-May 8,2023-
The value of California’s merchandise export trade in March contracted from one year earlier, according to a Beacon Economics’ analysis of the latest U.S. trade statistics released by the Foreign Trade Division of the U.S. Census Bureau.
The year’s third month of the year saw California businesses export goods with a nominal value of $16.302 billion. That was down 4.3% from the $17.033 billion the state exported one year earlier. Shipments abroad of manufactured goods slipped by 2.5% to $10.375 billion from the $10.636 billion shipped in March 2022. Exports of agricultural products and raw materials dropped by 7.4% to $2.050 billion from $2.215 billion. Re-exports declined by 7.3% to $3.877 billion from $4.183 billion.
“Storm-battered March presented unique challenges to California’s exporters, many of them logistical in nature,” said Jock O’Connell, Beacon Economics’ International Trade Adviser. “Apart from flooded farmlands and road closures, a fall-off in U.S. demand for imports caused shipping lines to reduce service to West Coast ports, resulting in fewer ships available to carry exported goods.”
California accounted for 8.8% of the $184.459 billion in U.S. merchandise exports in March, down from its 9.5% share in March of last year. In the pre-pandemic March of 2019, California accounted for 10.5% of the nation’s merchandise exports.