D5 Annex report WP 3: ETIS Database methodology ... - ETIS plus

D5 Annex WP 3: DATABASE METHODOLOGY AND DATABASE USER MANUAL –
FREIGHT TRANSPORT DEMAND
In this example the volume of the transit is lower than the international trade flow (between
countries by commodity type). It also occurs that the transit flow can be matched, but that the
transit flow is higher than the international trade flow. In such a case the total international trade
flow is replaced by the transit flow (in order to include transhipment data in the O/D matrix).
The remainder of the transit flow cannot be matched (country by country by commodity type),
with these flows is dealt in the next two steps. Another possibility is that the transit flow cannot
be matched at all (country by country by commodity type). These flows are also being dealt
with in the next steps.
From the total amount of about 190 million tonnes transit through Belgium, the Netherlands and
Germany about 115 million tonnes can be matched with the international trade flows based on
the country to country by commodity type relation.
Make corrections for confusion between trade and transport flows
In method 1 it has been noticed that for some flows large differences exist between import and
export registration. In the previous step it appears that sometimes transit flows are larger or
cannot be matched to international trade flows between the same countries and for the same
commodity type. In this step these observations are further investigated in order to find a
clarification and to see in what way the flows should be included in the O/D matrix.
There is a relation between international trade flows with large differences between import and
export registration and transit flows that cannot be matched with international trade flows. This
relation is clarified by an example. In the Comext data there are two registrations for the trade
of NSTR group 41 (iron ore) from the Netherlands to Germany: export registration of the
Netherlands equals 8.9 million tonnes, import registration of Germany equals 26.9 million
tonnes. There is a large gap between these registrations, besides, the Netherlands does not
produce iron ore and thus the Netherlands cannot export these commodities. A possible
explanation for this is that it does not concern a trade flow from the Netherlands to Germany,
but a transit flow from a country via the Netherlands to Germany. The transit flows that cannot
be matched to the international trade flows contains flows from Middle and Southern America
via Rotterdam in the Netherlands to Germany. This confirms the idea that trade and transport
are mixed up. The trade flow from Middle and Southern America via Rotterdam to Germany is
registered by Germany as import from the Netherlands (the transport of the goods is considered
as trade). This explains why the export registration of the Netherlands is much lower than the
import registration of Germany (this flow is no trade of the Netherlands) and why the transit
flow cannot be matched with the international trade data (the trade flow has a different origin
country). This confusion between trade and transport is corrected in the O/D matrix by
including the transit flows (in the example the flow from Middle and Southern America via
Rotterdam to Germany including information about the transport modes used) and reducing the
trade flow (trade from the Netherlands to Germany) with the same volume.
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Document2
27 May 2004