Illinois

 

 

Illinois’s leading export category is machinery manufactures.  Other top exports are transportation equipment, chemical manufactures, and computer and electronic products.

FINANCIAL

Illinois is home to over 2,300 commercial banks, nearly 1,000 savings institutions, over 500 credit unions and more than 2,000 insurance carriers, including approximately 175 of the nation's larger insurance carriers, Illinois has the financial strength and diversity to provide the capital resources necessary for industrial and commercial development.

In recent years, Chicago, Illinois’s largest city, has carved out a global niche for itself as the world’s derivatives trading center.  The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is the world’s largest and most diverse financial exchange, with over 1.4 billion contracts traded in 2007. 

The most prominent of Illinois' over 11,200 financial companies include:

• HSBC North America Inc.
• Northern Trust Corporation
• Household International.
• CME Group

HUMAN CAPITAL

• More than 150,000 scientists and engineers work in the state.
• World-class research universities include the University of Illinois, Northwestern University, and the University of Chicago.

TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE

• Illinois is home to 144 university-based research centers and 71 federal research centers.
• Argonne National Laboratory is the leading federal laboratory in the state, focusing on advanced materials, chemicals/energy technology and biotechnology.
• Illinois is also home to:
  • Fermi Lab
  • The National Center for Supercomputing Applications
  • The USDA National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research
  • The National Center for Food Safety
  • Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute
  • The Gas Technology Institute
  • 23 non-profit research centers
• Over 440 companies operate R&D facilities in the Chicago area.
• Illinois is home to 6 medical schools and 31 teaching hospitals.

MANUFACTURING IN ILLINOIS

• 11,800 manufacturers operate approximately 19,000 manufacturing plants in Illinois.
• Illinois is the nation's 4th largest industrial state, with Value Added manufacturing reaching $94.1 billion, 20% of the United State’s manufacturing output.
• Major Industries concentrated in Illinois include food, chemicals, machinery, fabricated metals, computers/electronic, plastics & rubber, and transportation equipment.

The following Fortune 500 manufactures are located in Illinois: Boeing, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Motorola , Caterpillar , Abbot Labs, Sara Lee , John Deere & Co., Illinois Tool Works , Baxter International, Smurfit-Stone Container, Navistar International, CDW

AGRICULTURE

Cash receipts for Illinois' agricultural commodities generate more than $8.3 billion annually. Corn accounts for nearly 40 percent of that total. Marketing of soybeans contributes nearly one-third, with the combined marketing of livestock, dairy and poultry generating about 22 percent. In addition:

• Illinois is home to more than 1,300 food-manufacturing companies.
• Food processing is the state's number-one manufacturing activity, adding almost $14 billion annually to the value of Illinois' raw agricultural commodities.
• Illinois' 73,000 farms cover more than 27.5 million acres -- nearly 76 percent of the state's total land area.
• Illinois is the #1 producer of soybeans in the nation.
• Illinois is the #2 producer of corn in the nation.
• Illinois ranks second nationally in the export of agricultural commodities with nearly $4 billion worth of goods shipped to other countries each year.
• Exports from Illinois account for nearly 7 percent of all U.S. agricultural exports.
• Illinois is the nation's second leading exporter of soybeans, feed grains and related products.
• More than 44 percent of grain produced in Illinois is sold for export.
• Illinois produces more horseradish than anywhere in the world, and accounts for 60% of the world’s production of the root. 

WAREHOUSING AND DISTRIBUTION

Illinois is a natural location for warehousing and distribution facilities. Nearly 300 of the Fortune 500 companies operate major regional or national distribution centers in Illinois.  Illinois’s central location in the U.S makes it a national crossroads for rail, auto, truck and air traffic. 

Sitting, quite literally, at the heart of the nation, Illinois boasts an infrastructure network that is unparalleled in the nation. From highways, to ports, to rail, to airports to navigable waterways, Illinois is the national center of business infrastructure.

HIGHWAYS AND ROADS

For businesses looking to transport goods over America’s highways, they will find no better location than Illinois:

• 2,164 miles of interstate highway serve Illinois (3^rd in the nation).
• Over a dozen Illinois communities are home to major east-west/north-south Interstate interchanges.
• Interstate highways are augmented by another 35,505 miles of state highways.
• 3 “coast-to-coast” interstates serve Illinois (I-70, I-80, & I-90).
• 5,900 motor carriers operate in Illinois.

RAIL

For businesses looking for access to rail transportation, Illinois, which sits at the center of the national rail network, is a national leader.

• Chicago is the largest rail gateway in the nation.
• East St. Louis, Illinois provides another major metropolitan rail hub.
• Two, new massive inter-modal rail centers (in Joliet and Rochelle) are open and provide over 3,000 developed acres for transshipment.
• More than two-dozen railroads provide service from Illinois to every part of the United States.

AIRPORTS

The central location of Illinois makes it a natural hub for air travel. From major air transportation centers like O'Hare International Airport, to the dozens of smaller airports that dot the downstate landscape, Illinois offers access to air transportation that is second to none.

• Illinois is home to the world's 2 nd busiest airport, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
• More than 1,100 heliports, landing areas, and smaller airports serve the state of Illinois.
• An airport with commercial airline service, or the capability to handle business jets, serves virtually every Illinois city with a population over 30,000
• With O'Hare averaging one arrival or departure every minute of the day, travelers have maximum scheduling flexibility in Illinois.

WATERWAYS & PORTS

From the mighty Mississippi to Illinois’s access to the Great Lakes, Illinois provides water access to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. These resources, along with various port districts, give businesses access to markets and opportunities for low cost warehousing of imports and exports.

• Illinois has 1,118 miles of navigable waterways linking to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
• The Port of Chicago offers terminals that handle ocean and lake vessels, as well as barges.
• The Lake Michigan port is served by four railroads and has access to Interstates 90 & 94.
• Over a dozen port districts serve Illinois.
• Two ports – the Illinois International Port District in Chicago and the Tri-City Port District in the Metro East region of St. Louis – are Foreign Trade Zones, providing low-cost production and warehousing facilities for imported and export-bound products.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

The most important infrastructure network for the 21 st century is telecommunications. In this area, Illinois is a natural leader, and can provide your business with the links needed to achieve maximum productivity.

• Illinois is the birthplace of many telecommunication technologies, from the nation's first electronic switching system, to the first commercial installation of an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN).
• Virtually the entire state has digital switching, allowing high quality, high speed and secure voice, data, and image communications with lower operating costs.
• Hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber optic cable have been laid in the state.
• All of the nation's major inter-exchange carriers have points of presence in the state, a presence which ensures access to service from rural businesses as well as metropolitan areas.
• Even with these state of the art services, Illinois still offers some of the lowest phone rates in the nation, giving you high quality telecommunications at a low price.

RETAIL

Illinois ranks third among the states in percent of national retail sales (5.3 percent).

LIFE SCIENCES

Illinois is home to many of the world's leaders with total sales around $47.5 bil. These companies include Abbott Laboratories, Baxter International, TAP Pharmaceuticals, Hospira, Akzo Nobel, Medline Industries, Dade Behring, Abraxis BioScience, etc

 

http://www.worldbusinesschicago.com/

www.illinoisbiz.biz/dceo/

America-Israel Chamber of Commerce

www.americaisrael.org

312-235-0586

Michael Schmitt, Director of Operations & Business Relations

 

Israeli Companies