PERTH (miningweekly.com) – New research by specialist financier Efic has revealed cautious optimism amongst Australia’s small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) exporters, including miners.

Efic reported on Thursday that about 40% of exporting SMEs expected increased sales over the next 13 months, with the majority of participants also expecting the profitability of their international operations to remain at current levels.

A further 32% of respondents expected profitability to improve over the next year.

“Exporting SMEs are cautiously confident for the year ahead, a sentiment that appears to be driven by the falling Australian dollar, as well as better business conditions and improved demand in export markets,” said Efic MD Andrew Hunter.

Other factors driving this optimism included perceived better business conditions and improved demand in export markets, with 22% of respondents experiencing better conditions, as well as 16% of exporters reporting plans to introduce new products or services.

Hunter pointed out that despite this optimism, exporting SMEs did not expect to be hiring more staff, with only 11% believing their headcount will increase in the next 12 months and 78% expecting their headcount to remain at existing levels.

Despite the positive outlook, financing remained a concern for the SME sector, with the Efic research pointing out that 29% of exporters were anticipating access to finance to become increasingly difficult over the next 12 months.

Company size was important in this aspect, Hunter noted, with 76% of respondents with less than A$1-million turnover expecting access to finance to become more difficult in the next 12 months, up from 62% in June. This number is 1% for those with a turnover of more than A$20-million.

“Access to finance continues to be a challenge for SMEs; however, it’s positive to note there are a number of organisations, including Efic, available to assist SMEs with overcoming these challenges in order that they can achieve success overseas,” Hunter said.

Efic’s latest report, which surveyed 859 SME exporters, is the third of a quarterly series conducted by the company.