Service offers reports on Chinese exporters

Service offers reports on Chinese exporters    Two information services said they will help American companies to assess the health of suppliers in China.
   Panjiva in New York and Sinosure, a credit reporting service based in Beijing, said their Panjiva SinoScreen service will combine information such as credit reports on Chinese manufacturers and U.S. customs data to create an easy-to-interpret analysis of Chinese supply chains.
   “At a time of macroeconomic uncertainty, the lack of supply chain transparency has heightened the risk of doing business with overseas partners,” the companies said.
   More information is available here.
   Meanwhile, Panjiva President Josh Green wrote on his blog Tuesday that his company’s analysis of U.S. shipping data through March “seems to back up U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's recent claim that 'the decline in world trade may be abating.”
   He said there was a slight increase in the number of companies shipping to U.S. customers, up to 120,000 in March, versus 118,000 in February.
   “The bad news is that there is still a tremendous amount of risk in the system. At the end of March, as usual, we took a look at significant manufacturers, and we found that 30 percent of these companies qualified for the Panjiva Watch List, as a result of suffering a 50 percent or greater decline in volume shipped to U.S. customers during the most recent three-month period, versus the same period a year ago,” he said. Also, 40 percent of significant U.S. buyers have an active relationship with at least one Panjiva Watch List manufacturer.”
   Panjiva counts as “significant” manufacturers those that have sent 10 or more shipments to the United States by boat in the last year, and at least one shipment by boat in the past three months.