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'Factual' Industry Sector Profiles
'Factual' industry or business sector
market profiles are based on 'hard' data from official sources - e.g. data gathered as a result of legislation – or via compulsory or semi-compulsory
surveys. The profiles differ in
nature from 'Empirical' Profiles (a
comparison can be found here).
Often carried out for Trade Associations,
these statistical market reports are computed from detailed 'official' data from UK, EU
and other sources and are
designed to expose the important facets of trade and production not normally
exposed or discussed in survey-based
reports. For example:
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Defining
an industry market sector in terms of internationally agreed product or
service classifications requires some thought since classifications often
include products not 'traditionally' included in a particular sector.
Sometimes this provides opportunities for a Trade Association to consider
widening its membership and representation, in other instances, it
highlights a need for classifications to be amended so that they can
represent a sector more clearly. Almost invariably, the exercise
results in a sector value very much higher than previously thought - with
positive implications for Trade Association Membership and representation
internationally - and to government.
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Analysis
of exports of a product will show recipient countries in value or volume
terms and, for a manufacturer, his market share of exports of that
product. Comparative analysis of a recipient country's data will show
their imports of the same product from all over the world. Together,
the data will show the share a manufacturer has of a particular county's
imports and his main competitors in terms of supply to the recipient
country. More analysis of value and volume will show likely pricing
competitiveness for all parties involved.
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Trade
data collected by customs authorities will both circumvent reported market
'spin' and highlight trade movements that, perhaps for commercial reasons,
are not being reported within an industry.
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Time
series analysis of trade and production data over (say) 3-5 years can
provide alerts to to both worrying trends and sudden changes with respect to
a particular product or product group and sometimes provide early warning to
industry.
-
When
'hard' production and consumption data for particular products or product
groups are combined to show consumption, anomalies such as 'negative'
consumption may be exposed (i.e. where (production+imports) is less than
exports) - suggesting that, for that particular product, there may be
pricing, Free Trade Zone, fraud or other issues worth investigating further.
Examples of data include;
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Trade data gathered by customs authorities
- e.g. HM Customs and Excise in the UK
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Production or census data gathered by
national authorities - e.g. the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the UK, and bodies such as Eurostat, the United Nations and the World Trade Organization.
While summary data from most authorities are published in a very abbreviated
form for
public consumption – detailed data have to be purchased directly from the
authorities concerned or their agents.
Key Benefits of 'Factual' Sector Profiles
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Consistent
Market data. UK, European or World industrial sector reports show trade and production
(and derived balance of trade and consumption) data and trends
for every product on a consistent basis when there is international
agreement as to description and classification.
-
Detail.
Within Europe, both trade and production data are
published at a detailed 8-digit classification level. While there is
international agreement to publish trade data at a less-detailed 6-digit
classification level, individual countries outside Europe often publish data
internally at 8 or even 10-digit levels. (see also classifications)
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Lobbying.
Quantitative data from official sources that is
readily comparable with other countries' data becomes a powerful tool with
which Trade Associations can lobby government, quangos and others in the UK
and Europe, on behalf of their Members.
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Sector
definition. Generation of an industrial sector
profile requires agreement with the businesses or Trade Associations
involved as to exactly which products, product groups or activities in terms
of trade classifications, are to be included or excluded in the
profile. This discipline helps to define the activities of an
industrial sector, and can highlight areas of potential new membership of an
Association - as well as indicating areas of activity that are not
relevant.
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Process
improvement. The process of defining an
industrial sector and collating trade and production data invariably exposes
errors, omissions, and other sector and data collection issues that should
be of concern to those involved in the sector. Opening a dialogue
on such issues with the data-gathering authorities (particularly, by
Trade Associations) can help to improve future data collection and reporting
to the benefit of the sector represented.
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Actual
trading partners. A country’s actual trading partners,
values and volumes can be readily seen for each available product
classification.
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Trade
anomalies exposed. Anomalies in trade between countries
can be exposed – perhaps highlighting otherwise hidden trading issues -
e.g. the extent to which a country is likely to be using 'Free Trade Zones'
to process or assemble particular products.
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Contract
values. Evidence of the values of individual contracts is sometimes
exposed for particular years and products where trade is intermittent between
particular countries.
NBS Capabilities
-
NBS has over eight
years experience in working with Trade Associations to define their sectors
in terms of official data, and in obtaining and analysing the data to
produce annual reports showing sector trends.
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NBS has produced
numerous industrial sector profiles for Trade Associations covering the UK,
Europe, the USA and the World.
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NBS understands
the strengths and weaknesses of UK, European and World data
sources, their inter-relationships, timeliness and relative accuracy.
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NBS has long
experience of the methodologies and technical processes needed to combine
and process trade and
production data from different sources to generate sector profiles.
-
NBS is experienced
in identifying errors and omissions in existing data (such as reporting or
classification errors) and assisting Trade Associations in having these
matters addressed by the relevant authorities (e.g. Customs and Excise and The Office for National
Statistics).
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