US Exim bank’s financing jumps 200% in MidEast

The Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank) of the United States, that provides loans and loan guarantees for the purchase of US goods and services, has reported an almost 200 per cent jump in export financing to the Middle East region in the last fiscal year, compared to the transactions in 2006, a statement from the Exim Bank said on Thursday. The total authorisations to the region was $676 million in 2006, which went up to over $2 billion during the first 11 months of the fiscal year 2010 (September 2009 to August this year). For the rest of the world, this increase amounts to just 70 per cent between the last fiscal year and the preceding four years (around $11.5bn in 2006 to around $19.5bn during the first 11 months of the fiscal year 2010). Fred P. Hochberg, the Chairman of the Exim Bank of the US, is currently on a visit to the region. He said the bank is interested to work with industries and projects in the UAE and the GCC region, especially in areas of construction, renewable energy, healthcare and transportation. “This is a very important region for the US. One of the reasons I’m here is to work closely with the regional economies to diversify their economies away from hydrocarbon to a range of sectors and industries,” he said. In May this year, the Exim bank approved a $316 million direct loan to Emirates Aluminium (Emal) to build a 1.4 million tonnes per year aluminum smelter complex at Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa’s Port and Industrail Zone. Asked whether the bank has seen the credit insurance claims levelling off in the past one year, he said: “We have weathered this financial crisis and our portfolio is in very good shape. In terms of the bad debts it [credit insurance claims] has remained flat. Whilst the number of [credit insurance] claims went up, the dollar per claim actually went down.”