Albany Port Exports of High-Machinery Climb to 6-Year High
A Schenectady manufacturing employee inspects a generator. Courtesy GE Vernova
Highlights
- Albany-area port exports of high-tech machinery totaled $134.3 million in 2025.
- Annual high-tech machinery exports were up 135% — highest level in six years.
- Major export destinations included Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Korea, and Australia.
- Export growth followed GE Vernova’s $170M+ in Schenectady County investments.
- Schenectady County machinery employment rose by 395 jobs over two years.
Albany-area port exports of high-tech machinery climbed to a six-year high in 2025, amid strong demand from Saudi Arabia, Australia and South Korea, according to a Center for Economic Growth (CEG) analysis of U.S. Census Bureau trade data.
Fueled, in part, by several trade deals between GE Vernova and customers abroad, Albany-area port exports of high-tech machinery1 totaled $134.3 million in 2025. When taking inflation into account2, that marked an annual increase of 135.4 percent and the highest export value for this commodity category since 2018.
GE VERNOVA
The increase in machinery exports came amid GE Vernova’s $41 million investment at its Schenectady plant to expand generator capacity. That initiative involved the expansion of the company’s Center of Excellence for Steam and Generator assembly and testing. The investment spurred the creation of 50 jobs and continued GE Vernova’s “work to build gas power capacity and help meet global energy needs.”
This GE Vernova investment in Schenectady came on top of $50 million in 2023 for a new manufacturing line and $80 million in January 2025 for gas power and onshore wind work. Those earlier investments were projected to create 300 jobs. Between Q3 2023 and Q3 2025, employment in Schenectady County’s machinery manufacturing subsector has increased by 395 jobs, according to New York State Department of Labor (DOL) data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW).
Saudi Arabia
Three months before GE Vernova announced these investments at its Schenectady plant, it announced $14.2 billion in initiatives to accelerate Saudi Arabia’s energy transition with U.S. technology and expertise. That included $2 billion in backlog or on a reservation agreement, as well as four years worth of future contracts and memorandums of understanding (MOUs) for agreements. GE Vernova highlighted a collaboration with the Saudi Electric Company for highly efficient and flexible heavy duty gas turbines manufactured in Greenville, South Carolina. That machinery is commonly paired with hydrogen-cooled generators made in Schenectady.
With $57.6 million in exports, Saudi Arabia was the top destination for goods shipped from Albany-area ports. That included $47.1 million worth of “electric generating sets” and $10 million in “parts of electric motors, generators and sets.” The last time Saudi Arabia was the No. 1 export destination for Albany-area ports was 2008.
Australia, South Korea, Brazil
In 2025, the No. 2 destination for goods shipped from Albany-area ports was Australia, with $50.8 million in exports—the most to that country in 11 years. That included $37 million in wind-powered generators and motor/engine parts that were shipped to Australia. In September 2024, GE Vernova signed an agreement to supply turbines for Australia’s 228 MW Boulder Creek Wind Farm. And in December 2025, GE Vernova signed another agreement to supply turbines for Australia’s 256 MW Carmody’s Hill Wind Farm.
Alternator, or alternating current generator, technology was also in demand, with $8 million of that machinery being shipped to South Korea and $6.5 million to Brazil.
Machinery Manufacturing Employment
GE Vernova’s investments in Schenectady have pushed manufacturing employment in Schenectady County to its highest level since early 2019, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) series. As of Q3 2025, the county’s machinery manufacturing sector employed 2,112 workers, according to the New York DOL QCEW data.
Over the last two years, several GE Vernova suppliers have also relocated to Schenectady County, including Outage Technology Solutions, Energy Hardware, and Pearce Renewables.
Notes
1 “High-tech machinery” refers to machinery and parts classified under Section XVI of the Harmonized System (HS) Codes, which includes machinery and mechanical appliances and parts.
2 Chained 2017 dollars.
CEG INITIATIVES
As a New York State Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) center, CEG Manufacturing Solutions helps Capital Region manufacturers increase their productivity by providing a menu of technical support services, such as Lean Enterprise Training, ISO Certification Assistance, Technology-Driven Market Intelligence, workforce development, and CoreValue benchmarking assessments.
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