WorldCity, Annual Report: No. 14 Belgium- Beyond diamonds | Connecting Local Business Leaders To The Global Economy

Annual Report: No. 14 Belgium- Beyond diamonds

July 6th, 2006

When it comes to what glitters in trade between Georgia and Belgium, cars, computers and chemicals lead the list.

Although diamonds are the United States’ top import from Belgium, that isn’t the case in trade with Georgia. Vehicles, computers, pharmaceuticals and chemicals made up the bulk of the state’s $858 million in imports from the European country in 2005.

The imports were part of an overall trade exchange worth $1.3 billion, including $466 million in exports. Total trade was up nearly 14 percent when compared with 2004 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Almost half the imports were vehicles. They included $309 million in passenger cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles, up 12.5 percent, and $92 million in passenger vans and buses. That was a 36 percent gain from 2004.

Most auto imports were Volvos assembled in Ghent, Belgium’s fourth-largest city. General Motors also has a plant in Antwerp.

Imports of computers also rose, by 3.5 percent to cross the $58 million mark in 2005.

And Georgia imported $49 million in pharmaceuticals, up nearly 115 percent. Like other European pharmaceutical firms, Belgian drug companies have invested in Georgia. Belgian-based Solvay Pharmaceuticals operates in Marietta and UCB Pharma is in Smyrna.

Innogenetics, headquartered in Ghent, is also an important player in Georgia’s biotechnology sector. Its U.S. affiliate is in Alpharetta.

Georgia imported $25.4 million in phosphoric acid, up 38 percent from 2004. Phosphoric acid is an agro-industrial chemical used to acidify foods, add tartness to soft drinks and as an ingredient in industrial products such as detergents and fertilizers. Belgium’s Prayon, one of the world’s top producers of phosphoric acid, has a plant in Augusta.

Big import growth also surfaced in the aviation sector. Regional jet part shipments rose more than 240 percent to top $10 million. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Marietta imports electronic cockpit display monitors from Belgium’s BarcoView for Lockheed’s F-35 joint strike fighter.

Imports on the decline included refined oil, heavy construction equipment, textile machinery and color televisions and computer monitors.

Piet Morisse, trade commissioner in Atlanta for Belgium’s Flanders region, said Georgia has the biggest concentration of Belgium companies in the United States. He said those 49 companies together have invested an estimated $700 million in the state and support 7,000 people. The latest Belgian undertaking is Latexco’s $10 million investment in a latex production facility in Lavonia, in the northern part of the state. The company will produce latex foam bed toppers and foam quilting rolls at its first U.S. facility, which was slated to open in July 2005 and employ 40 workers by 2007.

On the export side of the trade equation, Georgia shipped more than $466 million-worth of goods to Belgium, a nearly 14 percent improvement from 2004.

Exports were led by medical instruments, chemical wood pulp, transmission shafts for vehicles, peptones, computers, kaolin clays, yachts and other luxury boats, jet parts, aircraft engines and aircraft parts.

Georgia exported nearly $54 million in medical instruments, a slight decline from 2004. Chemical wood pulp, on the other hand, posted a dramatic 139 percent jump to close the year near $46 million.

Exports of transmission shafts and gear boxes for vehicles held steady at $35 million. There were also increases in shipments of peptone, a protein used in the biotechnology industry. In 2005, Georgia sent nearly $16 million in peptone to Belgium. It exported less than $14 million in 2004.

One of the most marked percentage increases on the export list came in the category of regional jet parts. Those exports surpassed $12 million, a 321 percent jump from 2004.