Global trade data is a database of shipment records that shows which company imported or exported which goods, from whom, in what quantity and at what declared value. The records come from customs declarations and shipping documents in many countries. Companies use the data to find suppliers and buyers, to watch their rivals and to check the companies they deal with.
Where do the records come from? Every shipment that crosses a border is declared to customs. In India, an importer files a bill of entry and an exporter files a shipping bill, usually through customs clearance software. Each declaration names the goods and gives their HS code. The Harmonised System (HS) is the international list of codes for traded goods. The declaration also gives the quantity, the value and the ports. Shipping lines issue a bill of lading too, the document that lists a container's sender, receiver and contents. Some countries publish these records, and data providers buy or collect them from many countries.
The hard part is matching. One company appears under many spellings, such as "ABC Solar Pvt Ltd" and "A.B.C. SOLAR PRIVATE LIMITED", plus a few more with typing mistakes. The provider matches them to one company record, using methods like those of master data management. It also links the two ends of a shipment across countries. For example, an export record from a factory in Vietnam is matched to the import record at an Indian port.
Consider a solar panel maker in Surat that buys solar cells from abroad. It wants to know who else imports cells, from which suppliers, and at what price. It searches the HS code for solar cells over the last twelve months. The data shows 140 Indian importers. The top ten of them bought 70% of all the cells. The average declared price per cell fell by a fifth during the year. And three new suppliers in Vietnam sent their first shipments to India. The company contacts two of those suppliers, and uses the price data in its next negotiation.
Trade data has other users too. Lenders and credit bureaus use a company's shipments as evidence that its business is real. Investors use the data as alternative data, for example to see whether a phone brand is shipping more phones into India. Supply chain traceability uses it to check where goods came from, and freight forwarders use it to find new customers.
The data has limits. Not every country publishes its records, and the declared value of a shipment can differ from the price that was actually paid.