We recently pushed a new platform update which included some new trade data. The new trade data improves on pre-existing trade data that we had from companies’ financial accounts. Let’s dive into it.
What is the data?
When a company receives or sends goods abroad, a record is made. This record includes the type of product sent or received, where it has gone or come from and the value.
We have joined in an administration dataset from HM Revenue & Customs which details with goods companies are importing and exporting each month. Unfortunately, because this information is so valuable, we’re not able to receive the value or the quantity that companies are trading.
The new data we have improves the existing export data we had from companies’ financial accounts. As companies do not need to declare the amount they export in their financial accounts, our coverage is slightly lower than we would like for this data source. The data source from HMRC will improve the coverage and it will allow you to better understand which companies are exporting and which goods they are exporting. In contrast to export data from company’s financial accounts, you won’t be able to tell the value of goods that are exported, however.
You can see a list of imported and exported good on company profiles or use in company filters across the platform.
How to use this data
There’s a lot of possibilities with the depth of data that we have, but we want to make sure that the data meets the needs that you have. This is where you come in! We would like to gather feedback on what you would use companies trading data for?
Below is where we think this data will be valuable. We want your thoughts!
Supply chain analysis
We think this data will be helpful for matching suppliers of particular products to companies that are currently importing.
We also think it will be valuable for understanding the links between sectors, particularly in the emerging economy sectors that we’ve mapped with RTICs. It’s novel to be able to understand the exports of the life sciences or advanced manufacturing sectors, and whether the output of one sector is an input for another.
Increasing support for businesses wishing to export
Maybe you want to identify the companies exporting a particular good and you then want to identify similar companies who don’t export. This would be possible on our platform and with contact information, it would be possible to provide support so that more companies in a sector can export.
Likewise, you may be interested in understanding companies that export occasionally and supporting them so that they can explore further markets and export more consistently. Or, alternatively, you may identify a company that exports one good but has the potential to increase this.
Summary
What you see on the platform is an early implementation of the data and doesn’t include everything that the data has to offer. For example, we present aggregate data, but the underlying data is monthly. We’d like to chat with you about how we can best answer your data queries!
Get in touch with us or why not see the data for yourself? Sign up for a free trial today
