COUNTRY

United Kingdom

PRODUCT

HS940410

Mattress supports

Context:

The results provided for this market and product combination is based on the analysis that underpins the outcomes of the study commissioned by SAFI (conducted in 2024). The study is based on Trade Advisory’s Export Market Finder international trade modelling platform that generates product-specific global market intelligence for exporters.

The approach identifies products and markets with export potential and opportunities for export diversification specifically from the global and export context of a particular ‘home market’ (in this instance South Africa), with the main container harbour as main port of exports for the market (in this instance the port of Durban). The approach makes use of a detailed set of various aspects of international trade (e.g. market economics, risk, import demand patterns, concentration, access in terms of tariffs and logistics as well as the home market’s existing as well as new potential export products) to describe the specific country and product combination. This approach is recognised by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as a trade facilitation tool.

This report contains a summary snapshot of outcomes for the exports of HS940410 to United Kingdom from the perspective of the home market (South Africa). More technical detail is available on request from Trade Research Advisory.

Angola positioned in terms of overall market opportunities

Evaluation

Realistic Export Opportunity

‘Untapped’ potential for this product into United Kingdom is estimated at

116.59 Million ZAR

Import tariff applicable to this product into this market

N/A

The meaning of this…

Key Insights

Market import demand observations for this product:

United Kingdom’s import demand is relatively large in global terms, but stable or ‘flat’ from a growth perspective. Note that United Kingdom does not have an absolute positive growth trend for this product over the period under consideration. While this is still an opportunity, it may be in a declining phase for the import of this particular product.

Competition in the market for this product:

A market’s willingness to trade on a product with a variety of supplying countries is an indication that such a market may be more accessible to new alternative suppliers (such as from South Africa in this instance). Historical import patterns for United Kingdom specifically demonstrate that United Kingdom is trading with various alternative supplying countries for this product and hence this fact contributes to a more favourable evaluation of this opportunity from a market access perspective. However, China is a significant supplier (at 35.4%), followed by Turkey (at 32.5%) (see Competitors section for more details).

Access to market in terms of relative logistics and tariff costs

In relative terms, for this product, United Kingdom is relatively accessible from South Africa in terms of the combination of logistics and tariff costs, compared to other markets for the same product. United Kingdom’s import tariff level for this product from South Africa is set at 0.0% at the time of evaluation (the effective level may change in real-time and always needs to be confirmed before final decision making).

Market growth strategy for this product:

If a company’s strategy is to focus on relatively large but stable markets; United Kingdom may be an ideal market to enter. If the company is a new entrant to United Kingdom, the strategy would need to consider how to take market share from existing suppliers to this market. For new exporters United Kingdom market may pose more challenges in terms of penetrating this market due to entrenched competitors.

Existing relationships with target market for this product:

South Africa to date has supplied none or relatively little of United Kingdom’s import demand specifically for this product which means:

for mature exporters:

If an exporter is mature at exporting this product already, United Kingdom may be an excellent opportunity to develop for the purposes of market diversification. It will however require some investment in terms of time, effort and costs to develop this market hitherto ‘untapped’ by South Africa’s exporters.

for less mature or new exporters:

If an exporter is mature at exporting this product already, United Kingdom may be an excellent opportunity to develop for the purposes of market diversification. It will however require some investment in terms of time, effort and costs to develop this market hitherto ‘untapped’ by South Africa’s exporters.

South Africa – United Kingdom trade for this product HS940410

Trends

The first chart displays South Africa’s export value of the product (if South Africa historically did export this product to United Kingdom) contrasted relative to the overall trend of this product’s import value (dashed brown line) into United Kingdom over the last 5 years. The estimated ‘untapped’ potential for United Kingdom (the solid green bar displayed in first chart) is also shown relative to the target market’s total imports (dashed brown line) as well as existing exports from South Africa(solid blue line). In this instance the estimated ‘untapped’ potential associated with this opportunity is estimated to be 116.59 Million ZAR. In the second chart the value of existing trade between South Africa and United Kingdom are shown in finer resolution.

The share of South Africa’s exports of the specific product, relative to total imports of the same product into United Kingdom from all other trading partners, is demonstrated in the bar chart (solid bars). In this case, at 0.01% (on a 5-year time-weighted basis), South Africa is an existing but relatively small supplier of this product into United Kingdom, and as such most of the `untapped` potential remains to be pursued by exporters from South Africa.

South Africa – United Kingdom trade for this product HS940410

Competitors

While the preceding analysis indicated that United Kingdom generally trades with a variety of supplying countries for this product, the following information provides more detail on the potential competing countries that currently are major suppliers of the product into United Kingdom. South Africa is ranked in position 34 in recent times (out of a total supplier base of 75 countries serving this market’s existing import demand for this particular product, evaluated on a 5-year time-weighted basis). Note that South Africa is always placed in the last position of the chart (before ‘Rest’), irrespective of its actual position as supplier of this product into the target market, while only the main competitors are shown for context. In the event that South Africa does not appear on the chart at all it means there exists no record of recent exports from South Africa to United Kingdom.