St. Lawrence Seaway - Sail into success with exports!

Container Ships - Enabling Export Sales!

I had the fortune to hear Betty Sutton, Administrator of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation speak at the NW Commissions Exporting event in Erie, PA on 9/25/2014. Energy products like iron ore, coal and chemicals make up about 80% of all traffic. About 25% of cargo has international destinations or coming from abroad. 70% of American steel products are produced in this region and 1/2 of Fortune 500 Industrial companies are located in the region.

The Great Lakes economy could be considered the fourth largest in the world behind 1. U.S.A. 2. China 3. Japan. Sutton was very positive about our collaborative relationship with our neighbor Canada. She is reaching out to the public sector to enable growth and collaboration to build this valuable mode of transportation for our products, increasing global sales. 

4.7 Trillion in trade activities (20% of U.S. and Canada) are happening in the region and using the seaway to import and export products. With the energy boom in Marcellus and Utica Shale, the potential to continue to grow international markets utilizing cargo ships is increasing. Sutton stated that a cargo ship will move 30,000 tons of cargo. Moving the equivalent amount of cargo by railcar you would need over 300 cars, utilizing trucking systems would mean filling over 960 trucks with cargo. Using cargo ships can reduce costs, environmental impact an energy costs. 

Administrator Sutton’s excitement about the potential to impact growth for manufacturers with exports was contagious. She left the audience with high hopes of collaborative efforts to help them build international sales. The representatives there echoed her excitement about growth potential of world-wide sales. One rep told me, she has seen great success for American products in Europe. The one important caveat she mentioned was that American companies often underestimate the importance of translating their websites when entering new markets like Germany. Often a mistake, companies look at the initial cost and feel they can still open that market. Her point was would you buy from a German website? Then why would an American company think a German would buy from their American site?  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Information on the resources at the conference:

NW PA Commission http://northwestpa.org/

St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation http://www.seaway.dot.gov/

Contact Linda@allcleartranslations for more information on international sales, translations, cultures, international market analysis and how to start a localization (translation) project.

About the Author

Linda Richardson founded All Clear Translations in 2010. Her focus is to enable American companies to grow and build their international markets.  Richardson is certified in Localization and Project Management for Localization, she has spoken on translation and localization to build sales at international and national conferences as well as regionally. In January, 2013, Richardson opened an office in Hermitage, PA at the eCenter at LindenPointe- a technology incubator.