WASHINGTON — The weak dollar has made it easier for U.S. manufacturers of parts for appliances, automobiles and other equipment to compete globally on price and is helping them win back business lost to overseas competitors, a shift that economists say should help the country's economic recovery. Last year, as the financial crisis hit a crescendo, investors poured money into U.S. Treasury securities, long considered one of the safest investments. That caused the dollar's value to skyrocket, putting U.S. companies with heavy export businesses at a pricing disadvantage compared with competitors abroad. More recently, as the global economy has shown signs of a turnaround, investors have been spreading their risks and putting money into stocks and bonds around the world. That strategy has pushed the value of the dollar back down and has helped U.S. manufacturers compete with producers in Asia and Europe. The dollar rose 25 percent between April 2008 and March 2009 relative to a basket of other major currencies, then started its steady slide. The dollar's value has rallied again during the past three weeks but is still off that March high by more than 10 percent. The lingering weakness "helps the poor, beleaguered exporter whose goods are becoming more competitively priced in the global market," said Cliff Waldman, an economist with the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI Inc. The greenback's slide is part of the reason that U.S. exports were 12 percent higher in October than in April, and is a factor in the nation's industrial output having risen steadily for five straight months. In a recent nationwide survey of major manufacturers that buy tools and parts from smaller suppliers, 47 percent said they were doing more business in the U.S. as a direct result of the dollar's decline, according to Mfg.com, a Web site that links suppliers and manufacturers. Some products once outsourced to Asia are now coming back to the United States because of the weaker dollar, long lead times in shipping and complaints about the quality of foreign-made parts, according to Keith Adams, a general manager at sheet-metal parts maker C.G. Tech. The Phoenix-based company has tripled its export business during the past eight months to just under $1 million, driven by a surge in orders for hardware for TV mounts. "For big companies, their goal is always cost and finding the lowest possible price," he said. "But some are finding they spend an exorbitant amount of time getting things that aren't of good quality from Asia and then having to ship them back to be fixed." C.G. Tech, which has 36 employees, makes products such as brackets for medical equipment and parts for fighter planes. Several years ago, it lost about $1 million worth of business to make avionic controls, engine components, and brackets and clips for a major aerospace company, but recently won that business back in part because of the declining dollar. Winning back some of the business from overseas has allowed the company to hire back about a dozen workers. "It was more cost-effective to go overseas with it," Adams said. "But in the last six to eight months we've started to win some of the business back from China in part because of the declining value of the dollar."

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