What customs and bill of lading data can and cannot tell you about a buyer

For United States ocean imports, the carrier's inward cargo declaration to United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Form 1302, contains the fields below, as defined by 19 CFR 4.7a.

Two details matter when you read a sample. First, the rule allows a description or a 6-digit HTS number. Some records carry only text, so search by HS code and also by product words. Second, the description and quantity on container cargo come from the exporter. The master of the ship may sign this statement:

So the product text in a record is the shipper's own wording, not an inspected fact. None of the fields above is a price per unit, a contact person or a payment record.

The publication rule is 19 CFR 103.31. Under 103.31(a)(3), accredited press, including trade journals, may copy and publish all the information on the inward cargo declaration. Members of the public cannot look at manifests themselves, but under 103.31(c) they may request manifest information from CBP. This rule is why United States manifest data can be published commercially.

The same rule lets an importer or consignee hide its name and address. Under 103.31(d), the company sends CBP a certification. It does not need to prove harm to its business. Each initial certification is valid for two years from the date CBP receives it. Renewals should be sent at least 60 days before expiry. If a buyer you know is large does not appear, a confidentiality request is a likely reason.

To see raw United States records free, use ImportYeti, which Bellingcat's investigation toolkit describes. It holds United States sea bills of lading from January 2015, obtained through a freedom of information request to United States Customs, and shows them free online. Fields include purchaser and supplier names, supplier country, weight, ports and HS code. The free search works by company name only, and you must enter the legal name. A free login is needed after 25 page views.

Two governments publish importer names from customs data without charge. Neither gives volumes per company or contact people.

The Canadian list says plainly that customs brokers appear in it. A name on that list can be a broker acting for the real buyer.

Mirror data uses one country's records to describe its partner's trade. The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) uses partners' records to estimate the trade of countries that do not report. The World Bank's WITS help page explains why the two sides rarely match. Imports are recorded CIF (cost, insurance and freight) and exports FOB (free on board), which may be a 10% to 20% difference. Also, the exporter and the importer may classify the same good under different codes. In the WITS example, for 2001 Pakistan reported $236 million of exports to China, while China reported $557 million.

Company-level data works the same way. Reevi's published methodology states which kind each market uses. For the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil and Chile, the provider supplies records filed in the market itself. For EU countries, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the Gulf states, it supplies the exporting countries' records. A German company appears only because an exporter in India or Vietnam declared a shipment to it. No records from China are included. To see which exporting countries a mirror count draws on, read the origin column on that market page. It lists the countries whose export records name the buyers.

Read the turmeric rows this way. At the last reading shown on each page, the provider attributed about 91% of the value in United States import records to India. In the German mirror row, about 85% of the value was reported by India's export records. Germany's row counts only German companies named in the export records the provider holds. For rice, about 50% of the value in United States import records came from Pakistan, and in the UAE mirror row about 73% was reported by Pakistan's export records. Check the origin table on each linked page for the current share. The dollar values also differ in kind. United States values come from import records. Mirror values come from what exporters declared. The methodology does not say whether either is CIF or FOB, so do not compare the dollar totals across the two record types.

Mirror counts are weakest for goods where China is a large supplier, because China's records are absent. For that reason, the methodology indexes mirror pages only for food and agricultural goods (HS chapters 01 to 24). For wooden furniture, use import-record markets: 8,948 companies appear in United States import records, with about 72% of shipments from Vietnam at the last reading.

Before you pay for a subscription, send the vendor these questions in writing:

1. For each country in my quote, are the records filed at import, or are they other countries' export records?
2. For mirror countries, which exporting countries' records are included, and what share of my product's trade do they carry? Is China included?
3. What period do the records cover for each country, and how long after arrival does a shipment appear?
4. Are air shipments included, or only ocean bills of lading?
5. How do you show United States importers that requested confidentiality?
6. Is a 'shipment' one bill of lading, one declaration line, or one consignment?
7. Can you send a redacted sample record for my HS code and country, and how do you merge different spellings of one company?

Counts carry their own noise. In this provider's data, a shipment is one record per bill of lading or declaration line, so one physical consignment can produce more than one record. A company can also appear under two spellings, and the provider does not publish its matching rules. The methodology's summary is direct: the numbers describe recorded trade, 'not demand, intent or creditworthiness'.

1. 1

   Match the product, not just the code

   Confirm the 6-digit HS code is yours (turmeric is 091030, milled rice is 100630). Then read the description text. It is the shipper's wording, so check that it means the same grade or form you sell.

2. 2

   Check who the consignee is

   Open the consignee's website. If it is a logistics company or a customs broker, the real buyer is someone else. Find the end buyer before you pitch.

3. 3

   Read the dates

   Count the shipments. One old shipment proves only one shipment. Repeated shipments are evidence of recurring imports. Check the latest date before you treat the company as active today.

4. 4

   Read the suppliers and origin

   If the buyer already ships from your country, you are replacing a named competitor, so ask about price, consistency or certificates. If it ships from elsewhere, your pitch is a second origin.

5. 5

   Estimate shipment size from the weight

   For records of the same product in the same weight unit, divide total gross weight by the number of shipments. This gives an average recorded shipment size. Check single shipments for variation, and ask the buyer for its required net order quantity before you quote.

6. 6

   Cross-check with a free source

   For a company in the United States, search its legal name on ImportYeti. For the United Kingdom, search HMRC's Find UK traders by name and commodity code. For Canada, search the Canadian Importers Database by product. Then run the name through a free company check to see whether it is real and active.

Reevi starts from your product and target countries. It finds companies that sell, use or source the product from trade records and company websites. It explains why each one fits and checks that each has a working website. The public importer pages show totals only, labelled by record type. Every Reevi plan, including the free one, includes company contacts per the pricing page.

Reevi's paid plans add customs import records on your buyers: shipments, value and who supplies them today. Read them with the limits above. To check a buyer's legal status, see how to verify a foreign buyer. To build a list from an HS code, see how to find importers by HS code.