Alabama

Alabama Exports & Foreign Investment

 

In 2023, Alabama exported a record $27.4 billion of goods to the world.  In 2021, exports from Alabama supported an estimated 78 thousand jobs.

 

Exports from Alabama and Jobs

• Alabama was the 22^nd largest state exporter of goods in 2023.
• In 2023, Alabama goods exports were $27.4 billion, an increase of 42 percent ($8.1 billion) from its export level in 2013 (latest data available).
• Goods exports accounted for 9.1 percent of Alabama GDP in 2023 (latest data available).
• Alabama goods exports in 2021 (latest data available) supported an estimated 78 thousand jobs. Nationally, jobs supported by goods exports pay up to an estimated 18 percent above the national average.

Manufacturing Exports from Alabama and Jobs

• In 2023, Alabama exported $24.3 billion of manufactured products.
• Alabama exports of manufactured products supported an estimated 72 thousand jobs in 2021 (latest data available).
• The state's largest manufacturing export category is transportation equipment, which accounted for $14.8 billion of Alabama's total goods exports in 2023.
• Other top manufacturing exports are chemicals ($2.2 billion), primary metal manufacturing ($1.8 billion), paper ($970 million), and machinery, except electrical ($917 million).

 

Exports Sustain Thousands of Alabama Businesses many of which are SMEs

• A total of 4,237 companies exported from Alabama locations in 2022 (latest data available). Of those, 3,374 (80 percent) were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.
•  Small and medium-sized firms generated 17.7 percent of Alabama's total exports of goods in 2022.

 

Alabama Depends on World Markets

• The state’s largest market was Germany. Alabama exported $5.1 billion in goods to Germany in 2023, representing 18 percent of the state’s total goods exports.
• Germany was followed by Canada ($3.9 billion), China ($3.8 billion), Mexico ($3.2 billion), and Korea, South ($1.2 billion).
• Alabama’s exports to major world areas included:

 

• 37 percent of Alabama’s goods exports ($10.2 billion) in 2023 went to current FTA partners. 

Agriculture in Alabama depends on Exports

• Alabama is the country’s 31^st largest agricultural exporting state, shipping $1.7 billion in domestic agricultural exports abroad in 2022 (latest data available according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).^[1]

• Top Agricultural exports were:

 

International Investment Creates Jobs in Alabama

• In 2021 (latest data available), foreign-controlled companies employed 120,000 Alabama workers. Major sources of foreign investment in Alabama included Japan, Germany and Canada. 
• Foreign investment in Alabama was responsible for 7.2 percent of the state's total private-industry employment in 2021.

Alabama’s Major Metropolitan Areas Benefit from Exporting

In 2022 (latest data available), the following metropolitan areas in Alabama recorded goods exports: Tuscaloosa ($9.2 billion), Columbus ($7.6 billion), Mobile ($3.1 billion), Decatur ($2.6 billion), Columbus ($2.4 billion), Birmingham-Hoover ($1.8 billion), Daphne-Fairhope-Foley ($1.8 billion), Huntsville ($1.6 billion), Montgomery ($1.1 billion), Columbus ($564 million), Decatur ($400.6 million), Anniston-Oxford ($363.7 million), and Dothan ($185.6 million).