Sherrod Brown, EXIM Bank leader Lewis tout Crown Battery's export success

FREMONT — For more than a decade, Crown Battery has worked with the Export-Import Bank (EXIM) of the United States to help the company export its locally manufactured recyclable lead-acid batteries to more than 60 countries around the globe.

The company has celebrated three major expansions since 2009 and now employs approximately 625 people.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Reta Jo Lewis, EXIM's president and chair of its board of directors, paid a visit to Crown Battery's Fremont facility Monday to get a closer look at its production process and promote the bank's efforts to get more Ohio companies into new overseas markets.

They'd like to replicate Crown Battery's success with exports.

Sherrod Brown calls Crown Battery a leader in working with EXIM

Brown said Crown Battery has been a leader in working with EXIM to reach global markets and boosting its production at home at the company's Fremont site..

The senator said too many American companies in the last 20 years have been on what he called "a scavenger hunt" worldwide to find cheap labor, weak environmental laws and minimal protections for workers.

"Our supply chain is spread out all over the world and we're paying for it now," Brown said after he and Lewis toured the company's Fremont plant. " And companies like Crown that understand that they create a lot of wealth in this community and pay decent wages, better than decent wages if you look at competitive companies in the area, and they care a lot about exporting."

Brown said company officials told him and Lewis about a Crown Battery project coming soon in South Africa.

Crown Battery designs, manufactures and distributes batteries, chargers, and accessories for various industries.

Staying competitive in global market

John Connell, Crown Battery's SLI Products Group vice president, said the company does export business in 65 countries on six continents.

"We really value and appreciate what you're doing for Crown Battery and companies like Crown in Ohio to help us stay competitive in the global economy," Connell said to Brown and Lewis.

Connell said EXIM helps customers finance purchases of Crown Battery products, which include renewable energy storage systems and batteries used in electric vehicles and golf carts.

The company also has an industrial products group that makes products for electric lift trucks, material handling, underground mining equipment and railroad locomotives.

Eastern Europe and the Balkan countries are some of the tougher foreign markets to access, Connell said, with an overall lack of government protections on conducting business and trade in that part of the world.

EXIM is the official export credit agency of the United States and an independent executive branch agency with a mission of supporting American jobs by facilitating the export of U.S. goods and services.

The federal agency offers financing that includes export credit insurance, working capital guarantees, loan guarantees, and direct loans. 

New EXIM leader's first visit to Ohio

Lewis said she had was making her first trip to Ohio since taking the helm at EXIM less than two months ago.

She and Brown also visited NeoGraf Solutions in Lakewood earlier in the day.

Lewis said she wanted to promote the new Make More in America Initiative, which she and other government officials hope will help spur manufacturing in critical sectors to strengthen the resiliency of the country's supply chains. 

Crown Battery has been one of the "case study" companies that has successfully worked with EXIM for more than 20 years, Lewis said.

"They are right here on the ground, telling their story. We can see it with our own eyes," Lewis said.

Brown said there are 80-90 export credit agencies and credit programs around the world that support foreign manufacturers.

China’s export finance activity is larger than all of the export credit provided by the G7 countries combined, according to Brown's office.

Access to hard-to-reach markets

Paul Zito, vice president of international development for Toledo-based Regional Growth Partnership, said EXIM helps Northwest Ohio exporters gain access to markets that may have been previously difficult to reach.

Zito said European and Asian companies may get government subsidies and other advantages that allow them to undercut U.S. companies on prices.

EXIM, through its financing and insurance programs, allows U.S. companies to be on a more level playing field, Zito said.

He said EXIM has helped more than 200 small and medium-sized Ohio businesses over the last several years with their export sales.

"I know at least a dozen in Northwest Ohio that have benefitted from EXIM," Zito said.

Zito said EXIM has helped regional companies with financing on automotive, energy, agricultural and food product exports

In September 2021, EXIM awarded its “Deal of the Year” to Perrysburg's First Solar for the export of its thin-film solar panels to the Zacapa solar energy project in Guatemala.

One of EXIM’s first transactions in support of distributed solar power, the project saw EXIM approve an 18-year guarantee of an $8.7 million loan.

First Solar'’s thinfilm solar panels will be exported to the Zacapa 9.5MW solar power

project to supply power to a paper mill in Rio Hondo, Guatemala, according to the 2021 EXIM Annual Report.

dacarson@gannett.com

419-334-1046

Twitter: @DanielCarson7