How the Analysis Works

How do you measure which country is more competitive?

Every country is evaluated on the same set of pillars and scored against the same global benchmark — so you always see exactly where your country stands relative to the rest.

Each monthly report measures a country across 14 pillars that shape manufacturing competitiveness. A pillar is one of the structural dimensions the analysis tracks — labor costs, energy, logistics, freight, taxes, feedstock margins, tariff exposure, and so on. Every pillar is evaluated across all 33 countries on a common scale, so dimensions as different as energy costs and logistics infrastructure can be compared side by side.

Each pillar also produces a country rank, giving you a clear, at-a-glance read on where your country stands relative to the rest of the group — for every pillar, every month.

How the underlying score is calculated — the 0–100 scale and what the midpoint means — and how ranks are grouped into tiers is explained in How is a country scored from 0 to 100, and what does 50 mean? and How are countries ranked, and what are the tier bands? on our methodology site.

Will I see how my country compares to the rest?

Yes — comparison against all 33 countries is built into every subscription, regardless of how many countries you subscribe to. Your country is scored and ranked against the entire group on every pillar, every month.

For each pillar, you'll see your country's score and its rank among the 33 countries — so you always know exactly where you stand, not just how you're performing on your own. The comparison is always there; it's the foundation of every report. Even with a single-country subscription, you're never looking at a country in isolation.

What the score itself represents, and what the midpoint of the scale means, is covered in How is a country scored from 0 to 100, and what does 50 mean? on our methodology site.

What do the general and industry-specific parts each cover?

The report is built in two layers: one captures the country's overall operating environment, the other evaluates conditions specific to each industrial sector.

The general part — the Base Layer — describes the structural cost environment that affects any manufacturing operation in the country, regardless of industry: labor costs, energy and utilities, logistics and freight, the macroeconomic environment, and the tax environment. It's the same for every sector, because it's a measure of the country, not the industry.

The industry-specific part — the Industry Layer — is evaluated separately for each of the seven industrial sectors, capturing what's unique about doing business in a specific industry within that country, such as commodity prices, production volumes, and trade exposure. This is where the country's picture can look very different from one sector to the next.

Which pillars make up each layer, and how they combine into the scores you see in your report, is set out in Which pillars apply to every commodity family?, Which pillars change by industry?, and How are pillars split into Base and Industry-Specific? on our methodology site.

Does the ranking change depending on my industry?

Yes — and this is one of the most important things to understand about the analysis. The report produces two distinct types of ranking:

• The Overall Competitiveness ranking is a single, fixed position for each country — it averages across all seven industries and does not change depending on which sector you're looking at.
• The Industry ranking is calculated separately for each of the seven sectors. This is where the sector-specific picture emerges, and where the same country can land in very different positions depending on the industry.

Why Industry rankings vary from sector to sector, and how the Overall and Industry rankings relate to each other, is explained in How does an industry ranking differ from the overall ranking? and Why does a country's ranking vary across industries? on our methodology site.

Can a country be strong in one industry but weak in another?

Yes — this is common, and it's exactly why the analysis produces a distinct Industry ranking for each of the seven sectors rather than a single figure for the whole economy. A country's general operating environment — labor, energy, logistics, tax — stays constant across industries, but conditions specific to a given sector, such as commodity prices, feedstock margins, or domestic market size, can diverge sharply from one sector to the next. That's what lets a country show up strong in one industry while trailing the group in another.

These differences are what make the industry lens valuable — the report doesn't just tell you whether a country is competitive in general, it shows you whether it's competitive for your specific sector.

Why rankings vary across sectors this way is covered in Why does a country's ranking vary across industries? on our methodology site.

What industry-specific factors does the report look at?

Six pillars — what the analysis calls Specific Pillars — are evaluated for each of the seven industrial sectors: Commodity Prices, Feedstock-to-Product Margins, Industrial Production, Global Trade Integration, Tariff Protection & Market Access, and Domestic Market Size. Together, they capture the economics of operating in a specific industry within a given country.

These six pillars are evaluated separately for each sector — Olefins & Derivatives, Aromatics & Derivatives, Alcohols & Organic Acids, Polymers, Fertilizers, Inorganic Chemicals, and Metals — so the same country can show a very different profile from one industry to the next.

What each of these pillars actually measures is set out in What do the commodity prices and feedstock-margin pillars cover?, What does the industrial production pillar cover?, What do the trade integration and tariff protection pillars cover?, and What does the domestic market size pillar cover? on our methodology site.

Is there one number that summarizes a country's position?

Yes — the report produces an Overall Competitiveness Score that consolidates all 14 pillars into a single 0–100 value with a corresponding rank among the 33 countries. It's the headline figure at the top of every country's report, giving you one number to start from before drilling into the pillar-level and industry-level detail.

In practice, the Overall Score is useful as a starting point — but the real insight comes from looking at individual pillars and the industry-specific breakdown, where you can see exactly what's driving the number.

How the Overall Competitiveness Score is assembled from the underlying pillars is explained in How is the overall competitiveness view assembled? on our methodology site.

Will I see which countries rank above or below mine?

No — and this is by design. Peer countries are never identified by name in any report. You'll always see your country's exact rank position (e.g., Rank 7 out of 33), but the report does not disclose which specific countries hold the other 32 positions.

What you see instead of named peers:

• Global average — represented as score 50 on the 0–100 scale
• Percentile bands — the top 10% tier, the median, and the bottom 10% tier, so you can see where your country falls in the distribution
• Rank position — your exact rank among the 33 countries, for every pillar

This approach — called anonymized benchmarking — protects the confidentiality of the analysis across the subscriber base while still giving you a precise picture of where your country stands.

How current is the data in each report?

Reports are published monthly, at the beginning of each month. How current the data is depends on which part of the report you're looking at:

Pillar scores and rankings reflect data from approximately four months before the publication date — a report published in early August presents pillar scores based on data through March. Keep this lag in mind if you're comparing a report against more recent news or your own internal figures.

Reference Datasets data (Plant Construction Cost Indexes, Plant Location Factors, Labor Costs & Productivity Factors, Industrial Utility Costs) has no such gap — it reflects the most recent available period, so a report published in August includes reference data consolidated through July.

Why the main report carries this lag, and why reference datasets don't, is explained in Why is there a four-month data lag in the main report? and Why do reference datasets stay fresher than the main report? on our methodology site.

Can I track how a country's position changes over time?

Yes. Every report includes month-over-month and year-over-year change tracking for both scores and ranks. You can see at a glance whether a country's position on any pillar is improving, deteriorating, or stable — and how much it has shifted compared to the same month last year.

How far back you can look depends on your plan:

• Starter — 1-year monthly history
• Pro — adds 3-year quarterly history
• Advanced and Ultimate — adds 10-year annual history, plus full 10-year monthly data through the Excel Add-In, Power BI, and the API

This combination of monthly updates and historical depth lets you distinguish between short-term fluctuations and structural trends — which matters when you're making decisions with long time horizons.