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Feature Article - Australia's Importers, 2003-04


INTRODUCTION

This is the fourth in a series of articles analysing the characteristics and international trading activities of Australia's importers, based on the Australian Business Number (ABN). Australia's Exporters, 2003-04 was released on the ABS web site, concurrently with the October 2004 issue of International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (Cat. no. 5368.0), on 10 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 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 2003-04 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. service importers exclude businesses that only supply 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. They 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.

NUMBER OF IMPORTERS

The number of importers in 2003-04 as shown in Table F1 was estimated to be 61,632 an increase of 3,109 from the estimate of the number of importers in 2002-03. In the same period, the total value of imports of goods and services fell by $767m to $165.3b.

The number of goods importers was estimated to be 60,661 in 2003-04, an increase of 3,328 (6%). The increase was mostly in importers in the $10,000 and less than $100,000 category, up by 2,209 (7%). The number of service importers fell by 91 to 2,150. Of the businesses engaged in service imports, 1,179 (55%) were also goods importers. Adjusting for the duplication, the total number of importers was derived at 61,632.

TABLE F1: IMPORTERS
			Importers			Value of imports
			2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2003-04
			no.	no.	no.	$m	$m	$m	%
Goods importers
	$100m or more		163	182	178	56,309	66,691	64,963	49.6
	$1m and less than $100m		8,029	8,442	8,493	56,325	58,985	58,188	44.4
	$100,000 and less than $1m		16,864	17,821	18,893	5,765	6,137	6,424	4.9
	$10,000 and less than $100,000		29,329	30,888	33,097	1,058	1,113	1,196	0.9
	Other goods importers		na	na	na	193	204	231	0.2
	Total goods importers		54,385	57,333	60,661	119,649	133,130	131,002	100.0
Services importers
	Businesses importing services(a)
		$100m or more	na	29	23	na	7,486	7,305	21.3
		$1m and less than $100m	na	782	763	na	6,101	6,201	18.1
		Less than $1m	na	1,430	1,364	na	359	337	1.0
		Total	2,300	2,241	2,150	13,970	13,946	13,843	40.4
	Freight Services(b)		na	na	na	5,626	5,808	6,056	17.7
	Other service importers(c)		na	na	na	13,035	13,137	14,353	41.9
	Total service importers		2,300	2,241	2,150	32,631	32,891	34,252	100.0
Total importers(d)			55,355	58,523	61,632	152,280	166,021	165,254	. .
. . not applicable
na not available
(a) Excludes services to Australian travellers overseas. See exclusions in the introduction to this article.
(b) No estimate has been made for the number of importers of freight services, as the Survey of International Trade in Services is not used to measure these imports.
(c) 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.
(d) The total number of importers excludes duplication from businesses which import both goods and services.

GOODS IMPORTERS

Value of Imports

As shown in Table F1, the 178 largest goods importers, each with imports worth $100m or more, accounted for half ($65b) of Australia's goods imports in 2003-04. There were 8,671 businesses that imported goods worth $1m or more, together accounting for $123b (94%) of goods imports.

Another 18,893 businesses imported goods valued between $100,000 and $1m, accounting for $6.4b (5%) of goods imports in 2003-04. Over half (33,097) of Australia's goods importers had imports valued between $10,000 and $100,000 during 2003-04, accounting for $1.2b (1%) of goods imports in that period.

Industry

Most goods imports were by the wholesale trade (46% by value) and manufacturing (35%) industries, as shown in Table F2. Together these accounted for $106b (81%) of Australia's $131b of goods imports during 2003-04. The next most significant industry was retail trade with $7.6b (6%) of goods imports.

Imports by machinery and equipment manufacturers, and machinery and motor vehicle wholesalers, together accounted for over $50b (39%) of Australia's total goods imports.

Table F2: IMPORTS OF GOODS, Industry of importer - 2003-04
		Importers(a)			Value of goods imports
		2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2003-04
Industry of importer		no.	no.	no.	$m	$m	$m	%
Agriculture, forestry and fishing		928	977	1,134	455	491	488	0.4
Mining		282	303	336	4,407	5,237	5,132	3.9
Manufacturing
	Food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing	761	828	817	2,833	3,193	2,875	2.2
	Textile, clothing, footwear and leather manufacturing	1,246	1,273	1,282	1,968	2,007	1,838	1.4
	Wood and paper product manufacturing	428	458	486	1,256	1,448	1,536	1.2
	Printing, publishing and recorded media	673	698	770	1,269	1,325	1,334	1.0
	Petroleum, coal, chemical and associated product manufacturing	1,204	1,261	1,301	12,485	16,016	12,247	9.3
	Non-metallic mineral product manufacturing	375	409	428	357	389	405	0.3
	Metal product manufacturing	1,105	1,194	1,232	4,263	4,659	4,481	3.4
	Machinery and equipment manufacturing	3,201	3,303	3,419	17,906	17,865	17,457	13.3
	Other manufacturing	1,120	1,188	1,262	1,226	1,176	1,149	0.9
	Total	10,113	10,612	10,997	43,563	48,078	45,322	34.6
Electricity, gas and water supply		104	111	129	132	109	77	0.1
Construction		1,232	1,560	1,733	1,061	1,227	1,212	0.9
Wholesale trade
	Basic material wholesaling	2,126	2,467	2,800	8,097	6,850	8,043	6.1
	Machinery and motor vehicle wholesaling	5,099	5,439	5,883	28,292	31,959	33,048	25.2
	Personal and household good wholesaling	8,602	9,057	9,725	18,299	19,802	19,596	15.0
	Total	15,827	16,963	18,408	54,687	58,610	60,687	46.3
Retail trade
	Food retailing	373	460	515	468	540	619	0.5
	Personal and household good retailing	5,734	6,368	6,914	5,560	6,037	6,018	4.6
	Motor vehicle retailing and services	896	961	1,045	886	1,000	984	0.8
	Total	7,003	7,789	8,474	6,914	7,577	7,621	5.8
Accommodation, cafes and restaurants		230	279	307	42	185	196	0.1
Transport and storage		717	744	807	2,943	5,864	4,526	3.5
Communication services		252	275	320	371	367	410	0.3
Finance and insurance		933	985	1,102	1,344	1,311	983	0.8
Property and business services		3,409	3,948	4,393	1,876	2,053	2,478	1.9
Government administration and defence		176	173	201	np	np	np	np
Education		173	209	199	50	np	np	np
Health and community services		386	396	453	171	125	129	0.1
Cultural and recreational services		619	694	774	207	264	326	0.2
Personal and other services		509	608	693	184	208	255	0.2
Other		54	130	17	np	np	np	np
Industry not known		11,438	10,557	10,184	(b). .	(b). .	(b). .	(b). .
All industries		54,385	57,313	60,661	119,649	133,130	131,002	100.0
. . not applicable
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated
(a) Includes only those businesses that imported at least $10,000 of goods.
(b) The value of imports with 'Industry not known' has been prorated across industries that imported the same commodities.

Size of Business

Two different size measures are used for goods importers in this article. They are the value of imports (see Table F1) and size of business (Table F3). Traditionally, the ABS has only used employment to determine the size of a business because this has been the only sizing variable generally available. Many significant importers were found not to have large employment.

For the purpose of this analysis, size of business has been defined in terms of three variables - employment, estimated annual turnover (both from the Australian Business Register) and value of imports (from Customs):

• small businesses - having fewer than 20 employees and estimated annual turnover less than $1m and imports of less than $1m during 2003-04;
• large businesses - having 200 or more employees or estimated annual turnover of $20m or more or imports of $20m or more during 2003-04; and
• medium businesses - all businesses other than those defined as small or large.

TABLE F3a: IMPORTS OF GOODS, Size of business by Industry of Importer - 2003-04
	Number of importers(a)
	Large	Medium	Small	Total(b)		Large	Medium	Small	Total
Industry of exporter	no.	no.	no.	no.		%	%	%	%
Mining	117	121	98	336		34.8	36.0	29.2	100.0
Manufacturing	1,431	5,654	3,912	10,997		13.0	51.4	35.6	100.0
Wholesale trade	1,230	8,241	8,937	18,408		6.7	44.8	48.5	100.0
Retail Trade	370	2,626	5,478	8,474		4.4	31.0	64.6	100.0
Transport and storage	178	300	329	807		22.1	37.2	40.8	100.0
Finance and insurance	135	273	694	1,102		12.3	24.8	63.0	100.0
Property and business services	291	1,468	2,634	4,393		6.6	33.4	60.0	100.0
Other	780	2,026	3,154	5,960		13.1	34.0	52.9	100.0
Industry not known	-	113	10,071	10,184		13.1	34.0	52.9	100.0
Total goods importers	4,532	20,822	35,307	60,661		7.5	34.3	58.2	100.0
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Includes only those businesses that imported at least $10,000 of goods.
(b) Importers who did not report an ABN have been allocated as size of business based only on 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.

TABLE F3b: IMPORTS OF GOODS, Size of Business - By Industry of Importer - 2003-04
	Value of Goods Imports
	Large	Medium	Small	Total		Large	Medium	Small	Total
Industry of importer	$m	$m	$m	$m		%	%	%	%
Mining	4,992	131	10	5,133		97.3	2.6	0.2	100.0
Manufacturing	40,334	4,627	360	45,321		89.0	10.2	0.8	100.0
Wholesale trade	47,408	12,222	1,057	60,687		78.1	20.1	1.7	100.0
Retail Trade	5,284	1,871	466	7,621		69.3	24.6	6.1	100.0
Transport and storage	4,298	199	29	4,526		95.0	4.4	0.6	100.0
Finance and insurance	655	263	65	983		66.6	26.8	6.6	100.0
Property and business services	1,315	939	225	2,479		53.0	37.9	9.1	100.0
Other	3,044	958	250	4,252		71.6	22.5	5.9	100.0
Industry not known(a)	. .	. .	. .	. .		. .	. .	. .	. .
Total goods importers	107,330	21,210	2,462	131,002		81.9	16.2	1.9	100.0
. . not applicable
(a) The value of imports with 'Industry not known' were prorated across industries that imported the same commodities.

State of destination

New South Wales and Victoria were the state of destination of almost three quarters of Australia's goods imports in 2003-04, as shown in Table F4. These two States accounted for 79% ($48.2b) of imports by the wholesaling and 65% ($29.4b) of imports by the manufacturing industry.

TABLE F4: IMPORTS OF GOODS, Industry of Importer by State of Destination of Commodity - 2003-04
	New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland	South Australia	Western Australia	Tasmania	Other	Total goods imports
Industry of importer	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m
Mining	np	np	1,180	41	778	15	np	5,133
Manufacturing	15,615	13,802	6,970	2,736	5,740	385	73	45,321
Wholesale trade	29,159	19,052	6,677	1,793	3,899	53	54	60,687
Retail trade	3,316	2,391	1,154	247	491	12	9	7,621
Finance and insurance	353	295	110	37	173	3	11	983
Property and business services	np	np	347	90	177	1	np	2,479
Other	3,229	2,914	1,597	222	436	203	178	8,778
Total goods imports	53,777	40,751	18,036	5,167	11,694	672	905	131,002
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated

GOODS EXPORTERS AND IMPORTERS

Table F5 shows that of the 60,661 businesses with goods imports worth $10,000 or more during 2003-04, 12,702 (21%) also exported goods valued at $10,000 or more. Of the 8,671 businesses with goods imports of $1m or more, 17% (1,481) also exported goods valued at $1m or more in 2003-04. Businesses with imports valued between $10,000 and $100,000 were the least likely to have also exported goods with only 9% (3,000) of these exported goods worth $10,000 or more in 2003-04.

F5: Goods Exporters and Importers - 2003-04
	Value of goods imports
	$100m or more	$1m and less than $100m	$100,000 and less than $1m	$10,000 and less than $100,000	Other(a)	Total goods exporters
Value of goods exports	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.	no.
$100m or more	24	46	15	8	99	192
$1m and less than $100m	101	1,310	520	315	1,690	3,936
$100,000 and less than $1m	17	1,949	1,555	949	4,891	9,361
$10,000 and less than $100,000	10	1,644	2,511	1,728	10,173	16,066
Other(b)	26	3,544	14,292	30,097	na	na
Total goods importers	178	8,493	18,893	33,097	na	(c). .
. . not applicable
na not available
(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 29,555 and total goods importers were 60,661.

SERVICE IMPORTERS

Value of Imports

As shown in Table F1, businesses importing services were dominated by a small number of importers, with just 23 businesses accounting for 21% ($7.3b) of Australia's total service imports in 2003-04. There were 763 (35%) service importers with imports between $1m and $100m, accounting for 18% of total service imports. Almost two-thirds (1,364) of identified importers of services had imports worth less than $1m in 2003-04.

Imports of services includes the value of freight services on imports provided by non-residents. Goods importers are also therefore importers of freight services. However, it is not considered analytically useful to include in the count of importers of services those businesses whose only service imports are freight services associated with the importation of goods.

The value of freight attributable to these importers is shown separately in Table F1. Previously, this was allocated to the size of business based on the value of goods imported. The estimates for 2001-02 and 2002-03 have been amended to reflect this change in approach. The businesses are included in the count of goods importers, but are not included in the count of services importers.

Service Type

The service types with the highest numbers of importers in 2003-04 were other business services (1,825), royalties and licence fees (1,323) and communication services (1,287), as shown in Table F6. Transportation services had the highest value of imports per business, averaging $179m per importer in 2003-04.

Table F6: Imports of Services, Type of Service - 2003-04
	Importers(a)	Total service imports	Total service imports	Average service imports per business
Type of service	no.	$m	%	$m
Transportation services	65	11,634	34.0	179
Travel services	(b). .	12,136	35.4	(b). .
Communication services	1,287	879	2.6	1
Insurance services	(b). .	874	2.6	(b). .
Financial services	(b). .	587	1.7	(b). .
Computer and information services	952	1,009	2.9	1
Royalties and licence fees	1,323	1,988	5.8	2
Other business services	1,825	3,515	10.3	2
Personal, cultural and recreational services	637	874	2.6	1
Government services n.i.e.	(b). .	756	2.2	(b). .
Total service importers	2,151	34,252	100.0	. .
. . not applicable
(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.