Articles

International trade data analysis: customs prices, supply origins and market movements in the official statistics reported to the United Nations.

Every month we analyse the customs statistics that countries report to the United Nations and cross-reference them. Here we publish what shows up on a close look: where the material actually comes from, which markets are moving, and what the figures say that no supplier catalogue will.

The United States sells rubber flooring at 5.41 and buys it at 2.11: the gap is not an error
Many countries appear as sellers and buyers of the same material at once. The difference between the two prices is not a contradiction: it is the best available clue as to what that country does with the goods.
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China has not reported 2025, and that moves every average in the sector
The world's largest exporter of synthetic rubber runs a year behind in its reports to the United Nations. Any 2025 average that leaves it out is portraying a market without its main seller.
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India is the biggest supplier of rubber flooring to the Americas, and almost nobody names it
In 2025 more tonnes of rubber floor covering entered the Americas from India than from China or Canada, and at the lowest price of the three. In industry conversation the country does not come up.
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Venezuela has not reported for over a decade: how to rebuild it from outside
There is not a single Venezuelan figure in the United Nations trade database going back years. But 98 countries declare having sold to it, and from that you can rebuild what it imports and from whom.
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