Survey shows few companies started exporting in last three years.(TRADELINE)

Despite the current combination of high overseas demand and a cheap U.S. dollar, results from NACM's most recent monthly survey indicate that many NACM members are not taking advantage of exporting and the ones that are have been doing so for a long time. In response to the question "When did your company start exporting?" 49.8% said more than three years ago and 45.2% said that their company was not exporting. A small minority of participants said that they had begun exporting less than a year ago (1.2%) or between one and three years ago (3.8%).

Among those respondents whose companies had been exporting for more than three years, many of them indicated that they had been doing business overseas for much longer than the survey would suggest. "Our company was started 141 years ago," said one participant. "There is no history indicating when exporting was first started, but it was most likely in the late 1800's." Other respondents indicated that their companies had been exporting for more than 20, 30, 50 and even 100 years.

Conversely, some participants whose companies do not export noted that their business has succeeded for decades without going overseas. "We have been in business since 1910 and do not export out of the country," said one respondent. Others noted they did business overseas that they didn't believe constituted "exporting" or that the nature of their business and industry precluded any traditional exporting. "We are a telecom company," said one respondent. "Technically you could say we export some service (long distance calls) but not in the traditional sense of the word." Another multinational company noted that "We have branches ...