Expansion continues.

• Author: Gerhart, Clifford
• Position: Alaska exports - Includes related article - Year-End Trade Report - Industry Overview

The value of Alaska's exports rose again last year, according to tallies reported by the University of Alaska Anchorage's Alaska Center for International Business (ACIB). Exports of Alaska goods, worth $4.4 billion in 1991, marked a 22 percent increase over the prior year's $3.6 billion. Seafood and petroleum product sales rose. While timber transactions slipped, coal held steady. Mineral exports climbed as a result of a reporting change.

Exports classified as "other" climbed most steeply in 1991, jumping 65 percent from the 1990 value to a total of $1.5 billion. All but $70 million of this category reflects export via air cargo of products manufactured in the Lower 48 and shipped through Alaska. Most of these goods are transported through Anchorage International Airport, the largest-volume air-cargo airport in North America.

Alaska's air-cargo exports have increased nearly 800 percent since 1989, when companies such as Federal Express began using Anchorage as a distribution center for international shipments, according to Bill Aberle, coordinator for the Information Services Program operated by ACIB in Anchorage. ACIB export tallies indicate that air-cargo exports now account for about 33 percent of total state exports.

Alaska's chief export commodity, seafood, represented roughly 35 percent of the total value of 1991 exports. "There was quite a transformation in seafood, with large increases in bottomfish and crab," says Aberle. In 1991, the value of seafood exports climbed 9 percent to $1.6 billion, despite sharp decreases in volume and price of salmon exports.

The volume of salmon decreased more than 16,000 metric tons last year, while lower prices reduced the salmon's export value to $212 million, down $158 million from 1990. For the first time, salmon did not top the seafood export list; exceeding the value of salmon exports were crab ($349 million), fish roe ($220.7 million) and TABULAR DATA OMITTED fishsticks and surimi ($322.5 million).

Weak timber and pulp prices drove the value of timber exports down 13 percent in 1991. Spruce logs and timber dipped $10 million to $157 million, although volume rose. Only pulp and wood chips brought more money in 1991 than 1990; the value of pulp doubled to $4.6 million and wood chips quadrupled to $8 million.

Eric Downey, a research associate with ACIB, says, "Japanese demand is down tremendously, back to '85 levels. But supply problems in Washington and Oregon cushioned the effect of a falling market." Downey points out that Alaska suffered its own supply problems, and three sawmills -- at Klawock, Haines and Seward -- remain closed.

Petroleum product exports increased to $611 million, up 36 percent from 1990's $448 million. Sales of liquid natural gas, heavy fuel oils and urea contributed to the trade expansion.

Alaska's mineral exports posted a 22...