2022 ANNUAL REPORT SUBMITTED TO NATIONAL FTZ BOARD

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2022 Indicators Show Continued Growth in Employment, Shipments and Exports

In 2022 FTZ #176 included nine activated operators:

  • Bergstrom Inc., in Rockford, Winnebago County
  • Brake Parts, in McHenry, McHenry County
  • Cellusuede Products Inc., in Rockford, Winnebago County
  • Chicago Importing Company, in Huntley, McHenry County
  • Leading Americas, in Hampshire, Kane County
  • Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas, in Marengo, McHenry County
  • PCI Pharma Services, in Rockford, Winnebago County
  • Schenker, Rockford, Winnebago County
  • Staal & Plast, in Sycamore, DeKalb County

Economic indicators across all FTZ sites show continued growth across a 5-year period (2017 – 2022):

  • 19% increase in employment
  • 1,104% increase in the total value of shipments from FTZs
  • 59% increase in total exports from FTZs

Operators report these zone benefits (edited to remove company identifying information and for clarity):

  • As the competition in our industry is greater each year, our FTZ status has allowed us to be competitive with our overseas competition by eliminating taxes and duties.
  • The benefits realized from having FTZ status has helped our company to maintain American jobs and helped level the playing field against foreign competitors.
  • The re-boxing and breakdown of our products allows the company to conduct this activity in the United States using domestic facilities and workforce.
  • Having this ability allows for greater flexibility and competitiveness, which means the company can elect to conduct the activity in the United States, as necessary, rather than rely on overseas providers of the kitted items.
  • Our company is able to produce lower cost, high quality products due to the inverted tariff rate. The duty rate assigned to finished product is 0%, while component parts have duty ranging from 0% to 9%.

In 2021 (2022 data is not yet released), cargo numbers grew 25%, with over 3.4 billion pounds of landed weight traveling through RFD compared to 2.7 billion pounds in 2020. The leading driver of cargo growth was the increase in the number of cargo flights, in addition to the new international cargo operations at RFD. For the 5-years between 2016 – 2021, exports from the Rockford MSA saw a 11% CAGR with Rockford now the 72nd largest metropolitan exporter in 2021.

Companies in the FTZ 176 Service Area use the foreign-trade zone in traditional ways, including inverted tariff benefits and cash flow savings. In addition, we have several operators that specialize in FDA regulated products, conducting research and development operations and providing specialty packaging for imported products that are pre-FDA approval.