In what has been an up-and-down year, California businesses exported merchandise valued at $13.3 billion in July, down a modest 1.5 percent from shipments valued at $13.51 billion in July 2016.
Los Angeles-based consulting firm Beacon Economics broke out Golden State numbers from national figures released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.
“More than anything else, the dip is a reflection of normal midsummer doldrums,” said Jock O’Connell, Beacon’s international trade adviser. “It’s just that this year our export trade was rather more languid than usual.”
Beacon said July shipments of manufactured goods totaled $8.38 billion, down 2 percent from $8.55 billion in the year-ago period.
Beacon said California accounted for nearly 11 percent of the nation’s overall merchandise export trade in July.
Through the first seven months of 2017, state exports are running about 6 percent ahead of last year’s pace, according to Beacon
