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
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.
