Commodity trading monitoring report

Rapport Rapport de recherche Commodity trading monitoring report fre 2017 author Eggert Nina 511608 author Ferro-Luzzi Giovanni 26585 author Ouyang Difei 820662 Switzerland has a long tradition of commodity trading. Since the end of WWII the sector has developed and strengthened noticeably during the growth decade of international trade in 2000-2010. It has since become an important economic sector representing 3.8% of Swiss GDP. As a consequence of its growth, it has gained increased attention by political, and civil society actors. However, the debate in Switzerland on the commodity trading sector relies on widespread public perceptions of the industry, supported by little empirical evidence. With the exception of a survey conducted by Ernst and Young and the Geneva Trading and Shipping Association (GTSA) in 2007, no data currently exist on the profile of the industry in Switzerland. Indeed, data on commodity trading in Switzerland are scare, and actors engaging in the debate (scholars, political actors, authorities, professional organizations and NGOs) agree on the need for more scientific data on the sector in order to inform the discussion. This lack of visibility drives the collection of information (such as company size, employment, activities, trading area) in order to compare scientific observations with popular perceptions. By presenting the results of a unique representative survey on commodity trading companies, this report aims to provide a first preliminary overview of the sector and to offer important insights that are of particular relevance in the current debates and that have important policy implications. The results of this study highlight the importance of systematically surveying and collecting data on a sector on which we have so little information. Evaluations on the importance and structure of the sector have so far relied mainly on approximations. For example, the Swiss classification of industries (NOGA) does not have one dedicated category for the trading sector, making it necessary to rely on the support of the umbrella organization of the sector (STSA), to identify relevant companies in Switzerland (about 450 companies). A first result of the study shows that the number of direct jobs provided by the industry has been largely under-estimated previously (GTSA and E&Y, 2007; Déclaration de Berne (ed.), 2011). As of 2016 it provides over 35'000 direct jobs,2 bringing the commodity trading sector more in line with typical employment to GDP ratios in high value-added service industries. This updated figure is more in line with what is observed in other comparable sectors. Second, the survey shows that the 80% of the Swiss entities performing commodity trading activities in Switzerland employ 100 people or less in the country. For companies with their headquarters in Switzerland, the employment worldwide is less than 500 for more than three quarters of them. Moreover more than half of these have less than 100 employees worldwide. Third, the results show the diversity of countries of origination and destination, with Europe dominating in both cases. This underlines the importance for Swiss trading companies to be close to their clients. Switzerland's position at the heart of Europe clearly provides trading companies with a strategic location. Therefore, whilst common perceptions suggest that the sector is operating from Switzerland mainly due to a favourable regulatory environment (Le Temps 27 January 2017) , the importance of commercial factors such as customer proximity and geographic advantages should not be overlooked. Another important result shows that the most important priority for companies in terms of business environment is the regulatory environment (over 80% consider it as being very important), followed by corporate tax (71.4%). However, their level of satisfaction with these two factors in Switzerland is not as well rated as the political and economic stability which is considered as very good to good by over 80% of the responding companies. Fifth, the survey shows that over 80% of the companies are dependent on bank financing. This finding has some implications in terms of regulation. Banks are submitted to strong financial regulations, in line with international regulations. Consequently, being under the direct supervision of banks, commodity traders are indirectly subject to these regulations. Finally, this survey also highlights that the turnover of commodity trading companies is dependent on the type of traded commodity. It shows considerable differences across families of commodities given the difference of prices across commodities. In addition, results on the turnover of companies also show that it is greater abroad than in Switzerland, consistently with the international nature of the business. Since this is the first scientific study on the sector in Switzerland, there are of course some possible improvements. The scarcity of data on the industry led to the design of a questionnaire combining different research objectives that significantly affected the complexity of the questionnaire. As a consequence, it could not be filled in by a unique respondent in an organization since it required competences that are spread across various departments. This affected the data collection and the response rate. However the study is a first step towards the systematization of information and data about the sector and calls for a regular monitoring under the auspices of the Swiss Research Institute on Commodities. Ideally, the regular monitoring should take place every 2 years focusing on a more specific questionnaire that will lead to a better response rate. This endeavour would result in a shorter and adjusted questionnaire. The results also reveal the importance for questions regarding financial information to be aligned with the standards of the yearly SNB survey, considering the significant work required from companies to provide this information. The use of internet administered questionnaire should also be considered in order to improve the response rate. The monitoring should also be completed by the development of a code for commodity trading in the Swiss classification of industries (3-digit NOGA code), that so far does not record commodity trading but merges it within different categories. This would allow to significantly improve the data collection about the sector and its evolution in a robust and scientific way, in order to better grasp a heterogeneous industry sector that is largely unknown from the general public. Dewey 330/650 9 Faculté d'économie et de management S false 2795c0e8-e5ad-4061-bf6f-da31c3dc97ab Report Public commodity_trading_monitoring_final_7april2017.pdf 552907 application/pdf openAccess Faculté d'économie et de management

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