<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Merchandise exports out of the Lake Charles area in 2015 totaled about $4.3 billion — a 22 percent decrease from the previous year, according to a recent report by U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Erin Butler, director of U.S. Commercial Service-New Orleans, called it a “challenging year” for exporting from metropolitan areas in Louisiana. The decline in the dollar amount of exported goods from the area is in part due to a glut in the oil and gas markets, Butler said. The recent glut has caused the price of oil and gas to drop, making the production of oil and the dollar worth of oil-related goods decrease considerably.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Port of Lake Charles Executive Director Bill Rase said the low price of oil is the single major cause of the market downturn in Lake Charles this year. He said it’s the dollar amount, not the number of export transactions, that seems to be waning. Rase said the port hasn’t seen a decrease in ship numbers or cargo coming through last year or this year. But he said he suspects oil-related exports coming out of Lake Charles are bringing in less money because raw materials have decreased in value.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“When you’re paying $1.80 instead of $2.50 at the pump, you’re decreasing the dollar value of the exports,” Rase said. Changes in the price of oil, he said, affect everybody in the energy world, especially Lake Charles since it’s largely an industrial market. Key export categories for Lake Charles in 2015 were petroleum and coal products, transportation equipment and chemicals, the report said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Butler said another cause for the export decrease is the stronger dollar, which affects the entire U.S. economy. A stronger dollar makes U.S. products more expensive than products from other markets. The report said that only 31 percent of U.S. metropolitan areas reported positive growth in 2015, meaning most markets experienced no growth or a decline in growth this past year, in large part due to a stronger dollar.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Even so, Butler said Louisiana continues to be a major export state. She said export money has a larger effect on the Louisiana economy than those of other states. U.S Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzher said that “exports continue to be a driving force in the Lake Charles economy.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">She described Southwest Louisiana exporters as “tenacious.” They aren’t afraid to travel across the world to make a sale, she said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Louisiana is the national leader in natural gas, and that expertise is recognized all over the world,” Butler said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">She said she expects exports — in both the goods and services sectors — to increase in the near future due to natural gas firms coming into the area.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Not only do we expect to see exports from Lake Charles increase as a result of those natural gas exports,” she said, “but we also see that development in the natural gas industry as having a potential large impact on small and medium-size companies in Lake Charles and in Southwest Louisiana.”</span>