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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