Mar. 30--PLAINS TWP. -- Bill Jones sees promise overseas despite international economic turmoil.

"The export market has been much more stable than domestic," Mr. Jones, vice president at Acker Drill Co., said during a break at a recent foreign trade seminar at the Woodlands Inn and Resort.

Acker Drill, which is based in South Abington Twp., and manufactures borers for mining, infrastructure and environmental uses, exports about 30 percent of its output, Mr. Jones said. He was upbeat after talking to overseas trade representatives at the trade session.

"South Africa looks like a great opportunity," he said.

Exports from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton metro area surpassed $1 billion in 2007 for the first time, a 70 percent vault over 2005 totals, government data show. The growth propelled the region to 123rd among metro area exporters. It was ranked 144th in 2005.

But the economic crisis, declining trade and a stronger dollar are cooling a sector that blazed in recent years.

"This year is going to be an extremely bad year for exports," said Nigel Gault, Ph.D., an economist at IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm near Boston. "What we have now is a global collapse in both exports and imports."

New data accent the bleak outlook. After soaring 12 percent in 2007, U.S. exports fell at a 24 percent annualized rate in the fourth quarter of 2008, the Commerce Department reported. Japan's February exports plummeted almost 50 percent from a year ago and Germany's dropped 20 percent in January from the same 2008 period.

The dollar, which lost value for about six years against other major currencies, has gained 14 percent since August against the European euro and 10 percent against the Japanese yen.

The readjustment impacts regional companies that ship products overseas.

"Everybody's buying the same commodities, but they are not buying as many of them," said Tom Pratico, export manager at TR Associates, an Archbald firm that sells electronic components and industrial and petroleum-processing equipment to overseas customers.

TR Associates had several years of 10 to 15 percent annual export growth before a 15 percent dip in 2008, Mr. Pratico said.

Schott North America in Duryea doubled exports of optical and technical glass products in the last five years and had 7 percent growth in fiscal 2008 before the crisis hit last fall, marketing director Steve Sokach said.

"We'll see a 10 to 12 percent retrench or reduction probably" this year, he said. "The economic situation in Asia has had a negative impact on our ability to export."

Pennsylvania's exports totalled $34.4 billion in 2008, the state reports, up 22 percent from 2007.

But that curve has changed course. The World Trade Organization this week predicted a 9 percent dip in exports this year.

Nevertheless, the region's recent boom in export growth provides optimism for the post-recession period.

"This is truly reflective of the fact that we are in the global economy," said Teri Ooms, director of the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development, a Wilkes-Barre think tank. "The more we can diversify our economy, the more recession-proof we can be."

Contact the writer: jhaggerty@timesshamrock.com

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