The 2011 Import and Export
Market for Mineral Fuels,
Lubricants, and Related
Materials in Costa Rica
By
Professor Philip M. Parker, Ph. D.
Chaired Professor of Management Science
INSEAD (Singapore & Fontainebleau, France)
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About the Author
Dr. Philip M. Parker is the Eli Lilly Chaired Professor of Innovation, Business and Society at
INSEAD where he has taught courses on multivariate statistics and global competitive strategy
since 1988. He has also taught courses at MIT, Stanford University, Harvard University, UCLA,
UCSD, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is the author of six books
on the economic convergence of nations. These books introduce the notion of “physioeconomics”
which foresees a lack of global convergence in economic behaviors due to physiological and
physiographic forces. His latest book is "Physioeconomics: The Basis for Long-Run Economic
Growth" (MIT Press 2000). He has also published numerous articles in academic journals,
including The Rand Journal of Economics, Marketing Science, the Journal of International
Business Studies, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, International Journal of
Forecasting, the European Management Journal, the European Journal of Operational
Research, Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Journal of
Marketing Research. He is also on the editorial boards of several academic journals.
Dr. Parker received his Ph.D. in Business Economics from the Wharton School of the University
of Pennsylvania and has Masters degrees in Finance and Banking (University of Aix-Marseille)
and Managerial Economics (Wharton). His undergraduate degrees are in mathematics, biology
and economics (minor in aeronautical engineering). He has consulted and/or taught courses in
Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, North America and Europe.
About this Series
This series was created for international firms who rely on foreign export markets for a
substantial portion of their business or who might be threatened by foreign trade competition.
The estimates given in this report were created using a methodology developed by and under the
direct supervision of Professor Philip M. Parker, the Eli Lilly Chaired Professor of Innovation,
Business and Society, at INSEAD. The methodology, relying on historical figures of economic
growth and trade flows, estimates the market shares of some 150 countries for over 500 industrial
or product categories. The figures should be seen as market estimates, as opposed to historical
records, as these are projected for the current year of trade.
Acknowledgements
Some of the methodologies and research approaches used in this report have benefited from the
R&D Committee at INSEAD, whose research support is gratefully acknowledged. Additional
editorial assistance from Tiffany LaRochelle, ICON Group International, Inc., is also
acknowledged.
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Contents v
Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY 6
2 COSTA RICA AND THE WORLD MARKET 8
2.1 Imports in Costa Rica in 2011 8
2.2 Exports from Costa Rica in 2011 9
3 IMPORTS IN COSTA RICA 10
3.1 Asia 10
3.1.1 Hong Kong 10
3.1.2 South Korea 11
3.2 Europe 12
3.2.1 France 12
3.2.2 Portugal 13
3.3 Latin America 14
3.3.1 Argentina 14
3.3.2 Brazil 15
3.3.3 Chile 16
3.3.4 Colombia 17
3.3.5 Ecuador 18
3.3.6 El Salvador 18
3.3.7 Guatemala 19
3.3.8 Mexico 20
3.3.9 Nicaragua 21
3.3.10 Panama 21
3.3.11 Venezuela 22
3.4 North America & the Caribbean 23
3.4.1 Aruba 23
3.4.2 Canada 24
3.4.3 the Netherlands Antilles 25
3.4.4 the United States 26
3.4.5 Trinidad and Tobago 27
4 EXPORTS FROM COSTA RICA 28
4.1 Latin America 28
4.1.1 Nicaragua 28
4.1.2 Panama 29
5 DISCLAIMERS, WARRANTEES, AND USER AGREEMENT PROVISIONS 30
5.1 Disclaimers & Safe Harbor 30
5.2 ICON Group Ltd. User Agreement Provisions 31
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Mineral Fuels, Lubricants, and Related Materials in Costa Rica 6
1 INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY
On the demand side, exporters and strategic planners focusing on mineral fuels, lubricants, and
related materials in Costa Rica face a number of questions. Which countries are supplying
mineral fuels, lubricants, and related materials to Costa Rica? How important is Costa Rica
compared to others in terms of the entire global and regional market? How much do the imports
of mineral fuels, lubricants, and related materials vary from one country of origin to another in
Costa Rica? On the supply side, Costa Rica also exports mineral fuels, lubricants, and related
materials. Which countries receive the most exports from Costa Rica? How are these exports
concentrated across buyers? What is the value of these exports and which countries are the
largest buyers?
This report was created for strategic planners, international marketing executives and
import/export managers who are concerned with the market for mineral fuels, lubricants, and
related materials in Costa Rica. With the globalization of this market, managers can no longer be
contented with a local view. Nor can managers be contented with out-of-date statistics which
appear several years after the fact. I have developed a methodology, based on macroeconomic
and trade models, to estimate the market for mineral fuels, lubricants, and related materials for
those countries serving Costa Rica via exports, or supplying from Costa Rica via imports. It does
so for the current year based on a variety of key historical indicators and econometric models.
In what follows, Chapter 2 begins by summarizing where Costa Rica fits into the world market
for imported and exported mineral fuels, lubricants, and related materials. The total level of
imports and exports on a worldwide basis, and those for Costa Rica in particular, is estimated
using a model which aggregates across over 150 key country markets and projects these to the
current year. From there, each country represents a percent of the world market. This market is
served from a number of competitive countries of origin. Based on both demand- and supply-
side dynamics, market shares by country of origin are then calculated across each country market
destination. These shares lead to a volume of import and export values for each country and are
aggregated to regional and world totals. In doing so, we are able to obtain maximum likelihood
estimates of both the value of each market and the share that Costa Rica is likely to receive this
year. From these figures, rankings are calculated to allow managers to prioritize Costa Rica
compared to other major country markets. In this way, all the figures provided in this report are
forecasts that can be combined with internal information sources for strategic planning purposes.
After the worldwide summary in Chapter 2 of both imports and exports of mineral fuels,
lubricants, and related materials, Chapter 3 goes into detail on imports, but for each major
country of origin serving Costa Rica. A “major” market is defined as a country where Costa Rica
represents a substantially large share of either imports or exports. For each major country
exporting to Costa Rica, one can thus observe how important Costa Rica is to that exporting
country compared to other countries of the world. Chapter 4 does the same, but for exports of
mineral fuels, lubricants, and related materials originating from Costa Rica, for each major
country of destination. In doing so, one can discover the share that Costa Rica has in each major
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Mineral Fuels, Lubricants, and Related Materials in Costa Rica 7
market; this share value is often used as a measure of competitiveness for Costa Rica. In all
cases, the total dollar volume and percentage share values by major trading partner are provided.
Combined, Chapters 3 and 4 present a the total picture for imports and exports of mineral fuels,
lubricants, and related materials to and from Costa Rica to and from all other major countries in
the world. "Mineral Fuels, Lubricants, and Related Materials" as a category is defined in this
report following the definition given by the United Nations Statistics Division Classification
Registry using the Standard International Trade Classification, Revision 3 (SITC, Rev. 3). The
SITC code that defined "mineral fuels, lubricants, and related materials" is 3 . For more
information on this definition, please refer to the following web site:
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cr/registry/regcs.asp?Cl=14&Lg=1&Co=3 .
This report is updated on an annual basis. To ensure that you have the most current version,
please check the web site of ICON Group at www.icongrouponline.com.
Important Caveat. The figures should be seen as market estimates, as opposed to historical
records, as these are forecasted for the current year of trade. More importantly, in light of the fact
that unforeseeable factors might interrupt markets in achieving their reported levels, the figures
should be seen as estimates of potential. For example, "mad cow" disease, foot-and-mouth
disease, trade embargoes, military conflicts, acts of terrorism and other events will certainly
affect the actual trade flows recorded for a variety of industry or product categories. In such
cases, the difference between the numbers given in this report and the numbers actually observed
might be interpreted as the "net loss" or "net gain" due to these exogenous events affecting
regular trade flows that would have occurred had these events not have taken place.
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Mineral Fuels, Lubricants, and Related Materials in Costa Rica 8
2 COSTA RICA AND THE WORLD MARKET
2.1 IMPORTS IN COSTA RICA IN 2011
Imported Mineral Fuels, Lubricants, and Related Materials in Costa Rica, 2011
(Structure of Foreign Import Competition)
Country of Origin Rank Value (000 US$) % Share Cumulative %
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Venezuela 1 644,556 36.12 36.12
Aruba 2 252,687 14.16 50.28
the United States 3 218,232 12.23 62.51
France 4 184,959 10.36 72.87
Brazil 5 182,671 10.24 83.11
Colombia 6 81,773 4.58 87.69
the Netherlands Antilles 7 59,050 3.31 91.00
Ecuador 8 27,989 1.57 92.57
Panama 9 26,505 1.49 94.05
Chile 10 25,562 1.43 95.49
the Netherlands 11 16,198 0.91 96.39
Nicaragua 12 12,927 0.72 97.12
Trinidad and Tobago 13 12,794 0.72 97.83
India 14 8,861 0.50 98.33
Guatemala 15 8,520 0.48 98.81
South Korea 16 8,028 0.45 99.26
China 17 2,703 0.15 99.41
Canada 18 2,703 0.15 99.56
Mexico 19 2,635 0.15 99.71
Italy 20 1,372 0.08 99.79
Germany 21 999 0.06 99.84
Spain 22 724 0.04 99.88
the United Kingdom 23 645 0.04 99.92
Argentina 24 412 0.02 99.94
Latvia 25 218 0.01 99.95
Denmark 26 182 0.01 99.96
Turkey 27 132 0.01 99.97
Japan 28 116 0.01 99.98
Portugal 29 94 0.01 99.98
South Africa 30 88 0.00 99.99
Other 31 210 0.01 100.00
Total 1,784,545 100.00 100.00
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Source: Philip M. PARKER, Professor, INSEAD, copyright 2011, www.icongrouponline.com
www.icongrouponline.com ©2011 ICON Group Ltd.
Mineral Fuels, Lubricants, and Related Materials in Costa Rica 9
2.2 EXPORTS FROM COSTA RICA IN 2011
Mineral Fuels, Lubricants, and Related Materials Exports from Costa Rica, 2011
Country of Destination Rank Value (000 US$) % Share Cumulative %
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Nicaragua 1 881 41.60 41.60
Italy 2 829 39.14 80.74
Panama 3 327 15.44 96.18
the United States 4 63 2.97 99.15
Guatemala 5 18 0.85 100.00
Total 2,118 100.00 100.00
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Source: Philip M. PARKER, Professor, INSEAD, copyright 2011, www.icongrouponline.com
www.icongrouponline.com ©2011 ICON Group Ltd.
Mineral Fuels, Lubricants, and Related Materials in Costa Rica 10
3 IMPORTS IN COSTA RICA
3.1 ASIA
3.1.1 Hong Kong
Mineral Fuels, Lubricants, and Related Materials Exports from Hong Kong, 2011
Country of Destination Rank Value (000 US$) % Share Cumulative %
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
China 1 501,152 88.23 88.23
South Korea 2 23,198 4.08 92.31
Taiwan 3 8,731 1.54 93.85
Thailand 4