MINERALS IN THE WORLD ECONOMY—1991  21comprehensive industrial
operating
results may well have contributed to problems of ineffective, inefficient
industry performance. Recognition of the needs of potential investors for
information together with recognition of the folly of treating much industrial
data as state secrets has led to the publication of increasing amounts of
both statistical and nonstatistical information in those countries undergoing
economic transition. 
Virtually complete openness was clearly essential for the German Democratic
Republic as it reunited with the Federal Republic of Germany, thereby becoming
a part of a member of the EC. Progress in increasing minerals industry reporting
in other Eastern European nations was evident in 1990 and beyond, but there
were doubts as to whether the recent reporting was definitionally equivalent
to the limited previously published historical reporting. Care must be exercised
in the use of such data to ensure definitional comparability across time.

At the time of the preparation of this study, it remained unclear as to what
would ultimately transpire regarding the reporting of trade for the states
formerly comprising the U.S.S.R. For years the Soviets published a trade
book, which, albeit incomplete, was of considerable use as a tool in the
assessment of mineral industry activity in the country. How the member states
of the CIS and the other fully independent former Soviet Republics will take
up the task of annually documenting their foreign trade remains to be seen.
There have been some encouraging signs that trade reporting may become more
complete than in the past, or at least the recent past, based on at least
some increase in the reporting of nonferrous metals trade, but whether this
will continue on a regular basis and whether it will be extended to cover
other previously confidential commodities remains to be seen. 
Despite reporting improvements in some topical and geographical areas, there
remain some substantial information gaps for these countries with economies
in transition in addition to the justmentioned problem of trade data. 
Moreover, additional data gaps clearly have developed, stemming from civil
strife and dissolvement of existing reporting entities. The area that formerly
was Yugoslavia is undoubtedly the best case in point, but the 1992 dissolution
of Czechoslovakia raises questions as to when (or if) the emerging independent
states will assume the responsibility previously carried out by the central
government. Indeed, it may prove that this is not a question of unwillingness
but a question of financial inability to produce comparable statistics to
those previously provided by the central governments. 
 Even as the global mineral industry is ~ presented with increasing reporting
from states that were secretive, there are some decidedly negative trends
relative to information availability in some major and some minor countries
that in prior years have provided production, trade, and consumption information
rather freely. Although a part of the overall problem relates to the disintegration
of countries such as Yugoslavia, there are other causes as well. 
 One of the outcomes of military conflicts such as occurred in the Middle
East is a disruption of production and trade activities and either the means
or willingness to publish national statistics. 
 Similar concern continues regarding reporting on the mineral industry of
Australia, another major traditional supplier of mineral materials among
market economy nations. There have been marked reductions in frequency and
detail of the reporting of production and consumption of mineral commodities
in Australia, albeit due to budget cuts and government organizational restructuring.
Moreover, reporting of trade in mineral commodities, long provided on the
basis of a July 1 fiscal year, has been cut back, particularly for the declared
destinations of some key exports, to the extent that analysts around the
globe are frustrated in attempts to analyze comprehensive trade flow. 
 Similarly, difficulties have been encountered in assessing the performance
of India's mineral industry. Reporting of production ultimately has proven

generally adequate, but complete final reporting has been slow, and reporting
of consumption has been even more significantly delayed, although ultimately
seeming to be sufficiently comprehensive. The reporting of both export and
import trade for this important raw materials source and significant mineral
consumer has never been ideal, being based on the country's unusual April
1-starting "trade year, " and in later years has been even more
deficient
because of growing delays in the timely availability of published results.

 A different type of problem exists in production reporting, for which Canada,
by virtue of its importance as a supplier and consumer, may serve as the
best example. Here, the general practice essentially is to report shipments
as a measure of production. (Some other countries, particularly those with
no substantial domestic processing industry, record exports as production.)
The problem with this practice is that it does not reflect the buildup or
drawdown of producers' stocks, figures that may serve to significantly affect
market prices for certain commodities. Information on shipments is important—it
is often a crucial figure—but actual production is an important
statistical
fact, distinct and apart from data on shipments and/or exports. Again, it
should be stressed that although Canada was specifically cited as a country
following this practice, others routinely do so, and unlike Canada, which
provides actual production statistics for concerned researchers, a number
of countries simply do not do so. 
 There has also been a reduction in production data from the viewpoint of
the commodity scope of coverage for a number of countries in recent years.
Many of such cutbacks in data have resulted from mergers among producers
and closures of other producers which have so reduced the number of producing
firms in some countries that publishing a national total would reveal company
~ proprietary data. This problem has ~ forced some countries to cease publishing
total national output of several commodities over the past 10 years.