Cases · Tools

Cut a supplier

Pick a stage of one of the ten chains and an exporter, and cut its exports: who loses what share of their supply, who could fill the gap, and what passes one stage down the chain. First-round arithmetic on 2024 trade shares, not a forecast.

  • 89stages to choose from
  • 2024the year of the shares
  • 25exporters of this stage listed

Oil and gas to plastics · S5 · Polymers (PE, PP, PVC, PET, PS)

Cut the exports of United States in Polymers (PE, PP, PVC, PET, PS) (Oil and gas to plastics, stage 5) and follow the shortfall to the importers and one stage down the chain.

Who loses what share of their supply: Polymers, 2024

  • World exports cut13.6%of world polymers exports
  • Importers with over a quarter at risk5of the 40 largest importers
The 12 importers with the largest share of their imports at risk. Select one to see who could fill its gap.
ImporterShare of world importsFrom United StatesAt risk, share of its importsIts other suppliers would ship
1.8%86.7%86.7%+650%
3.3%77.3%77.3%+340%
0.7%50.2%50.2%+101%
2.6%42.6%42.6%+74%
0.7%33.9%33.9%+51%
1.9%20.3%20.3%+25%
1.6%20.1%20.1%+25%
0.66%19.6%19.6%+24%
0.58%17.6%17.6%+21%
0.64%15.5%15.5%+18%
0.74%14.2%14.2%+17%
1.2%13.6%13.6%+16%

Who could fill the gap: Canada, 86.7% of its imports

The suppliers it already buys from, in proportion to their shares: each would have to ship 650% more. Share now, then the part of the gap it would take:

  • China 2.7% +17.4 pp
  • Mexico 2.3% +14.7 pp
  • Korea 1.9% +12.2 pp
  • Taiwan 1.6% +10.4 pp
  • Pakistan 0.95% +6.2 pp
  • Germany 0.88% +5.7 pp
  • Smaller suppliers 3.1% +20.1 pp

The largest other exporters, by share of world exports

  • Saudi Arabia 9.6%
  • China 8.5% · already a supplier
  • Korea 8.1% · already a supplier
  • Belgium 4.9%
  • Germany 4.8% · already a supplier

One stage down the chain

Film, sheets and packaging

Upper bound (100% pass-through, no use share). This stage feeds only this chain, so the chain file gives it no use share and the whole shortfall passes down.

10.7% of world film, sheets and packaging exports at risk in the first round, summed over the 20 large exporters with an exposure upstream. The 8 listed below carry 8.9%.

ExporterShare of world exportsIts exposure upstreamWorld exports at risk
Canada3.2%86.7%2.8%
China17.2%12.4%2.1%
Mexico2.3%77.3%1.8%
Korea3.5%19.6%0.69%
Belgium2.3%20.1%0.45%
Germany10.3%3.8%0.39%
Malaysia1.6%20.3%0.32%
Taiwan2.1%15.5%0.32%

An exporter of the next stage loses its share of world exports × its own exposure upstream (× the use share). Exporters on a closed route lose their own exports × the cut. Exposure upstream is the share of its imported polymers that came from the closed supplier, not of all the polymers it uses: where most are made at home (Japan, Korea, Germany for car parts), it overstates the risk.

First-round arithmetic on trade shares, not a forecast: an importer’s exposure is its import share from the shocked suppliers × the cut. No stocks, no new suppliers, no price changes.

Suppliers are read from the flows the map stores for the stage: each importer’s ten largest suppliers and every flow above 0.05% of world trade; the rest are “smaller suppliers”. The next stage and the use share come from the chain file.

Source: UN Comtrade, Final data, HS6; mirror rule; shares of 2024.

datasteg: the flow sites