U.S. export credit agency is working through $5 billion pipeline of space financing, vice chair says

PARIS – The U.S. export credit agency is working through a $5 billion pipeline of functions associated to the space business, as firms look to fund tasks in orbit in a tighter capital market.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States, or EXIM, is no stranger to financing space tasks corresponding to satellite tv for pc and rocket merchandise. EXIM usually sees extra functions throughout more durable financial occasions, as the earlier bulk of its financing for the space sector got here between 2010 and 2015.

“In our pipeline associated to this business, about $1.3 billion are prone to come to fruition inside a yr and one other $4 billion that we’re are rather less additional alongside,” Judith Pryor, EXIM’s first vice president and vice chair of the board of administrators, mentioned on Monday on the 2023 World Satellite Business Week convention.

EXIM has helped U.S. space companies win contracts for overseas entities, particularly to offer an additional edge when they’re competing with China.

Pryor mentioned EXIM is more and more seeing functions from firms constructing low Earth orbit satellite tv for pc networks, often known as LEO constellations, for companies corresponding to communications and imagery. The financial institution acts as a substitute lender to assist U.S. firms and examines “every particular person transaction by itself deserves” quite than concentrate on particular areas of the space business, Pryor mentioned.

“We do not discriminate. We do not decide winners or losers,” Pryor mentioned.