Panjiva expands China-based import and export data information available through ETCN partnership

A little more than a year after it established a partnership with Export to China (ETCN), a Chinese information, consulting, and commercial platform helping international enterprises with China import-export trade, to make Chinese trade data accessible in searchable company profiles, Panjiva, an online search engine with detailed information on global suppliers and manufacturers, recently announced it has made enhancements to China-based trade data accessible through its partnership with ETCN.

“This is essentially an enhancement of our partnership with ETC, and we are excited about it for a few different reasons,” said Panjiva CEO Josh Green. “The amount of data we now have is much larger, and the total number of companies we now have coverage for is 375,000 in China. These companies include any significant China-based exporter or importer.”

The main difference between a year ago and now with this partnership, said Green, is that last year it was more of a “slice” of data with coverage of companies in just a few industries and was used as a test run in a sense to gauge its value for customers.

Did it have value? Green stated that the answer was a resounding yes.

“With this expansion, we now have essentially comprehensive coverage of Chinese exports and imports (with the exception of firearms, tobacco, and weapons),” he said. “We are very excited, because it allows us to describe trade activities across nearly all industries, and it provides our customers with a complete view of what companies that our customers are interested in are doing.”

Examples of what Chinese import and export data customers can use and access include types of products being imported and exported, the related dollar values for those products, the mode of transportation the product was imported or exported by (ocean vessel or plane), and country of origin or destination.

This data is accessible through an online subscription model, with the data geared towards:
-importers that want to have a complete view of companies in China they are currently working with or considering working with;
-identifying suppliers that have shown up on the radar prior to data being made available;
-for companies looking to sell to China, they now have a comprehensive list of importers in China that are buying from abroad; and
-companies in the logistics space that are looking to identify new customers or better understand trading activities of their existing customers now have a much better view of companies in China than they previously had

Data that was already previously available includes: shipments to and from not only the U.S. but also every country around the world; breakdown of the dollar value of goods shipped to each country; mode of transport; and enterprise nature, including state-owned, private, or foreign-invested.

“The exciting part about getting this new data is having the opportunity to work with our customers and learn about what we can do together with this data and getting the data into their hands and learning from them about what they are able to accomplish with the data,” Green explained. 

When Panjiva first announced its partnership with ETCN in May 2013, it said that data provided by ETCN for Panjiva is based on Chinese government data made available to ETCN. At the time of that 2013 announcement, Panjiva said it had access to roughly 200,000 China-based companies through the partnership, with that number now nearly double at 375,000 companies.

In regards to China’s economic outlook at the moment, Green said that it is clear in the last few years that China continues to be a leading and dominant force in manufacturing.

“This has been happening as people continually have discussed for years how wages are going up there and how it would be great to find alternatives,” he said. “Buy by and large, everyone is still there and things still look very strong. The interesting question is how does it manage to transition from a manufacturing super power to a more balanced economy with a healthy consumer class? The way in which that transition is managed matters to the global economy, because that market has the potential to be an engine of growth for itself and its trading partners in general. China getting that transition right really matters although it is still very much a work in progress at this point.”