How to evaluate an international buyer requirement
Most published buying requirements are thin, unverified or both. This is how to read one quickly and decide whether it is worth an hour of your time.
This is an explanation Ponte wrote, not a record Ponte observed. Figures quoted in it are counted from the register at the time you load the page. Last revised 9 Sep 2026.
Start with what is absent, not what is present
A requirement that names a product and a country and nothing else is not a requirement; it is an expression of interest. The facts that separate the two are quantity, delivery term and payment terms, because each one costs the buyer something to state.
Ponte counts these rather than assuming them. Of 3,917 current records, 3,780 state a quantity and 3,668 state a delivery term. Ponte does not offer a record for indexing at all unless it states at least one of the two.
Read the quantity literally
A stated quantity should be read exactly as written and never mentally converted. A tonne is not a metric tonne. A container is not a quantity until you know which container. Ponte reproduces the figure and unit as the source stated them and withholds any quantity it cannot express in a unit it recognises, rather than guessing.
A quantity far outside the normal trading range for the product is the most useful single filter you have. It usually means the requirement is speculative, or that the party is not the principal.
Treat the delivery term as a statement about responsibility
A stated delivery term tells you where the buyer expects the goods to become their problem, which is a strong signal about how experienced they are. A buyer asking for delivered terms into an unfamiliar market is asking you to carry risk you may not be able to price.
Ponte records the term the source stated and does not interpret it. For what any given term actually obliges each party to do, consult ICC directly.
Then check the date, and be strict about it
An observation date is the date Ponte saw the statement, not the date the requirement opened or closed. Ponte treats a record as current for 45 days from its most recent observation and stops presenting it as current after that.
Age is the most common reason a genuine requirement wastes your time. The requirement was real; it is simply no longer open, and nobody updates a public posting to say so.
What you still do not know
After all of the above you know what was stated and when. You do not know who stated it, whether they are the principal or an intermediary, whether they can pay, or whether the requirement is still open. No public register can tell you those things, and one that implies it can is selling something.
Sources
Where this guide relies on somebody else’s authority, it says so and links to them rather than restating their work.
- ICC — Incoterms® rules — The authoritative source for what each delivery term obliges. The rules text is ICC copyright and is not reproduced here.
- Trade Finance Global — Letters of credit — Independent explainers on payment instruments, including what a buyer is committing to when they name one.
Incoterms® and the Incoterms® 2020 logo are trademarks of ICC. Use of these trademarks does not imply association with, approval of or sponsorship by ICC.
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