Dismayed by pace of domestic contracts, OSI looks overseas.

Disappointed by the slow pace of federal investment in homeland security technologies, OSI Systems Inc. is turning abroad, where governments have eagerly and quickly--been buying its systems.

The Hawthorne-based company has seen a spike in sales of its building-sized X-ray systems for examining cargo containers, a large portion of them to Asian nations.

Customs agencies in South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Romania, which already use OSI Systems' baggage screening technologies at their airports, have taken delivery of the company's X-ray systems.

Thanks to those orders, sales of the systems reached $31 million for the year ended June 30, accounting for 17 percent of OSI's $182.6 million in revenues. The year earlier, the systems generated just $4.5 million, less than 4 percent of revenues.

In June, two X-ray machines were delivered to the Customs and Excise Department of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for use at a border crossing between Hong Kong and the mainland. The system, which scans trucks and shows images of their cargo, cost $10 million.

"Instead of dealing with the hassles of it here, we set up check points in other nations. We are selling to Europe, Malaysia, and South Korea," said Sanjay Sabnani, OSI's director of business development and strategy.

The effort comes as state and local agencies have complained about the manner and speed with which the Department of Homeland Security has doled out funds for boosting emergency preparedness.

The American Association of Port Authorities, a trade association representing domestic ports, said only $100 million had been appropriated for port security as part of the 2004 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. It is seeking another $610 million to initiate its security upgrade plan, set to begin next summer.

The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest on the West Coast, has yet to acquire systems for the detection of weapons of mass destruction, said Martin Renteria, commanding officer of administration at the Los Angeles Port Police.

"The Port of L.A. has not bought anything because it falls under the responsibilities of U.S. Customs. Most of the systems in place do not detect radiation," said Renteria. "These technologies are necessary if you want to detect radiation."

Michael Fleming, a spokesman at the Los Angeles office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of the Homeland Security Department, would not comment on the implementation of new technologies. He referred calls to the department's Washington headquarters, which were not returned.

For overseas buyers, the lure of OSI's technologies has gone beyond security concerns. They can become an added source of revenues. "The overseas market is driven by duty revenues," said Sabnani. "Exporters are less likely to lie and will pay a bigger duty to begin with."

The South Korean government used one of the systems in its July bust of an importer trying to smuggle Viagra into the country, Sabnani said.

With demand for screening technologies increasing globally after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, OSI has moved to bolster its offerings. Last November, it closed on the purchase of Santa Clara-based Ancore Corp. from San Diego-based Science Applications International Corp., a competitor, for $7.7 million in cash and stock.

Ancore is developing a Pulsed Fast Neutron Analysis technology that OSI has pinned much of its hopes on. The technology can detect the chemical components of a container's cargo rather than simply creating an image of the contents, as X-rays do.

Meantime, OSI and dozens of other businesses are anticipating the opening of the bidding process this fall of a three-year, $12 million risk analysis study that could include port areas that could lead to new sales opportunities.

Still, Sabnani wasn't banking on any pickup in the pace of Homeland Security expenditures. "I'm going to be old and gray before they move ahead," he said.