Ex-Im Bank Helped Engineering Company ‘Get Off The Ground’

Met Weld International has only used the Export-Import Bank of the United States once, but that’s all it took for the company to see its value.

“It really worked out well for us,” said Morgan Connor, President of Gavial, the parent company of Met Weld. Gavial purchased Altamont, N.Y.-based Met Weld in 2006 when it had only about 35 employees. The Ex-Im Bank helped Met Weld win a $6 million project in the Middle East and partly because of that the company has tripled its staff.

The Ex-Im Bank, Mr. Connor said, allowed the company to “get off the ground.”

Met Weld is one of the thousands of small companies across the United States that have leaned on the Ex-Im Bank to boost exports and keep jobs local. These companies would be harmed if Congress doesn’t reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank by Sept. 30th.

Met Weld makes what are called skid-mounted process systems for the gas-turbine industry. These systems are generally large structures that require a lot of engineering. The company’s products are built by high-skilled workers -engineers, fabricators, and craftsmen.

The company turned to the Ex-Im Bank when the private bank they usually work with, M&T Bank, told them they’d only be able to help them on the deal in Saudi Arabia if the Bank was involved.

Met Weld is also a supplier to General Electric Co., the world’s largest manufacturer of gas turbines.  Many of GE’s global customers rely on the Ex-Im Bank to finance purchases of GE turbines – and by extension, the products that Met Weld supplies to GE.

If the Ex-Im Bank doesn’t get reauthorized, GE would have to compete on an unlevel playing field, as all of its global competitors have access to Export Credit Agencies in their home countries.  Mr. Connor supports Ex-Im’s reauthorization because Gavial, Met Weld, and thousands of other suppliers to GE could be negatively affected if Ex-Im’s authority expires.

“If GE’s impacted that would definitely have an impact on our business,” he said.