INDUSTRIAL COMMODITY PRODUCTION STATISTICS DATASET

PRODUCT INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION:

This product represents the entire database of industrial commodity statistics covering the period 1950-2004, and contains the statistics available to the Statistics Division up to 12 February 2007. Data for the time-period 1995-2004 is available in print form in the 2004 Industrial Commodity Statistics Yearbook, prepared by the Economic Statistics and Classifications Section of the Statistics Division and is available for ordering through http://unp.un.org.

PRESENTATION OF STATISTICS:

In principle, the production data refer to the total industrial production of each commodity during the years indicated and within the national boundaries of each country. The data should thus include: a) the production of industrial establishments for which the commodity is a primary product; b) the production of industrial establishments for which it is a secondary product; c) the production of industrial establishments for which it is an intermediate product. Unless otherwise stated in the footnotes, production by non-industrial establishments, such as farm production of dairy products, is excluded.

SELECTION, ORDERING AND CODING OF COMMODITIES:

The selection of industrial commodities is based on a list of products and materials prepared by the Statistics Division for the 1973 World Programme of Industrial Statistics. Definitions of commodities are provided in the Access file named "tblCommodities". These definitions are based largely on the description of related items of the Brussels Tariff Nomenclature (BTN) .

The coding of the commodities has been based on the codes of the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC Rev. 2) . The first four digits of the six-digit code number relate to the pertinent ISIC Rev. 2 industry group of which the commodity is a principal product. The remaining two digits indicate the position of the item within the set of commodities pertaining to this industry group. In a few cases, however, a seventh digit has been introduced to provide more detail for a given commodity than the aforementioned list of selected products and materials would allow. As a result, the data previously shown under "Copper, refined", for example, have now been broken down to supply additional information on the production of primary and secondary refined copper separately. As a rule, where two or more units of measurement are recommended, the series are differentiated by the use of capital letters "A", "B", etc. following the basic code. In a few cases, however, these letters also relate to the components of a given item. Where the code for a commodity contains letter "M", the data are shown in terms of metal content of metal-bearing ores and concentrates.

The corresponding code for the commodity based on the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC, Rev. 3) is shown at the end of the definition (see tblCommodities). In this case, also a six-digit code number is used, the first five digits being the code number of the most closely related SITC item and the sixth digit indicating whether the item is the equivalent of the SITC item (use of zero in the sixth place) or only part of it (use of 1, 2, etc., in the sixth place). A correspondence between the ISIC-based commodity codes and the SITC Revised , SITC Rev. 2 , SITC Rev.3 and Harmonized System (HS 1996) codes is available.

COMPARABILITY OF DATA:

The metric system of weights and measures has been used throughout the database. While efforts have been made to ensure the comparability of the series published for each commodity through the use of standard definitions and units of measurement, the compilation of the data in standard form has occasionally presented difficulties. In some cases, for example, units of measurement other than the recommended units have been used in reporting and, in these cases, the data have been converted into the recommended units either by the use of standard conversion factors or by ad hoc conversion factors. The latter have been utilized in the compilation of certain tables in the publication; some of these factors are only of an approximate character and have been employed solely to obtain a reasonable measure of international comparability on the tables. The Word file named "conversion factors.doc" provides a list of such conversion factors. In other cases, however, the data could not be converted into the recommended units for lack of appropriate conversion factors.

GENERAL DISCLAIMER:

The designations used in any of the files contained in this CD do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The term "country" as used in any of the files contained in this CD also refers, as appropriate, to territories or areas.

SOURCE:

The data contained in this database has primarily been collected from questionnaires sent yearly to national statistical authorities. However, when necessary, data has also been collected from the following specialized agencies, intergovernmental bodies, governmental agencies, private institutes and associations, etc., whose information or publications have been utilized in updating our statistics: Afristat (Bamako, Mali), Asian Development Bank (Manila), Fiber Economics Bureau (USA), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Rome), International Iron and Steel Institute (Brussels), International Rubber Study Group (London), International Sugar Organization (London), International Grains Council (London) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia).

TECHNICAL NOTE

RECOMMENDED PC CONFIGURATION:

• IBM-compatible PC, Pentium 200 or better
• Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT 4/2000/ME
• 32 MB of RAM
• Display resolution of 800 x 600 pixels
• Microsoft Access 2000

ABOUT THE CD:

This CD is not an interactive product. It is merely a database put on a cd platform. Only two basic queries are provided with the database, and it is up to the users to build any additional application deemed necessary to extract and use the data according to their specific needs.

The database is available as an MS Access database.

ORGANIZATION OF THE INDUSTRIAL COMMODITY STATISTICS CD-ROM:

The CD contains two kinds of information. The database and other relevant information.

Database: The database comprises 5 tables and 2 queries:

Table of Comodities: tblCommodity: CommodityCode: ISIC Rev.2-based commodity code

• Title_E: Commodity name (English)
• Title_F: Commodity name (French)
• Title_S: Commodity name (Spanish)
• De: Commodity description (English)
• Df: Commodity description (French)
  

Table of Countries: tblCountry: CountryCode: Country id-code

• Title_E: Country name (English)
• Title_F: Country name (French)
• Title_S: Country name (Spanish)

Table of Data: tblData: CommodityCode: ISIC Rev.2-based commodity code

• CountryCode: Country id-code
• UnitCode: Unit of measure 3-digit code
• Year: Year
• Value: Quantity
• Foot1: First footnote (if applicable)
• Foot2: Second footnote (if applicable)
• Foot3: Third footnote (if applicable)
  

Table of Footnotes: tblFootnote: FootCode: Footnote number

• Note_E: Footnote text (English)
• Note_F: Footnote text (French)
• Note_S: Footnote text (Spanish)

Table of Units: tblUnit: UnitCode: Unit of measure 3-digit code

• Multiplier: Multiplier used with reference to base United Nations
• UnitShort_E: Unit symbol or abbreviated name (English)
• UnitShort_F: Unit symbol or abbreviated name (French)
• UnitShort_S: Unit symbol or abbreviated name (Spanish)
• UnitLong_E: Unit unabbreviated name (English)
• UnitLong_F: Unit unabbreviated name (French)
• UnitLong_S: Unit unabbreviated name (Spanish)

For the user's convenience, the file "AllData", in query (record by record) or report (tabular) form, displays the most relevant fields at a glance:

File AllData: CommodityCode: ISIC Rev.2-based commodity code

• TblCommodity.Title_E: Commodity name (English)
• CountryCode: Country id-code
• TblCountry.Title_E: Country name (English)
• UnitCode: Unit of measure 3-digit code
• UnitShort_E: Unit symbol or abbreviated name (English)
• Year: Year
• Value: Quantity
• TblFootnote.Note_E: Text of first footnote (if applicable)
• TblFootnote1.Note_E: Text of second footnote (if applicable)
• TblFootnote2.Note_E: Text of third footnote (if applicable)
  

Reference material: The following files have also been included for the client's convenience:

Conversion Factors: A table displaying general conversion coefficients and factors for different units as well as specific ones for selected commodities.

List of Selected products and Materials: List of correspondence according to ISIC Rev.3 numerical order with other classifications: ISIC Rev.2, ISIC Rev.3, HS-96, PRODCOM 97, SITC Rev.3, CPC, FAO/ECE.

Country remarks: A series of general remarks on selected countries, which also appears in the printed edition of the Yearbook.

INQUIRIES AND ORDERS