PRODCOM AND COMEXT

You may come across the expression “ProdCom” or “ComExt,” which is an interesting but also very tricky database. You can access this database through Eurostat’s Database by themes under International Trade–International Trade detailed data.

I strongly advise using the contents with great care because this database contains information about production and trade of products on an extremely detailed product level. This may sound good, but it has the downside of making the data so detailed, it’s almost useless, particularly as it employs multiple industry coding systems, which it calls “nomenclatures.”

An example:
The database contains codes for ventilators such as these:

• Iron or steel nonmechanical ventilators
• Fans
• Axial fans
• Centrifugal fans
• Table, floor, wall, window, ceiling or roof fans

To get the size of axial fan production is almost impossible, as some of these fall into different categories depending upon how they are interpreted across countries.

The more specific the data, the more confidentiality. Although all of these product codes are available, you may often run into problems with the actual data. Eurostat is very careful not to reveal confidential information. This implies that if company secrets could be revealed through the statistics, then they are left out. While this is a very understandable way of handling this issue, it is annoying to information professionals who run into problems finding any data at all. 

Other EU sources

The Eurostat site, despite its treasure trove of statistics, is not the only EU source that provides valuable information. Here are a few others:

Europa (europa.eu), the official website of the European Union, covers different topics of specific interest due to regulations or collective agreements. The pages often contain very detailed reports about the industries concerned. You can find information about these on the main page of the EU.

The Eurobarometer section (ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/index_en.htm) of the European Commission website tracks public opinion through regular surveys across the EU countries. The surveys and studies address major topics concerning European citizenship, such as enlargement, social situation, health, culture, information technology, environment, the Euro, defense, and other topics of interest.

The EU Competition (ec.europa.eu/competition/index_en.html) section of the European Commission website has a variety of information about the competition in different industries and, very importantly, the mergers in the EU. It often provides very nice analyses of the markets. Confidential data on market size and market shares are usually omitted or indicated only as ranges, but it still provides a very good insight into the competitive situation in the market.