Oakland County companies that export comprise approximately 17 percent of all Michigan companies that export.
Twenty-seven percent, or 679, of Oakland County's manufacturing firms are involved in exporting and/or importing.
Oakland County ranks second to Wayne County in the number of manufacturing firms that export.
Currently, at least 15 percent of Oakland County's manufacturing export firms support high tech industries.
Oakland County has 16 percent, or 243 of the state's 1,509 firms involved in import activity.
Top three industry sectors that export are Industrial Machinery, Fabricated Metal Products, Printing and Publishing Products.
The top three exporters in Oakland County based on export revenues in 2000 were Delphi Automotive Systems Corporation, Compuware Corporation and Collins & Aikman Corporation.
Export goods
Oakland County exports 31 percent of the goods in the third largest exporting metropolis in the U.S.
Goods from Oakland County companies were shipped to 117 foreign countries in 1999.
Manufactured goods represent 98.8 percent of Oakland County's export shipments.
Export sales
Oakland County would rank #31 in U.S. metropolitan areas for export sales.
The Detroit Metropolitan area was the third leading metro area in the U.S. for export sales in 1999 with $27.0 billion.
Between 1997 and 1999, transportation equipment retained the largest portion of dollars in exports. It represented half of the total export dollars for Oakland County.
Between 1997 and 1999, dollar value in exports for fabricated metal products increased by 71 percent.
Oakland County exports to Canada totaled approximately $2.5 billion in 1999.
Oakland County exports to Mexico are leading new growth in export sales to South America.
Export commodities
Fifty-seven percent of Oakland County's 634 manufacturing export firms produce:
Industrial machinery and equipment
Fabricated metal products
Electric and electronic equipment
Transportation equipment
Instruments and related products
Firms producing transportation equipment comprise 6 percent of export firms and 32 percent of employment involved in export.
Over half of Oakland County's manufacturing firms that export produce industrial machine products and fabricated metal products.
Slightly more than 7 percent of all exporting firms supply the automotive sector exclusively. In all, some 11 percent of Oakland County's manufacturing export firms supply the automotive industry.
Oakland County has more export activity in the manufacturing sector than the state of Michigan. In Oakland County 25 percent of manufacturing firms export, while 23 percent of state manufacturing firms export.
Oakland County Planning & Economic Development, Report Research: 4/2002
For more information, contact Noel Nevshehir, Export Specialist at 248-457-3288.
