State Exports Push Shipments 6% Higher

Despite the specter of the Asian economic crisis, California’s exports showed surprising strength in the fourth quarter last year, pushing the state’s total merchandise shipments in 1997 up 6% from a year ago to $109.5 billion, officials said Friday.

Led by continued gains in Mexico and a bit of recovery in Japan and even South Korea, California exports in the fourth quarter totaled $29.5 billion, the state’s Commerce and Trade Agency said. That was up almost 9% from the third quarter and nearly 11% higher than the fourth quarter of 1996.

“I was very surprised,” said Ted Gibson, chief economist at the state Department of Finance. Gibson said he still expects Asia’s troubles to slow California’s export growth this year. But after seeing the latest figures, particularly the spectacular gains in Mexico, he said, “Mexico is looking awfully good, so things may not be quite as negative as we feared.”

Driven by delivery of electronics, computers and industrial machinery, California’s shipments to Mexico topped $12 billion last year, up 33% from 1996 and making it the state’s No. 2 export market after Japan. Canada slipped to third, taking in $11.4 billion worth of goods from California last year, although that was up 6% from 1996.

For all of 1997, California’s exports to Taiwan jumped by 25%, making that country the fifth-largest export country. Shipments rose by 15% in Hong Kong (now No. 8) and 20% in mainland China (No. 14). All three of those countries have largely weathered Asia’s currency and economic problems.

Economists, however, appeared puzzled by a slight fourth-quarter pick-up of exports to Japan, which wound up receiving $17.5 billion worth of California goods in 1997, down 7.5% from 1996. Shipments to South Korea, California’s fourth-largest export destination, unexpectedly grew by 9% in the fourth quarter from the third quarter. For all of 1997, exports to that country were down 17%, to about $7 billion.