"We're seeing large growth in Canada," said John C. Fitzgerald, executive vice president of the locally based manufacturer. "It's directly attributable to the weakening U.S. dollar."

Products from the United States are becoming cheaper overseas as the dollar loses value -- the Canadian currency has gained about 17 percent so far this year against the U.S. dollar while the euro is up 12 percent since Jan. 1 -- but not every U.S. manufacturer is benefiting.

At Blasch Precision Ceramics in Menands, President Dave Bobreck said exports to the United Kingdom are up 40 percent this year alone, and to Germany they're up 25 percent.

But about 50 miles north, Clint Binley of Pallets Inc. in Fort Edward is paying more for the Canadian lumber that goes into his pallets. Many of the sources he depended on in the Adirondacks are no longer in business, thanks to the Canadian competition when that country's currency was far less valuable.

Now, higher gasoline prices would offset any savings realized from buying lumber from U.S. mills farther away, Binley said.

Somewhere in the middle lies Gurley Precision Instruments in Troy, where the weaker dollar is "helping and hurting," said Martin Gordinier, chief operating officer at the 160-year-old manufacturer.

"We have joint ventures in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Vilnius, Lithuania, and we bring in raw materials and parts priced in euros," he said. "It's a double-edged sword, always has been."

Gordinier said U.S. companies have spent the last decade "offshoring" and "outsourcing" -- moving production overseas and finding less expensive foreign suppliers -- to reduce costs.

Now, with even the Chinese renminbi beginning to edge higher against the U.S. dollar and shipping costs climbing, companies like Gurley are looking at other ways to control expenses.

"One of the benefits of our business model is we can produce a good number of components in-house as well as at our overseas" plants, Gordinier said.

At Gurley's massive red-brick headquarters in downtown Troy, 100 employees work with precision tools to assemble a range of test instruments, digital readouts, positioning sensors, scales, optics and optical components. The privately held company has sales of $12 million to $15 million annually, Gordinier said.

While individual companies are constrained by existing supply chains, the weakening dollar has helped the state's overseas trade.

"The weakening dollar definitely boosts exports," said Richard Deitz, chief economist of the Buffalo Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. "It's like a discount for the products.

"For manufacturers selling to Europe, the weakening dollar has been a boost to be able to be competitive in these markets," he said.

Comfortex's Fitzgerald said less than 20 percent of the company's window shades are exported. But that's changing.

"We're seeing a pretty substantial increase in our export sales," he said, adding that it was also easier to increase prices with overseas customers, thanks to the stronger currencies.