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Feature Article - Australia's Importers, 2002-03


INTRODUCTION

This is the fourth in a series of articles analysing the characteristics and international trading activities of Australia's exporters and importers, based on the Australian Business Number (ABN). Australia's Exporters, 2002-03 was released on the ABS web site, concurrently with the October 2003 issue of International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (Cat. no. 5368.0), on 4 December 2003.

Estimates for importers of merchandise (businesses that import goods) are compiled from data sourced from the Australian Customs Service (Customs) and from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Australian Business Register. Estimates for importers of services, compiled from the ABS Survey of International Trade in Services (SITS), are also included.

The estimates are subject to limitations in terms of the data available and methodology applied:

a. consistent with previous studies, businesses which imported goods totalling less than $10,000 in 2002-03 are excluded from the estimates of number of importers;

b. service importers include businesses which receive services from off-shore businesses to their operations in Australia, i.e. supply modes 1 and 4 in the classification used by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). However, smaller and / or occasional service importers are unlikely to come to ABS notice and are therefore not included in the estimates. The number of excluded businesses may be significant, but the value of their imports is not thought to be appreciable in the totality of service imports. The ABS continues to try to identify these businesses and incorporate them into its surveys;

c. the number of service importers excludes businesses that only import insurance, financial, government or travel services, as estimates for these service types are not derived from the Survey of International Trade in Services. Travel services are the supply of goods or services to Australian residents while they are overseas (supply mode 2), such as hotels, restaurants, retail, tourist facilities, transport, theatres, educational institutions, etc. The estimates also exclude Australian-owned businesses located overseas receiving goods or services in the country in which they are located (usually called foreign affiliates trade - supply mode 3), because their trade does not directly contribute to Australia's imports of goods and services;

d. Australian businesses which receive goods or services from other businesses which undertake the importing function are excluded. For example, many products are imported into Australia by wholesalers who on-sell to the end consumer.

			IMPORTERS			TOTAL IMPORTS
			2001-02	2002-03		2001-02	2002-03	2002-03
			no.	no.		$m	$m	%
Goods importers
	$100m or more		163	182		56,309	66,691	50.1
	$1m and less than $100m		8,029	8,422		56,325	58,985	44.3
	$100,000 and less than $1m		16,864	17,821		5,765	6,137	4.6
	$10,000 and less than $100,000		29,329	30,888		1,058	1,113	0.8
	Other goods importers		--			193	204	0.2
	Total goods importers		54,385	57,313		119,649	133,130	100.0
Service importers
	Businesses importing services
		$100m or more	n.a.	29		n.a.	10,057	30.6
		$1m and less than $100m	n.a.	782		n.a.	6,625	20.1
		Less than $1m (a)	n.a.	1,430		n.a.	3,072	9.3
		Total	2,300	2,241		19,596	19,754	60.1
	Other service importers (b)		. .	. .		13,035	13,137	39.9
	Total service importers		2,300	2,241		32,631	32,891	100.0
Total importers (c)			55,355	58,523		152,280	166,021	. .
(a) Value of imports includes a component for freight services. No corresponding estimate has been made of the number of importers of freight services.
(b) Includes travel, insurance, financial and government services. Numbers of importers cannot be estimated for these service types, as the Survey of International Trade in Services is not used to measure these imports.
(c) Total excludes duplication from businesses which import both goods and services.

		IMPORTERS(a)			TOTAL GOODS IMPORTS
		2001-02	2002-03		2001-02	2002-03	2002-03
Industry of importer		no.	no.		$m	$m	%
Agriculture, forestry and fishing		928	977		455	491	0.4
Mining		282	303		4,407	5,237	3.9
Manufacturing
	Food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing	761	828		2,833	3,193	2.4
	Textile, clothing, footwear and
	leather manufacturing	1,246	1,273		1,968	2,007	1.5
	Wood and paper product manufacturing	428	458		1,256	1,448	1.1
	Printing, publishing and recorded media	673	698		1,269	1,325	1.0
	Petroleum, coal, chemical and
	associated product manufacturing	1,204	1,261		12,485	16,016	12.0
	Non-metallic mineral product manufacturing	375	409		357	389	0.3
	Metal product manufacturing	1,105	1,194		4,263	4,659	3.5
	Machinery and equipment manufacturing	3,201	3,303		17,906	17,865	13.4
	Other manufacturing	1,120	1,188		1,226	1,176	0.9
	Total	10,113	10,612		43,563	48,078	36.1
Electricity, gas and water supply		104	111		132	109	0.1
Construction		1,232	1,560		1,061	1,227	0.9
Wholesale trade
	Basic material wholesaling	2,126	2,467		8,097	6,850	5.1
	Machinery and motor vehicle wholesaling	5,099	5,439		28,292	31,959	24.0
	Personal and household good wholesaling	8,602	9,057		18,299	19,802	14.9
	Total	15,827	16,963		54,687	58,610	44.0
Retail trade
	Food retailing	373	460		468	540	0.4
	Personal and household good retailing	5,734	6,368		5,560	6,037	4.5
	Motor vehicle retailing and services	896	961		886	1,000	0.8
	Total	7,003	7,789		6,914	7,577	5.7
Accommodation, cafes and restaurants		230	279		42	185	0.1
Transport and storage		717	744		2,943	5,864	4.4
Communication services		252	275		371	367	0.3
Finance and insurance		933	985		1,344	1,311	1.0
Property and business services		3,409	3,948		1,876	2,053	1.5
Government administration and defence		176	173		n.p.	n.p.	n.p.
Education		173	209		50	n.p.	n.p.
Health and community services		386	396		171	125	0.1
Cultural and recreational services		619	694		207	264	0.2
Personal and other services		509	608		184	208	0.2
Other		54	130		n.p.	n.p.	n.p.
Industry not known		11,438	10,557		(b)	(b)	(b)
Total goods importers		54,385	57,313		119,649	133,130	100.0
(a) Includes only those businesses that imported at least $10,000 of goods. (b) The value of imports with 'Industry not known' was $261m. These imports were prorated across the industries that imported the same commodities.

• small businesses - having fewer than 20 employees and estimated annual turnover less than $1m and imports of less than $1m during 2002-03;
• large businesses - having 200 or more employees or estimated annual turnover of $20m or more or imports of $20m or more during 2002-03; and
• medium businesses - all businesses other than those defined as small or large.

		NUMBER OF IMPORTERS(a)					VALUE OF IMPORTS
		Large	Medium	Small	Total(b)		Large	Medium	Small	Total
Industry of importer		no.	no.	no.	no.		$m	$m	$m	$m
Mining		111	108	84	303		5,107	122	8	5,237
Manufacturing		1,448	5,573	3,591	10,612		43,057	4,688	334	48,078
Wholesale trade		1,223	7,931	7,809	16,963		45,576	12,073	962	58,610
Retail trade		349	2,576	4,864	7,789		5,241	1,918	418	7,577
Transport and storage		163	298	283	744		5,628	212	24	5,864
Finance and insurance		135	259	591	985		1,006	248	57	1,311
Property and business services		277	1,385	2,286	3,948		1,050	810	192	2,053
Other		711	1,941	2,760	5,412		3,221	962	216	4,400
Industry not known(b)		0	50	10,507	10,557		(c)	(c)	(c)	(c)
Total goods importers		4,417	20,121	32,775	57,313		109,886	21,034	2,210	133,130
PERCENT
Mining		36.6	35.6	27.7	100.0		97.5	2.3	0.2	100.0
Manufacturing		13.6	52.5	33.8	100.0		89.6	9.7	0.7	100.0
Wholesale trade		7.2	46.8	46.0	100.0		77.8	20.6	1.6	100.0
Retail trade		4.5	33.1	62.4	100.0		69.2	25.3	5.5	100.0
Transport and storage		21.9	40.1	38.0	100.0		96.0	3.6	0.4	100.0
Finance and insurance		4.5	33.1	62.4	100.0		69.2	25.3	5.5	100.0
Property and business services		7.0	35.1	57.9	100.0		51.2	39.5	9.4	100.0
Other		13.1	35.9	51.0	100.0		73.2	21.9	4.9	100.0
Industry not known(b)		0.0	0.5	99.5	100.0		(c)	(c)	(c)	(c)
Total goods importers		7.7	35.1	57.2	100.0		82.5	15.8	1.7	100.0
(a) Includes only those businesses that imported at least $10,000 of goods.
(b) Importers who did not report an ABN have been allocated a size of business based only on the value of their imports: large business if imports valued at $20m or more, medium business if imports valued between $1m and $20m, small business if imports valued at less than $1m. (c) Imports for which no ABN was reported (valued at $261m) were prorated across the industries that imported the same commodities.

		New							Total
		South		Queens-	South	Western			goods
		Wales	Victoria	land	Australia	Australia	Tasmania	Other(b)	imports
Industry of importer		$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m
Mining		n.p.	n.p.	967	48	n.p.	32	399	5,237
Manufacturing		15,565	15,546	6,952	3,741	5,848	333	94	48,078
Wholesale trade		29,232	18,391	5,987	1,358	3,529	62	50	58,610
Retail trade		3,292	2,418	1,119	241	480	13	13	7,577
Finance and insurance		n.p.	n.p.	104	32	n.p.	6	2	1,311
Property and business services		922	660	278	64	122	3	5	2,053
Other		4,516	3,341	939	249	492	317	410	10,263
Total goods imports		55,280	42,257	16,348	5,732	11,775	765	973	133,130
(a) State estimates in this table differ slightly from those published in International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (cat no. 5368.0) because the estimation system used to allocate data with no ABN ($261m) is based on industry not state.
(b) Includes imports into Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.

		VALUE OF IMPORTS
		$100m	$1m and	$100,000	$10,000 and		Total
		or	less than	and less	less than		goods
		more	$100m	than $1m	$100,000	Other(a)	exporters
		no.	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.
Value of exports
$100m or more		27	54	20	9	84	194
$1m and less than $100m		123	1,574	644	412	1,406	4,159
$100,000 and less than $1m		18	2,226	1,627	1,050	4,614	9,535
$10,000 and less than $100,000		7	1,714	2,640	1,901	9,726	15,988
Other(b)		7	2,854	12,890	27,516	. .	. .
Total goods importers		182	8,422	17,821	30,888	. .	(c)
(a) Includes businesses whose imports are not known or valued at less than $10,000.
(b) Includes businesses whose exports are not known or valued at less than $10,000.
(c) Total goods exporters were 29,876 and total goods importers were 57,313.

				Average service
		Total service	Total service	imports per
	Importers(a)	imports	imports	business
Type of service	no.	$m	%	$m
Transportation services	67	10,960	33.3	163.6
Travel services	(b)	11,012	33.5	(b)
Communication services	938	1,407	4.3	1.5
Insurance services	(b)	856	2.6	(b)
Financial services	(b)	585	1.8	(b)
Computer and information services	1,296	967	2.9	0.7
Royalties and licence fees	1,378	1,828	5.6	1.3
Other business services	1,963	3,746	11.4	1.9
Personal, cultural and recreational services	948	846	2.6	0.9
Government services n.i.e.	(b)	684	2.1	(b)
Total service importers	2,241	32,891	100.0	. .
(a) Businesses may import more than one type of service.
(b) Number of importers cannot be estimated as the Survey of International Trade in Services is not used to measure imports of this service type.

						Average service
				Total services	Total services	imports per
			Importers	imports	imports	business
Industry of importer			no.	$m	%	$m
Businesses importing services
	Agriculture, forestry and fishing		14	11	0.0	0.8
	Mining		83	456	1.4	5.5
	Manufacturing		475	1,220	3.7	2.6
	Construction		36	38	0.1	1.1
	Wholesale trade		324	1,428	4.3	4.4
	Retail trade		66	147	0.4	2.2
	Transport and storage		112	12,034	36.6	107.4
	Communication services		42	1,358	4.1	32.3
	Property and business services		724	1,792	5.4	2.5
	Education		63	87	0.3	1.4
	Cultural and recreational services		149	792	2.4	5.3
	Personal and other services		13	19	0.1	1.5
	Other		140	372	1.1	2.7
	Total		2,241	19,754	60.1	8.8
Other service importers (a)			(a)	13,137	39.9	(a)
Total service importers			2,241	32,891	100.0	. .
(a) Numbers of importers cannot be estimated as the Survey of International Trade in Services is not used to measure imports of all services. This includes imports of travel, insurance, financial and government services.

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