Characteristics of Australian Importers methodology

An importer is defined as the owner of the imported merchandise at the time of import.

Importers are identified using a combination of:

• Unit identifiers sourced from Australian Border Force (ABF) data for each merchandise import, consisting of Australian Business Numbers (ABN) and Customs Client Identifier (CCID), and
• Australian Bureau of Statistics Business Register (ABSBR) business data, which is detailed in the Statistical Unit Section.

For the purposes of this publication, an importer is classified as either a business or other importer based on the following criteria:

• Business importer – declares an ABN to ABF when submitting one or more import declarations, and
• Other importer – submits one or more import declarations to ABF without declaring an ABN, leading to the creation of a CCID to process the import declaration(s).

An exception to the above definition occurs where a declared ABN cannot be linked to business characteristics data on the ABS Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment (BLADE). Units in this scenario are categorised as other importers.

A CCID is a unique identifier, administered by ABF, to represent importing persons and organisations that do not report an ABN. Given that CCID’s cannot be linked to business characteristics data on BLADE, they have been separately classified from businesses in Tables 1 to 5.

Statistics on merchandise importers are compiled from merchandise trade data and are mostly consistent with balance of payments principles.

There are various scenarios that lead to import activity, and/or the movement of goods across the border, being excluded from the collection, including: 

• Goods with a value of less than $1,000,
• Goods being transported through Australia on route to another country, and
• Goods temporarily being moved to Australia for repair or maintenance prior to leaving the country.

More information regarding all of the scope exclusion scenarios are contained on the Coverage page of the ABS publication: International Merchandise Trade, Australia: Concepts, Sources and Methods.

The ABSBR is a register of Australian businesses and their key characteristics. It uses a two-population model: the profiled population and the non-profiled population. The main distinction between businesses in the two populations relates to the complexity of the business structure and the degree of intervention required to reflect the business structure for statistical purposes.

The vast majority of businesses included on the ABSBR are in the non-profiled population. Most of these businesses are understood to have simple structures and the unit registered for an ABN is a good approximation, satisfying ABS statistical requirements. For these businesses, the ABS statistical unit structure directly aligns with the ABN unit – one ABN equates to one business.

For a relatively small number of businesses, the ABS maintains its own unit structure through direct contact with businesses. These businesses constitute the profiled population. This population consists typically of large, complex and diverse groups of businesses where ABNs are aggregated or disaggregated based on industry to form a Type of Activity Unit (TAU). In the profiled population, each in scope TAU equates to one business importer.

More information regarding the ABS Units Model and the standard ABS approach to linking ABN to TAUs, is contained in the Explanatory Notes of the Standard Economic Sector Classifications of Australia (SESCA). For the purposes of this publication, an ANZSIC Matching Method has been developed to establish the link between ABN and TAU for a subset of the profiled population.

An aspect of the integration method, which differs from the standard ABS Units Model method, is the scenario where an ABN is linked to an Enterprise Group where there are one or more TAU’s. In this publication, where there are multiple available TAU’s, a TAU is selected when:

• There is an ANZSIC match between the ABN and TAU,
• If there are multiple ANZSIC matches, the annual turnover and number of employees items are used to determine the TAU selection from the group of matching TAU’s, and
• If there are no ANZSIC matches, the annual turnover and number of employees items are used to determine the TAU selection.

This matching process differs to the method used on the ABSBR where an ABN has multiple matches and may result in different statistical outcomes.

The state distribution in this publication is based on the state of final destination of an imported good and is sourced from ABF as part of import declaration documentation.

Imports data by state of final destination and industry of the importer are contained in Table 2. Imports data subject to ‘No Commodity Details’ or ‘No Value Details’ confidentiality restrictions are excluded from individual state of final destination statistics but included in the totals.

More information regarding international merchandise trade confidentiality methods are contained on the Confidentiality page of the ABS publication: International Merchandise Trade, Australia: Concepts, Sources and Methods.

Industry of the importer (included in Tables 2, 3 and 4) is based on the ANZSIC 2006 industry of the business importer as defined on BLADE.

For more information about ANZSIC 2006, refer to Australia and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006.

For the purposes of this publication, importer size (included in Tables 3 and 5) has been defined for business importers only. Therefore, other importers, which are mostly comprised of CCID’s, are excluded from the size statistics.

The size of the business (included in Tables 3 and 5) has been determined by three criteria:

• Number of employees (sourced from ABSBR),
• Annual turnover (sourced from Australian Taxation Office (ATO)), and
• Value of imports (sourced from ABF).

These criteria have been developed to cater for a variety of scenarios including, where the ABN reported on the import documentation may not be the same as the ABN used for employment purposes.

For business importers who have reported both the number of employees and annual turnover, the criteria to define the size of the business are: 

• Small importers

               - have fewer than 20 employees, and

               - annual turnover less than $2m, and

               - imports of less than $2m during the reference period.

• Large importers

               - have 200 or more employees, or

               - annual turnover of $20m or more, or

               - imports of $20m or more during the reference period.

• Medium importers

               - all businesses other than those defined as small or large.

For business importers where the number of employees is not reported, and/or annual turnover is not reported, the criteria to define the size of the business are: 

• Small importers

               - have number of employees fewer than 20 or not reported, and

               - annual turnover less than $2m or not reported, and

               - imports of less than $2m during the reference period.

• Large importers

               - have 200 or more employees, or

               - annual turnover of $20m or more, or

               - imports of $20m or more during the reference period.

• Medium importers

               - all businesses other than those defined as small or large.

BLADE is an economic data tool combining ATO, ABSBR, ABF trade and survey data to provide a better understanding of the Australian economy and businesses performance over time. BLADE is used as the integrated base for this publication.

Business characteristics data sourced from the ABSBR, such as industry, are updated from the most recent update and then cast back through the time series on BLADE. For the purposes of this publication, in more than 99% of cases, industry is held constant from 2017-18 through to 2020-21, based on business characteristics as at June 2021. An exception to this rule can occur if an ABN is linked to an Enterprise Group where none of the TAUs share the same ANZSIC division as the ABN. In this scenario, changes in the number of employees and/or annual turnover over time can lead to differing TAU selection across years. This scenario leads to changes in ANZSIC over time for <0.5% of ABNs (representing approximately 1% of value).

BLADE contains ABN and TAU level integrated data. However, for complex units where an ABN is linked to an Enterprise Group which has more than one TAU, the ABN to TAU matching process in this publication differs from the standard ABS approach described in the Explanatory Notes of the SESCA. In the SESCA, ABN to TAU linkages are established through direct contact with the business. In contrast, this publication utilises a method of ANZSIC matching to establish ABN to TAU linkages.

The results of these studies are based, in part, on Australian Business Register (ABR) data supplied by the Registrar to the ABS under A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Act 1999 and tax data supplied by the ATO to the ABS under the Taxation Administration Act 1953. These require that such data is only used for the purpose of carrying out functions of the ABS. No individual information collected under the Census and Statistics Act 1905 is provided back to the Registrar or ATO for administrative or regulatory purposes. Any discussion of data limitations or weaknesses is in the context of using the data for statistical purposes and is not related to the ability of the data to support the ABR or ATO’s core operational requirements. Legislative requirements to ensure privacy and secrecy of this data have been followed. Only those authorised under the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act 1975 have been allowed to view data about any particular firm in conducting analysis. In accordance with the Census and Statistics Act 1905, results have been confidentialised to ensure that they are not likely to enable identification of a particular person or organisation.

To assist readers to interpret data on the number and characteristics of importers, the TAU (which is derived from ABN) is used to obtain selected information on businesses from the ABSBR.

Industry of the TAU business, based on the ANZSIC 2006, is obtained from the ABSBR. This cannot be obtained for business importers that are not on the ABSBR (including CCID’s).

The following should be considered when interpreting business characteristics data about importers:

• ABSBR data loaded to BLADE, such as industry, are updated from the most recent update (June 2021) and then cast back through the BLADE time series,
• A business may have more than one ABN and the ABN specified on the import documentation may be linked to a TAU that does not reflect the true industry of the business importer. As a result, in some cases, business characteristics could relate to a corporate head office, and
• A business located in a state may import goods into other states.

The following information can be obtained or derived from ABF import documentation for all merchandise importers, including those without an ABN:

• Value of imports,
• State of final destination of the commodity, and
• Country of origin.

The ABF data is used to compile merchandise trade statistics, which are presented in ABS publication: International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia. The same data are used to compile the statistics in this publication.

ATO data items are utilised in the “ANZSIC Matching” unit selection process, the derivation of importer size (as published in Tables 3 and 5), and the medians calculated in Table 7. These data items are:

• Annual turnover (sourced from Business Activity Statement (BAS) data), and
• Number of employees (sourced from Pay as You Go (PAYG) data).

As described in the Importer size section, the data items listed above cannot be obtained for CCID’s.

This publication contains statistics on the following country groups: APEC, ASEAN, EU, OECD and Pacific. For comparison purposes, these country groups were held constant over time, regardless of whether a country entered or exited a country group in a given year. The groups are listed below:

Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals. Values are rounded to the $m throughout the downloadable tables, however percentage movements are calculated using whole dollars.

Legislative requirements to ensure privacy and secrecy of this data have been followed. Only people authorised under the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act 1975 have been allowed to view data about any particular firm in conducting these analyses.

In accordance with the Census and Statistics Act 1905, results have been confidentialised to ensure that they are not likely to enable identification of a particular person or organisation.