Tennessee Trade Report 2nd Quarter 2024
Tables and Graphs
It was a strong quarter for Tennessee exporters. State exports rose 8.3 percent, to $10.22 billion. This was a significantly better performance than in the rest of the country. Total American exports rose by 4.5 percent. Tennessee ranked 16th among the American states in its export growth.
Mexico is Gaining!
The state achieved these numbers despite anemic growth in its largest market, Canada. Tennessee sent exports valued at $2.188 north of the border this past quarter, almost the same as the $2.182 it sent during the second quarter of 2023. Basically a large increase in car and EV shipments was substantially offset by a very large fall in SUV shipments. The performance in Mexico was better. There, shipments rose by ten percent, to $1.759 billion. This gain extended to many goods, the most outstanding being an export relatively new to Tennessee (in any size): plastic boxes and crates. Exports of these surged from $11 million to $101 million. One might notice that slowly but surely Mexico is gaining on Canada as Tennessee’s largest market. Ten years ago, exports to Mexico were about half those to Canada. This past quarter they were equal to 80 percent of exports to Canada.
Export Growth Focused in China and the Eurozone Market
But the major sources of the state’s export growth were in China and in the euro zone. The euro countries produced the largest dollar gain: $369 million, some 26 percent higher than last year’s second quarter. The growth was centered in computer parts, EVs, and various medical goods. Netherlands was the single star market, growing from $499 million to $755 million this past quarter. We should take that with a bit of salt, as Rotterdam and Amsterdam are both ports of entry into Europe. A sizable amount of these goods are likely going deeper into the continent. The German and French markets also turned in very good numbers. The big euro area exception was Spain, were exports dropped nearly two-thirds due to a fall in aircraft parts. In percentage terms, though, China was an even stronger market. Tennessee exports to China were up 31 percent, to $966 million. Whatever the rhetoric, we are thus far not seeing much faltering of the state’s trade with China! There was a sizable drop in medical instrument exports (off $60 million) but it was more than made up by large gains in the shipments of cotton, polyesters, and coal. A variety of smaller products, such as gear boxes and surgical catgut, also posted big export gains. Those bituminous coal exports were a new export to China from Tennessee. Coal also accounted for the big rise in Tennessee exports to India (54 percent, to $177 million). The gains to China were not matched in most of the other East Asian countries, however. Japan barely moved, with Tennessee foreign shipments changing by but $1 million since a year ago. A big decline in smartphone shipments produced a nearly $100 million drop of exports to Hong Kong, while South Korea also declined by more than $30 million.
…but it was a Mixed Bag Elsewhere
Elsewhere, exports to Latin America were strong, thanks mostly to Brazil. Exports to Brazil rose by $77 million, accounting for more than three-quarters of the total gains to Latin America. Sales to Africa and to Southeast Asia, however, both fell by about $30 million. Exports to the UK were down a bit more ($241 million to $205 million). Most state exporters would likely take a repeat of this quarter’s performance if offered to them again! For all the world economy’s ills, Tennessee exports have continued to forge ahead.
