World Trade Daily – Month In Review for June – Part 1.

In June, we focused a lot of attention on one particular data source, namely the U.S. Customs data.   The reason for this is that, unlike general statistical or company information which is great for strategic or market analysis, this data is transactional and comprehensive (containing details on every U.S. waterborne import shipment). It is gaining a lot of attention in the marketplace and thereby creating a plethora of competitors to the once PIERS monopoly.

Innovative data mining, reporting technologies and TI applications are offering new methods to dig out hidden treasures contained the data.

World Trade Daily

In June, we published several articles on Trade Intelligence Providers, domestic and foreign, which offer such data.

• Panjiva: Bridging the Continental Divides Between Buyers and Sellers?
• Import Genius: On the Nature of Genius and Intelligence within Trade Intelligence
• TI Provider TradeInfo 365 Provides Transactional Trade Data for 10 Countries
• Evolving from Hungry Rogue Start-up to the Global Trade Intelligencia Elite: the Story of Zepol

We also created a short list of the dozen or so other providers that offer access to U.S. Customs data in our article entitled, Trade Intelligence or TI: IT all depends upon how you define “IT” and “TI”.

If you want to dig deeper into the U.S. Customs Waterborne Import Manifest Shipping Data particularly to know the shortcomings inherent in the data and what to look out for, you might want to check out this three part series: (The articles were published June 28 thru 30.)

• Part 1. The ABCs of U.S. Customs Data- Issues & Shortcomings.
• Part 2.  The ABCs of U.S. Customs Data- Issues & Shortcomings.
• Part 3.  The ABCs of U.S. Customs Data- Issues & Shortcomings.

We also developed several articles which testify to what many consider “confidential or top secret” information contained in trade data like U.S. Customs and the like.

• Chinese Transactional Import-Export Data Considered “Trade Secrets” by China Inc.  Working through a well-placed government intermediary we were told that some trade data were considered “trade secrets” by China, Inc.
• International Trade Data Considered Confidential, Top Secret or Dangerous.  My (CenTradeX Technology) team was paid a surprise visit by an assemblage of well-dressed men representing “interested parties” within the U.S. intelligence community.  They had been monitoring extensive data flows from our Nashville office to a Beijing location of what appeared to be sensitive information.
• The Use and Application of Trade Intelligence Can Be a Matter of Life and Death. At some point it may not just be a matter of tainted toys, radiated food or diseased pallets. Perhaps it will be a misclassified container of toxic chemicals or dangerous substances that makes its way past CBP and ends up causing a catastrophe in one of our major metropolitan areas.