US | Thu Jul 30, 2015 3:06pm EDT

GE may ship $10 billion in work overseas as U.S. trade bank languishes

WASHINGTON | BY DAVID LAWDER

General Electric Co is taking steps to shift some U.S. manufacturing work overseas now that the U.S. Export-Import Bank will be shuttered at least until September, the industrial giant's global operations boss told Reuters on Thursday.

GE Vice Chairman John Rice said the conglomerate is bidding on over $10 billion worth of projects that require support from an export credit agency (ECA) like Ex-Im.

With Ex-Im unable to extend new loans or guarantees thanks to an effort by congressional Republicans to shut it down, GE is arranging with ECAs in other countries to finance the deals involved, with much of the production going to GE plants in those foreign locations. The prospective government partners include Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China and Hungary, he said.

"We're submitting the tenders now. So we are identifying where we'll bid this and the ECA support that comes with it, and it's not in the United States," Rice told Reuters in a telephone interview from Atlanta

Ex-Im has been unable to consider any new financing requests since Congress allowed the bank's charter to expire on June 30.

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