Welcome to the October edition of Neudata’s Tidbits for Data Providers.

This month, we discuss supply-chain disturbances, explore the impact of new regulation in China and highlight new updates in the S&P-IHS merger.

SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTIONS
As industries around the world struggle with supply-chain disruptions and labour shortages, investors are turning to alternative data to help understand the length and severity of the problems.

New data shows that the US's container import volume between August 2020 and July 2021 was 19% higher than its total container import volume in 2019. This shift to the “stuff economy” has put an enormous strain on the logistics sector. In fact, many news outlets are predicting that the disruptions could impact consumers’ Christmas present orders. Shipping prices are also rising, so companies are expected to reprioritise the selection of goods that will be imported.

If you’ve recently launched a dataset that tracks supply chains and/or the logistics sector (or if you have one in the works), please reach out to research@neudata.co with more information.

CHINESE DATA SECURITY
Another big focus from buy-side firms this month has been on Chinese data. Data buyers are particularly interested in the impact that the Data Security Law and Personal Information Protection Law will have on data sourcing and on-boarding.

We’re already starting to see an impact for firms and vendors that deal with Chinese data — in fact, two Chinese data firms have told Neudata they’re no longer selling to the buy-side community in the US due to these new laws.

We anticipate that buyers of Chinese data will consider setting up China-based entities to access the data or will begin working with local data partners to handle the compliance process. The new rules may also cause vendor compliance teams to do additional work to ensure that buyers are able to use their datasets.

Elsewhere, Chinese quant managers are facing scrutiny from regulators in the country after statements from the chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission said that quant traders’ market participation led to better liquidity, but also created herd behaviours, greater volatility and unfairness, according to Reuters.

S&P-IHS MARKIT MERGER MAY BE GIVEN THE GREEN LIGHT
We have been tracking the S&P-IHS merger since it was first announced in November 2020. Since then, the two firms have had the mammoth task of trying to convince regulators that their merger wouldn’t harm market competitiveness.

So far, the deal has gotten conditional approvals from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and the European Commission, subject to promises the firm made to sell off several of its data businesses.

As part of the European Commission’s announcement this week, the firms noted the expected close date would happen in the first quarter of next year, pushing back earlier estimates of a deal by the end of 2021.

If the deal goes through, market players anticipate that a combined S&P-IHS could rival the likes of Bloomberg and Refinitiv in providing data to the financial markets.

PEOPLE MOVES
Make sure you check out our people moves section, which recaps the latest job moves in the alternative data industry. If you want us to recap your new job or latest promotion, get in touch with Sondra at sondra@neudata.co.

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28 Oct: Lake Partners, Kochava, AirSage and more

14 Oct: Millennium, ADIA, Macrobond and more

7 Oct: Oxford-Man Institute, Spire, Toluna and more

Until next time,

Saima