North Carolina is manufacturing, selling and shipping a record number of goods according to latest numbers.
Leoneda Inge: Governor Bev Perdue’s office says North Carolina shipped 27-billion dollars in merchandise last year, a record. It’s eight-percent higher than the year before. And it’s 60 percent higher than a decade ago. Derek Chen is the Director of Foreign Operations for the state Commerce Department. He says the growth is phenomenal.
Derek Chen: During the recession, North Carolina certainly lost a lot of manufacturing jobs. What’s really interesting about these numbers is that the manufacturing industry is what dominates exports for our state today.
The largest North Carolina exports include chemicals, machinery, transportation equipment and textiles. And much of it is going to counties like Canada, China, Mexico and Japan.
