Here is how the calculation actually works, and where contractors and exporters most often overestimate their position.
The six components
Atradius DSB looks at the contract price and asks, component by component, what was created in the Netherlands.
Direct labour: hours directly attributable to the export contract, such as assembly, engineering and project management. Qualifies to the extent that those hours are on a Dutch payroll.
Overhead: indirect costs allocated to the project, such as IT, HR or finance. Qualifies if charged by a Dutch entity of the exporter.
Depreciation: of the assets used to execute the contract. Qualifies if the assets are located in the Netherlands or owned by a Dutch asset-owning entity.
Financing costs: for example interest on working capital for the contract. Qualifies if owed to a Dutch financing institution.
Supplies by third parties: raw materials, components and services. Qualifies if the supplier is incorporated and taxed in the Netherlands and the supply is within its ordinary course of business.
Profit: the estimated profit in the contract price. Qualifies in full if accounted for in a Dutch entity subject to Dutch corporate tax.
Who is a Dutch exporter
A Dutch-incorporated company exporting under its own contract is the standard case. Beyond that, the picture is more nuanced than most shortlists assume. A foreign subsidiary of a Dutch parent may qualify under specific conditions. A Dutch subsidiary of a foreign parent qualifies only for the content of its own Dutch footprint, which for a sales office can be very little.
The face-value trap
The most common error is to add up the offers from suppliers with Dutch addresses and call the total Dutch content. On a recent hospital project, a large share of the suppliers under consideration were Dutch subsidiaries of international groups. Their qualifying content was a fraction of the face value of their offers.
A content plan that is built on face values will fail at the first review by the mandated bank.
Services count
Content is not only equipment. Engineering, project management and advisory services performed by Dutch-incorporated firms qualify under the third-party supplies component. For a non-Dutch contractor, consolidating services in a Dutch entity, or contracting Dutch advisers, is part of the plan.
What this means in practice
Start the content calculation before the procurement is fixed. Classify the bill of quantities by discipline, assess each candidate supplier under the guidelines rather than by its address, and treat the gap between target and base case as a sourcing task with a deadline.
Gabriel Moreira
Founder and Managing Partner
