Goods exported from the Spokane and Spokane Valley metropolitan area totaled a little over $823 million last year, marking a 2.1 percent increase from 2014, according to the International Trade Administration’s 2015 Metropolitan Area Export Overview released earlier this month. 

The 2.1 percent increase marked a $17 million bump for the area from 2014 to 2015, the report says.

Hotstart Inc., the Spokane-based engine-heating equipment manufacturer, contributed significantly to the increase. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker presented Hotstart with the President’s ‘E’ award For Exports earlier this year. 

“Exports continue to be a source of growth for the Spokane economy,” says Pritzker in a press release announcing the report.

Spokane was one of 119 metro areas in the U.S. that increased its goods exports last year, the report says.

Says Pritzker, “The Department of Commerce continues to focus its services on assisting more Spokane-based firms sell their made-in-America products to global consumers, which will support additional growth and good-paying jobs.”

The growth in metro exports shows that companies are working to improve competitiveness and increase profit margins by selling abroad, says Janet Bauermeister, director of the Spokane office of the U.S. Commercial Service.

The U.S. Commercial Service is the lead trade promotion agency of the U.S. government. Trade representatives are in more than 100 U.S. cities and 75 countries assisting U.S. companies to get started in exporting or increasing sales to new global markets.

Since 2009, goods exported from the metro Spokane area is up $161 million, equating to a 24 percent increase. Additionally, more than 40 percent of goods exports went to markets where the U.S. has trade agreements in place. Machinery, computer and electronic products, and primary metal manufactures were among the largest export categories, says the report.

U.S. metropolitan area goods exports topped $1.3 trillion in 2015, and accounted for 89 percent of total U.S. goods exports last year. A total of 156 metropolitan areas registered merchandise exports worth more than $1 billion last year, the export report says.