On Friday, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM), the nation’s official export credit agency, said it has approved the renewal of a 90 percent guarantee of a $200 million purchase facility for U.S. Steel under EXIM’s Supply Chain Finance Guarantee Program.
Compared to the 95 percent guarantee approved by the EXIM Board in September 2020, the new 90 percent guarantee will reduce the overall cost to the suppliers and therefore increase utilization of the facility. The facility would not only support U.S. Steel, headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, but also its supply chain across America that has been greatly impacted by the ongoing pandemic. Approximately 50 to 60 of its U.S. suppliers in 16 states and the District of Columbia are anticipated to benefit from the facility. The transaction is estimated to support 700 U.S. jobs as determined by EXIM’s job calculator.
“Throughout the pandemic, EXIM has filled in gaps in private-sector financing in support of U.S. exports,” said Acting EXIM President and Chairman James Burrows. “By renewing the guarantee of this purchase facility, we are continuing to support the American economy and supply chain while building back better.”
“U.S. Steel’s supply chain includes tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. Anything that can increase the competitiveness of the businesses they work for is a win for this country,” said John M. Foody Jr., U.S. Steel’s Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer. “We appreciate EXIM’s efforts to enhance and secure our domestic supply chain.”
Earlier this week, EXIM announced the formation of its Office of Global Finance Development (GFD), a new division that will restart EXIM’s efforts to engage American companies on EXIM products for the first time since the agency’s reauthorization and return of a Board quorum. The new group will be responsible for the strategic marketing of EXIM’s medium- and long-term programs and products to strategically significant regions and U.S. business sectors worldwide.
The new office will report directly to the President and Chair of EXIM and manage international business opportunities and deal source; especially in support of EXIM’s strategic statutory priorities: clean energy and environmentally beneficial products, sub-Saharan Africa and the ten sectors identified by Congress as transformational export areas.
“EXIM is at the start of an important new chapter in our agency’s history and the Office of Global Finance Development will play a critical role in ensuring American competitiveness and partnering with our stakeholders to bring a whole-of-government solutions to financing challenges as part of the President’s Build Back Better World efforts,” EXIM’s Burrows said earlier this week.
