo terminals and coal piers in the region by trucks and railroads, particularly Norfolk Southern Corp., which is headquartered in Norfolk.
So the region is much more of a transportation hub than a manufacturing center.
Shipbuilding is one manufacturing industry where location is of paramount importance, however. Ships must be launched on the water.
The region's place on the Commerce Department's export list could jump in a few years on the strength of Newport News Shipbuilding.
The big Peninsula shipyard is building four petroleum product tankers for a Greek shipping company in a deal valued at $152 million. It is also trying to close a deal to build up to eight fast frigates for the United Arab Emirates, which could bring the shipyard up to $2 billion in exports.
Newport News Shipbuilding, which employs nearly 18,000 people, could sell more of the double-hulled tankers to overseas shipping companies and it is trying to sell its frigate design to other foreign militaries.
``One cannot overstate the importance of exports in creating jobs and economic growth,'' Commerce Undersecretary Stuart Eizenstat said in a prepared statement. by CNB