New data out this week reveal record-breaking trends for the Export-Import Bank and a major uptick in U.S. export growth. In the current fiscal year to date, Ex-Im has authorized $17.4 billion in transactions to support American exporters. Our financing has supported 150,000 U.S. jobs over that time span. This is already the second-largest year in our 76-year history—and it is only July. We are on pace to set a new Bank record for total loan authorizations in 2010.

New data released by the Commerce Department this week showed that Ex-Im’s activity is yielding impressive results. Exports of U.S. goods and services increased by 17.7 percent during the first five months of 2010, compared to the same period last year. If this trend continues, we will meet President Obama’s goal of doubling our exports in five years.

A big reason for Ex-Im’s record-breaking year has been our strategic focus on countries that are growing in industrial sectors where U.S. exporters have a comparative advantage. Ex-Im has identified nine key countries with the greatest export opportunity, and we are reaping the benefits of a financing strategy tailored to countries and sectors that suit our strengths.

The Commerce report shows big gains in many of the countries where we are focused. Compared to last May, exports are up 43 percent to Indonesia, 38 percent to Colombia, 37 percent to Brazil, 32 percent to Mexico and 23 percent to India.

One industry sector posting big export gains is electrical machinery, up 27 percent from last May. We are particularly proud of our work to support environmentally beneficial exports to developing economies across the world. We helped the Texas-based Alamo Group export mowers and street sweepers to make the streets cleaner in Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and Australia, and we helped Richmond Aircraft ship wind power equipment to a buyer in Brazil.

Ex-Im expects heightened demand for our products and services to continue due to the global credit contraction, the banking regulatory environment and macro-economic rebalancing trends. For a more detailed breakdown of our strategy for continued growth, read the Bank’s five-year strategic plan published this month.

President Obama last week confirmed that the National Export Initiative has made strong progress in its goal to create two million jobs in five years by increasing sales at the first meeting of the President’s Export Council at the White House.

“The Export-Import Bank has more than doubled its loans in [six months] in support of American exporters,” the President noted, “and that step alone has supported nearly 110,000 American jobs.”

With small business increasingly driving job growth across the nation, Ex-Im is dramatically expanding its commitments to the sector. In the first week of July, our Small Business Group reported on plans and schedules for implementing sweeping changes in our small-business product lines, including a doubling the volume of authorizations in short-term working capital and insurance to 5,000 transactions over the next 12 to 24 months.

The effort is driven by a combination of improved automation and systematization of functions to cut the turnaround time by 50 percent for small business working capital loans. For trade-credit insurance approval, our goal is a maximum turnaround time of 72 hours.

Another big change is the Bank’s willingness to take more risk. Ex-Im will be working with new private-sector intermediaries to help small businesses get approval on viable applications deemed too risky for banks and insurers in the current lending environment. We will also implement a new portfolio-management system to help develop real-time responses to changes in market conditions and intensify our collaboration with other federal agencies serving small businesses.

Last month, I visited the factory floor of Stolle Machinery in Centennial, Colo., to announce the approval of Ex-Im’s first-ever direct loan to Saudi Arabia to help a uniquely American company that makes the equipment used to manufacture aluminum and steel beverage cans, including the iconic Coors can.

With Ex-Im’s support, the Denver-area company will be exporting equipment to MSCC in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which will make 800 million cans that hold soft drinks, juice and vitamin water. The transaction will generate $34 million in new revenue for Stolle and help preserve the jobs of the 230 workers employed at its plants in Centennial and Inglewood, according to Stolle’s CEO.

MSCC wanted to do business with Stolle because it makes a superior product. Their machines work longer, harder and better than their competitors—churning 24 hours a day, 340 days a year.

An Illinois small business recently completed a transaction, made possible by Ex-Im financing, to help power the transportation sector of Brazil’s growing, dynamic economy.

Holland L.P. of Crete, Ill., a small-business manufacturer of railroad equipment, utilized an Ex-Im insurance policy to support its sale of two complete, in-track welding systems to refurbish a railroad track in Tocantins State in central Brazil. The sale would not have gone through without Ex-Im financing, said Holland CFO Frank J. Francis.

Brazil is one of the key markets where Ex-Im Bank is focusing its export financing support because of the myriad opportunities the country’s growing economy offers American companies. The sale will help support 250 jobs at the facility in Crete, according to Francis.