Northeast Ohio's economy and its manufacturing giants appear to have finally shrugged off the recession, exporting more goods and services than before the fall.
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View full sizeArcelorMittal's Cleveland plant CLEVELAND - Northeast Ohio's manufacturers are looking more and more like the little engine that recovered -- and pulled the rest of the regional economy out of the post-recession doldrums.
The 18-county region exported $31.1 billion in goods in 2012 - beating the 2008 pre-recession level of $30.3 billion.
That's $31.1 billion coming into the region's economy from around the world for goods, services and royalties made, provided or invented by Northeast Ohio companies and their employees.
And manufacturing accounted for 83 percent of all goods exported from the region, reports the quarterly Cleveland Plus Economic Review, released this week by Team NEO.
The report tells a story of steady growth in all sectors and indicators, even jobs, which at 2.016 million, are up by about 4,000 year over year.
But the report also notes that unemployment in the third quarter was 7.1 percent - the same as a year ago.
Increasing exports are the big story, though, said Tom Waltermire, Team NEO's chief executive.
"Our export uptick is the result of a strong manufacturing base," he said.
In comparison, manufacturing accounted for just 65 percent of all U.S. exports, he said.
What's surprising is that economic output of the region's manufacturing economy over the last 30 years has remained relatively the same, said Waltermire.
"But the number of people doing it has been declining," he said, as factories have automated and new high-tech industries have grown up.
"That is part of the reason we still have what we have. If that had not happened, a lot of what we do here would be uneconomic and would not be happening here."
The big three in manufacturing were chemicals, accounting for nearly $4.4 billion in goods, transportation equipment, at $4.25 billion, and primary metals, at $3.5 billion.
Manufactured machinery exported $3.1 billion in equipment in 2012, according to the report, and fabricated metal products $2.4 billion.
Exports of oil and gas accounted for just $9.8 million, a figure that analysts expect to grow exponentially as shale gas and oil wells are developed.
Among the 10 top services provided by the region to foreigners are travel and tourism, at $1.45 billion, which includes medical services provided here to patients from elsewhere. Royalties paid to people and companies here totaled $1.1 billion in 2012.
The industries recording the highest growth rates between 2003 and 2012 were those that make medical equipment, food products and agricultural exports.
"Exports for medical equipment devices have increased 112 percent, food products 87 percent and agriculture 83 percent, since 2003," the report noted.
"This comes as no surprise, given that nearly 400 medical device companies, including major companies such as Philips, GE Healthcare, Steris and Hitachi, make this region their home."
There are more than 370 food processing and manufacturing plants in the region, the report noted, including PepsiCo, J.J. Heinz, Daisy Brand, LLC, Nestle USA and J.M. Smucker Co.
Ohio's infrastructure services, from freeways to financial, legal and research services, have been crucial to this ongoing development, said Waltermire.
For the long term, innovation is the real key to the region's survival, he said.
"You have to have something that ideally people can't get any place else. The areas of the country growing faster than ours, after you strip out migration, tend to be the ones where new things are being developed."