This master thesis pretends to design and create a computer application that could be useful for European companies which seek to buy products in Asia and import them to Europe.
In this memory is possible to find a complete and detailed description of the Incoterms® 2010, which are the International Commerce Terms published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the different possibilities of means of transport, costs, risks and documents involved in any international trade between those two continents. All of these information is framed with a brief description of the international trade and the supply chain.
Incoterms define common contractual sales practices and are used as a way to communicate and clarify the share of tasks, costs and risks, related with the transportation and delivery of goods, between customer and supplier. Incoterms are well-known and used all around the world.
By analyzing carefully all this aspects it is possible to develop a program that will give the user enough information about which decisions must he take to succeed on their proposal of buying abroad. The developed program will use all this information, plus the data introduced by the user, to calculate which are the costs that the buyer will have to bear after buying the product and getting its ownership. Moreover, the application pretends also to give a value about which price the user has to pay for the goods, depending in which Incoterm® 2010 is going to be used.
The methodology used in this thesis starts with an accurate research of all the important aspects involved in international trade. After this research and once all the aspects are understood perfectly, the application is programed using Visual Basic for Excel Applications. The program consists on an Excel file full of worksheets containing information and formulas to calculate costs of shipment, carriage, customs, taxes, etc. Actually, all costs involved in international commerce. When the user, which is expected to be a hypothetical buyer, opens the file, a pop-up menu appears with all the steps to make him introduce the specific data for each trade opportunity. Also, this main menu offers him the possibility of seeing the results of costs and prices defined under each Incoterm® 2010. Therefore, the user would be able to take some strategical decisions about buying or not the product, and if he does, the application would help him to know which price and which Incoterm® 2010 better fits his proposals. |