Ex-Im Bank Adds to Record-Level Support for American Satellite Industry, Authorizes $343.3 Million Loan Financing AsiaSat’s Purchase of Communications Satellites and Launch Services
June 3, 2013
(Ex-Im Bank)
Latest Ex-Im Satellite Authorization Supports an Estimated 2,400 U.S. Jobs
Washington, D.C. – The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has
authorized a $343.3 million direct loan to Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co.
Ltd. (AsiaSat) to finance the purchase of two communications satellites designed
and built by Space Systems/Loral LLC (SSL) in Palo Alto, Calif.
AsiaSat 6, a C-band satellite, and AsiaSat 8, a mixed Ku/Ka-band satellite, are
being manufactured by SSL under a contract that was announced in November 2011.
The launches are planned for the first half of 2014.
Ex-Im Bank's financing also will support launch services supplied by Space
Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in Hawthorne, Calif., and launch
insurance from Marsh USA Inc. in New York, N.Y.
Ex-Im's satellite financing is its fastest-growing portfolio. In Fiscal Year
2013 to date, the Bank has authorized $891 million in support of U.S. satellites
and related services. Ex-Im Bank has financed approximately 60 percent of U.S.
commercial satellite sales in the last three years.
"The satellite industry is the quintessential 21st-century business. Worldwide
demand for satellite-based telecommunications is expanding, and with Ex-Im's
support, more and more of these satellites are made in America. Ex-Im Bank's
financing of these SSL communications satellites and SpaceX launch services is
further expanding the global reach of U.S. satellite companies and helping to
sustain thousands of jobs in California and New York," said Ex-Im Bank Chairman
and President Fred P. Hochberg.
The export sale is supporting approximately 2,400 U.S. jobs, according to an
Ex-Im Bank estimate derived from U.S. Departments of Commerce and Labor data and
methodology.
"More than half of the communications satellites built at SSL in Palo Alto are
manufactured for export," said SSL President John Celli. "We appreciate Ex-Im
Bank's support of U.S.-manufacturers and the space industry. The satellites that
we are providing to AsiaSat help create jobs and keep hundreds of highly skilled
engineers, technicians and managers employed."
AsiaSat is a satellite operator headquartered in Hong Kong that was established
in 1988 and currently has a fleet of four satellites that provide transponder
capacity for services in more than 50 countries across the Asia-Pacific region,
covering over two-thirds of the world's population. AsiaSat provides
telecommunications operators and end-users with services that include voice
networks, private very small-aperture terminal (VSAT) networks and broadband
multimedia services. The company also serves more than 150 public and private
television and radio broadcasters worldwide that offer in excess of 450
television and radio channels.
SSL is a satellite and space-systems manufacturer that currently has more
satellite capacity on orbit than any other manufacturer. Beginning with the
world's first active-repeater communications satellite launched in 1960, SSL has
manufactured more than 250 satellites. The company has 2,800 employees at its
manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, Calif.
SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The
company was founded in 2002 to advance space transportation and today provides
services with its family of Falcon launch vehicles and Dragon spacecraft, which
have delivered cargo to and from the International Space Station. The company
has more than 3,000 employees in California, Texas, Washington, D.C., and
Florida.
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