Looking abroad: Variety of Iowa products sold overseas

A  sawmill and lumber company in Winthrop, a Cedar Rapids producer of propylene film and a Mason City ID tag supplier might seem to be unlikely exporters, but they have a couple of things in common.

All three businesses sell their products domestically and abroad. They also have used the services of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, which is facing potential extinction.

The government-run Ex-Im Bank provides direct loans, loan guarantees and credit insurance to help foreign buyers purchase American-made products. The bank's charter expires in September and its reauthorization is a subject of intense political debate.

Wieland & Sons Lumber Co., a second-generation, family-owned business, exports veneer logs and kiln-dried hardwood lumber to customers in 30 countries.

'We started some exporting in the late 1980s to Canada,” said Ted Wieland, president of the company. 'We've been real strong in exporting for about the last 15 years.

'We export different species, grades and sizes to Europe - Denmark, France, Spain and Portugal. We have a big customer in Korea, and south China also is a good market, with most of it going into Hong Kong. That's about 50-50 logs and lumber.”

Wieland, who owns the business with his brothers Dean and Jeff, said logs typically are purchased from farms and logging crews within a 100-mile radius of Winthrop. Ted Wieland grades every log when it arrives, deciding whether it is suitable for lumber or veneer.

'My father, Harlyn Wieland, began the business in 1948 with a portable sawmill, cutting trees for farmers,” Wieland said. 'We did that until about 1972, when I got out of college and we set the sawmill up stationary on our farm. We operated there until about 1990,” when the business moved to its current location at 644 220th St.

Wieland said the company, which also operates a mill in Wisconsin, loads veneer logs and kiln-dried lumber into shipping containers that are trucked to Chicago. From there, they move by rail to either the East or West coasts for shipping to their final destination.

While it has purchased export insurance from the Ex-Im Bank, Wieland said the company relies on strong relationships with its overseas customers.

'On any new customers, we require them to pay for the product before it's loaded on the truck,” Wieland said.

American Profol in Cedar Rapids, which has been exporting for at least 15 years, initially shipped cast propylene film to China, where it was used to make a variety of products.

'We were able to grow that business sufficiently to the point where the company built a plant in China,” said Mark Thoeny, American Profol president. 'We supply raw film to our customers who convert it to make their products.

'We regularly export to Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Mexico. We also have shipped film to a customer in Australia.”

Thoeny said American Profol ships film to Fruit of the Loom plants in El Salvador where the film is printed and converted into bags. The bags then are filled with underwear, sealed and shipped to retailers in the United States.

'Most of the film that we ship to Mexico stays in that country. Some of the DVD film that we ship to Brazil comes back to the United States as packaging for DVDs.”

'We have a customer in Colombia for our graphic film. They print a logo on our product (the film) and mold it into a plastic table.”

Thoeny said American Profol has purchased receivables insurance from the Ex-Im Bank to ensure payment from customers in regions where it would be difficult to arrange terms.

'We have customers in Manaus, Brazil, that is four days' travel by boat up the Amazon River,” Thoeny said. 'They frequently don't get their film until 90 days after it has left our plant.

'They want payment terms beyond 90 days, and if you're a small company, it can be very difficult to extend lengthy terms.”

Metalcraft Inc. in Mason City produces metal identification tags found on everything from computers to sophisticated tooling. The company's domestic and overseas sales grew sharply with the addition of radio frequency identification tags - RFID.

Metalcraft President Steve Doerfler said his company has found alternatives to Ex-Im Bank receivables insurance to ensure payment for products that the company sells abroad.

'About 15 percent of our business is exporting,” Doerfler said. 'We were initially concerned when we heard that Congress might not renew the Ex-Im Bank's charter. We have since talked with aggregators and brokers who can recommend sources very similar to the Ex-Im Bank” - such as large banks with international offices.

Democrats almost uniformly support reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank's charter. But Republicans are split, with many conservatives opposing the bank as an example of 'corporate welfare,” crony capitalism or of the government's picking winners and losers in the marketplace.