Trade flow analysis is a useful tool to help understand wire and cable market developments in a broad and timely manner. Acknowledging the shortfalls that trade flows are difficult to examine in product and market depth, and obviously tell you little about market conditions in large countries where there is little trade and demand is met by local production is an important lesson to remember.
But applied in the right circumstances to the right markets they can impart some insight not readily visible from other sources within 2-3 months of actual events. Hopefully the events of the summer will only prove to be a blip on the path to a complete recovery, however long that may take.
