BICS weighted Scotland estimates: data to wave 63

Exporting and Importing Challenges

The BICS asks businesses that are currently trading about how current conditions, including the end of the EU transition period, have impacted on their exporting and importing – the specific questions asked are shown below.

Question: How did your business's exporting compare with this calendar month last year?

• exported/imported more
• exporting/importing stayed the same
• exported/imported less
• business was unable to export / import
• not sure

Figure 9: Of businesses currently trading that have exported/imported in the last 12 months, 16.7% reported exporting less in July 2022 compared to July 2021, and 13.8% reported importing less.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 63

Businesses reporting that they exported less has decreased in recent waves but remains higher than in Wave 54: 11.0% in Wave 54 (March 2022) compared to 23.1% in Wave 61 (June 2022) and 16.7% in Wave 63 which asked about July 2022.  

Businesses reporting that they exported more has increased in recent waves (14.4% in Wave 61 compared to 16.3% in Wave 63).

Businesses reporting that they imported less has decreased in recent waves but remains higher than in Wave 54 (8.5% in Wave 54 compared to 18.6% in Wave 61 and 13.8% in Wave 63).

In the latest period (Wave 63), around half of exporters (47.6%) and importers (53.9%) reported their exporting/importing had stayed the same. The proportion of businesses reporting that exports have stayed the same is lower than in March 2022 (61.0% in Wave 54) but has remained relatively stable since May 2022 (47.6% in Wave 58). The proportion of those reporting imports stayed the same decreased to its lowest point in the time series in Wave 58 (48.7%).

Currently trading businesses who had exported in the last 12 months were asked where they exported goods or services to in the last 3 months. The majority of these businesses (72.3%) reported exporting to both the EU and non-EU destinations, this proportion has increased from Wave 41 (October 2021) when it was 51.5%.

Figure 10: Of currently trading businesses that have exported/imported in the last 12 months, 72.3% of exporters and over half (56.5%) of importers reported exporting/importing to both EU and non-EU destinations in the last 3 months.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 63

When these businesses were asked if they had changed where they were exporting to in the last 3 months, 84.3% of businesses reported no changes. This pattern was very similar for importers (81.6%) sourcing goods.

Currently trading businesses that have exported or imported in the last 12 months, and reported on how exporting compared to the previous year were asked if they had experienced an increase in exporting/importing challenges.

Figure 11: Around half (49.5%) of exporters and 39.2% of importers reported that they did not experience an increase in exporting/importing challenges in July 2022 compared with June 2022.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 63

The largest changes to challenges for exports between Waves 61 and 63 are a lower proportion of businesses reporting an increase in destination countries changing border restrictions (down to 5.5% from 13.9%) and an increase in reported lack of hauliers/logistics equipment (up to 17.5% from 8.1%). The challenges that were most commonly reported to have increased in the current wave were changes in transportation costs and additional paperwork, which is the same as in Wave 62.

Of businesses which experienced challenges to exporting in the last 12 months, approximately half (49.1%) reported that this caused them moderate disruption, only 6.6% reported severe disruption from these challenges and 37.0% reported low disruption. This is a broadly consistent pattern since the question was first asked in January 2021, though at this time 15.0% of businesses were reporting severe disruption. A similar question was asked of businesses which experienced importing challenges in the last 12 months, but around half (52.1%) of businesses reported only low disruption from these challenges, with 39.9% reporting moderate disruption and 5.2% severe disruption.   

Businesses which experienced these challenges with exporting were also asked what support options they have benefited from to help with exporting challenges. Most businesses (79.5%) responded that none of the support options listed were helpful, and this has consistently been the most frequent response since the series began in April 2021.

Figure 12: The support options that most businesses reported that they benefitted from for exporting were information on exporting and customs/tariffs support.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 63

Businesses that reported challenges to exporting/importing were asked about the main cause of these exporting/importing challenges.

Figure 13: Around half 49.1% of businesses reported that the end of the EU transition period was the main cause of their exporting challenges.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 63

The end of the EU transition period was most often reported as the main challenge for importing (45.9%) also.