After a hiatus of several years, the government of Vietnam has begun publishing monthly trade statistics. These were extensively vetted to remove apparent reporting errors before adding them to ITP’s numerous trade tools. Previously, Vietnam’s trade had been derived from trading partner statistics. This derived trade accounted for about 90% of the actual reported totals for most products, with the difference due mainly to the lack of statistics from non-reporting countries.

Several countries in the Middle East do not publish timely statistics on their exports or imports. Most of their trade, however, is visible from the imports and exports of trading partners. The 100 reporting countries in ITP’s data base are estimated to capture from 75%-95% of actual trade. ITP’s World Trade Reports now show Middle East trade by trading partner, including monthly quantity, average PPT and cumulative volume for: Israel, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

World Trade Reports and Matrixes, developed from the 100 countries in ITP’s database, are now available for Acrylonitrile-Butadiene Rubber (NBR) and also NBR Latex, Butadiene Rubber, Ethylene-Propylene-Diene Rubber (EPDM), Isobutene-Isoprene (Butyl) Rubber (IIR), Isoprene Rubber (IR), and Styrene-Butadiene Rubber (SBR) and also SBR Latex.

Subscribers now can access the last 24 trading months of World Trade Reports and Matrixes, and, during the one-year term of their subscription, an additional 12 months. This includes continual access to yearend data for two years.

Not all countries publish their trade statistics. All those that do, however, are included in ITP’s World Trade Reports and Matrixes, providing the most comprehensive coverage possible for liquefied gases, olefins, polyolefins, other major polymers, recyclable polymers, synthetic rubber products, vinyl monomers and others. ITP’s database now contains 100 countries and will be expanded as more countries become available.

This effort, in development for over a year, has resulted in major enhancements to current website features: instant trade updates, faster data access, easier navigation, and new download capabilities. New tools will soon be launched that will allow even more incisive analysis of trade.

ITP’s current PET World Trade Report combines these products for historic continuity. In 2017, the World Customs Organization created new Harmonized System codes that separately identified bottle grade polyethylene terephthalate with a viscosity equal to or greater than 78 ml/g and PET with a viscosity less than 78 ml/g, generally used in film and fiber. ITP now follows these products separately, as well as combined. In 2019, ITP analyzed nearly 9 million tons of trade in bottle grade PET in 2019 and 4 million tons of PET for film and fiber.