Utah's technology-related exports grew at the second-fastest rate among states from 2006 to 2007, according to a report released Tuesday.

The nonprofit trade association AeA, formerly the American Electronics Association, said Utah tech exports grew $339 million last year, boosted by a more-than-triple jump in exports of semiconductors. Utah's international high-tech trade totaled $1.1 billion in 2007, with Utah trailing only Hawaii in year-over-year percentage growth. Utah was behind only Virginia, Florida, Idaho and New Jersey when measuring the dollar increase.

The statistics are part of the association's high-tech international trade study covering 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Utah international semiconductor trade grew from $177 million in 2006 to $623 million in 2007, the report said. Utah's biggest export destinations in 2007 were Singapore, with $180 million; China, at $176 million; and Taiwan, at $143 million. The Philippines and Canada round out the top five export countries for Utah.

"Utah had a great year in terms of high-tech export growth," Therese Ivancovich, consultant for AeA's Mountain States Council, said in a prepared statement. "This is particularly critical to the state's economy because high-tech exports support 4,500 Utah jobs. Our semiconductor industry is booming. Singapore and China are rapidly growing export destinations for Utah. Ensuring open access to overseas markets is integral for the state's ability to sustain the growth of high-tech exports that we saw in 2007."

The report said that 14 percent of Utah exports last year were high-tech, ranking Utah 26th among states. Utah was 15th among semiconductor exporters, at $623 million; 21st in exporting electromedical equipment, $166 million; and 35th in industrial electronics exports, $143 million.

Twenty-nine states had tech export growth in 2007. California had $48.2 billion in tech exports to lead all states, but that was down from $51.8 million in 2006.

Nationally, high-tech exports totaled $214 billion in 2007, down 3 percent year over year and representing 18 percent of all U.S. exports. Those exports supported 894,000 U.S. jobs. The association said high-tech imports totaled $333 billion last year, up 3 percent.

While five of eight high-tech sectors saw growth slip last year, the leading sectors — communications equipment and electromedical equipment — both grew 9 percent.

High tech represented the United States' largest export sector in 2007, accounting for 18 percent of total U.S. exports. The largest markets were the European Union, Canada, Mexico, China and Japan. U.S. imports of high-tech items came mostly from China, Mexico, the European Union, Japan and Malaysia.

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