ISRI member MGK International, Inc. has received the President’s “E” Award for Exports, the highest honor given to U.S. exporters. Dipan Patel, business manager at MGK International, accepted the award on July 13 at a ceremony at the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C. MGK was one of 19 U.S. organizations awarded the President’s “E” or “E Star” Award. These awards are the highest recognition a U.S. entity can receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports.
The “E” awards were initiated in 1961 by Executive Order of President John F. Kennedy to revive the World War II “E” symbol of excellence to honor and provide recognition to America’s exporters.
In her official remarks at the ceremony, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo stated, “Today’s E Awards winners contributed to nearly a billion and a half dollars of exports in goods and services from 2018 through 2021. Exporting world-class American products overseas isn’t just essential for our domestic economy, it’s also vital for our global economic competitiveness.”
MGK was among the award recipients she highlighted in her remarks, recognizing the company’s work exporting recycled metals and polymers.
“It was a speechless moment for me,” Patel says. “Just to see all the hard work rewarded. To have the U.S. government recognize us and recognize our business. It was a proud moment of my life, no one gets this kind of chance easily.”
In Sept. 2021, Patel received an Export Achievement Certificate from the U.S. Commercial Service (CS) recognizing his efforts for exports of recycled lead cullet from cathode-ray tubes (CRT) to South Korea. The certificate also recognized the company’s outstanding performance of $2 million worth of ferrous and nonferrous recycled metal exported to Taiwan.
“All of our efforts [during the pandemic] gave us a tremendous push,” Patel adds. “So that means even during COVID-19 we weren’t down, we weren’t slow, we found other markets to export recycled commodities to.”
Established in Princeton, N.J., MGK is part of the MTC Group based in Mumbai, India. MTC Group has been active in ferrous, nonferrous, and ferroalloy metal trading for the past 40 years, and has branches in India, Europe, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. In addition to recycled metal trading, the group has 14 Indian metal recycling facilities.
Photos courtesy of MGK International. Caption: Dipan Patel, business manager at MGK International accepts the President’s “E” Award from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo at award ceremony on July 13.
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