Purchasing - March 12, 1998
Features
General Motors and Amoco have begun a joint program to develop next-generation diesel-electric engines
General Motors and Amoco have begun a joint program to develop next-generation diesel-electric engines, and clean-burning diesel fuels for high-mileage motor vehicles. Production of the vehicles is scheduled to begin in 2001.
- AUTOMOTIVE/OEM
- Ford continues to rev up cost-cutting initiatives
- SAE puts electronics database on Web
- Boeing's JV plans to boost composite part supply
- NEWS
- GM speeds deliveries, smoothes production
- News
- AUTOMOTIVE/OEM BRIEFS
- AUTOMOTIVE/OEM BRIEFS
- AUTOMOTIVE/OEM BRIEFS
- AUTOMOTIVE/OEM BRIEFS
- AUTOMOTIVE/OEM BRIEFS
- AUTOMOTIVE/OEM BRIEFS
- BUYLINES
- Bye, SICs! NAICS is the new industry nomenclature
- How good 'partners' behave
- Economic pulse displays strong beat
- COMING UP
- Reducing total costs
- News
- Mastering the MRO buy
- REGULATION WATCH
- New rule changes that could affect your purchasing plans
- Supply chain management
- The ins and outs of target costing
- CPI Edition
- Buyer's News
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- PRICE CHANGES
- Buyer's market continues
- Inventory strategy
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- PRICE CHANGES
- VW&R standardizes container deposits
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- Buyers battle price increase
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- Biggest buying problems
- PRICE CHANGES
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- Price increases
- Capital Spending
- Six-month outlook
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- PRICE CHANGES
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- Prices stabilize after sharp fall
- PRICE CHANGES
- Operating rates
- Supplier quality
- Items in short supply
- New products cut tar deposits
- Purchasing plays major role
- Materials availability
- Corrugated IBCs move into hazardous territory
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- Chemical Transaction Prices
- Tags remain soft but will perk up later
- Polymer resin tags will continue to fall.
- News
- Tight supplies, firm prices
- Petrochemicals
- Slowing growth keeps prices LOW
- Water Treatment
- But what if you don't need the service?
- Has consolidation cut total cost?
- Design Report
- HOTLINE
- Prepare for a degree of economic slowdown in '98
- Be prepared to pay as much as another 5% in LTL truck rates as result of recent contract signing with the Teamsters
- Understanding data and methods used to produce business forecasts will be vital to your career in supply management
- How does the design-procurement connection work in your company?
- Expect 56K modem to have short life
- Look for price pressure under platinum and palladium to continue well into the second half
- Watch trans-Pacific shipping activity
- Also look for a moderate amount of price deflation over the rest of this half--and for most of the second half
- Anticipate greater availability of 64 megabit drams
- Mark your calendar for New England Suppliers Institute "Total Cost Reduction Conference '98
- Count on tight labor market for most of 1998
- Looking further out--keep an eye on recent rash of truck purchases by major motor carriers
- Look for worldwide market for surface-mount equipment to grow from $3.3 billion in '97 to over $8.8 billion in 2004
- Keep an eye on prices for low to mid-range servers
- Keep an eye on upcoming labor negotiations in August between Post Office and American Postal Workers Union
- ECONOMY
- According to minutes from the Federal Reserve's December 16 fomc meeting
- Some analysts have argued that tight labor markets will actually curb economic growth
- Despite hand-wringing over tight labor markets and rising employment costs
- Federal Reserve officials expect the "Asian flu" to subtract up to half a percentage point from U.S. real GDP growth in '98
- Alarm bells started going off last month
- Seventy-three percent of buyers polled recently by Purchasing say productivity is growing rapidly
- Markets
- Alventia is new joint venture between Solvay Advanced Polymers and Dyneon
- Cooper Industries has merged intool into its Dallas-based pneumatic and electric industrial power tools division
- Supply of linear low-density polyethylene (lldpe) continues to favor buyers
- US Airways has a June 1 launch date for MetroJet, a new low-fare service based in Baltimore
- General Alum & Chemical now has a liquid aluminum sulfate (alum) plant
- Iron ore cargoes in U.S.-flag vessels on the Great Lakes climbed 4.6% last year to 63.4 million tons
- Shell Oil and Saudi Aramco of Saudi Arabia are forming regional joint venture alliances
- Wacker Silicones and Kelmar Industries are teaming up
- Eastman Chemical has expanded output of oxo chemicals
- Amax Gold of Denver is merging into Kinross Gold of Toronto
- Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan will open a new nitric acid plant
- United Stationers Supply Co. of Des Plaines, Ill., is buying Abitibi-Consolidated's office products
- Builders belonging to the National Association of Home Builders (nahb) are bearish
- Steel mini-mill merger
- Prices
- With energy exploration strong in the Oil Patch
- Workstation computer systems sell for less
- DuPont and Kerr-McGee are among the suppliers raising sales prices on titanium dioxide pigment
- Keep an eye on polyvinyl chloride prices
- Not all mills will participate in a plan by some steelmakers to boost
- If $50/ton newsprint price hikes stick this March, analysts expect that another $40/ton increase will follow in April
- Lukens is leading an industry effort to boost prices in April by $20/ton for carbon, high-strength low-alloy, alloy, and floor plate
- Plastic resin prices continue to decline
- Explosive growth in telephone calling cards
- Compaq Computer has cut prices
- North American buyers got their wish as spot market prices for benchmark-grade Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft (nbsk) pulp fell $40
- Commodity chemical prices will remain flat through first-half 1998
- Polypropylene hike is doomed
- Spot prices for tool steel have fallen 22% in recent months, and a partial recoup attempt has flopped
- Since microchips are sold in dollar-denominated prices
- Paper mills are inflating tags for coated free-sheet papers
- Several major paper firms are looking to boost tags by $40/ton for coated recycled folding boxboard
- January's $20-$50/ton price hike for uncoated free-sheet papers has not been universally applied
- National average price for unleaded gasoline is the lowest its been since spring of 1994
- Six of the top 10 North American newsprint producers are pushing for an April transaction price increase of $40/metric ton
- INSIDE PURCHASING
- METALS
- COPPER AND BRASS
- Looks like a buyers' market
- Copper and Brass
- Copper & brass mill prices: Deflation will accelerate
- Copper distributors' shipments
- A coppermetals primer: From copper ore to brass mill products
- Copper rod is tighter than brass rod
- Copper counterattacks in the radiator war
- NEWS
- Price tags look good
- Preussag sells steel mill, keeps U.S. metal centers
- Bethlehem, Allegheny split Lukens' assets
- News
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- Steel shipments keep rising
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS FROM ABROAD
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- Forecasters ponder glut of cheap cobalt supply
- Thyssen and Krupp: To the altar, at last
- Boeing expands direct buy on titanium
- Canada's Sammi Atlas has new owners
- Greer Steel intros automotive strip
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- Copper tube use sets record
- Nissan shifts from palladium
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- Analysts insist aluminum is moving toward oversupply
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS FROM ABROAD
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- STEEL PIPE AND TUBE
- Oil & gas energize the market
- PART I: THE POWER BUY
- PRODUCT PREVIEW
- National plant engineering and management show
- Stacked plastic protects
- Protect pressure and vacuum
- Sense real occupancy rate
- Energy efficient motors
- Face friction
- Improve finish
- Clamp together
- Technology frees buyers to scrutinize product value
- Repair spray equipment
- Meter low flow
- Tighten electronic assembly
- Pick product, not ink
- PRODUCT UPDATE
- LIFT TRUCKS
- Brisk demand will taper by year-end
- PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
- RECYCLING RESOURCES
- SUPPLY INSIGHTS
- FORECASTS
- GDP booms in fourth quarter...
- Forecasts
- ..and consumers sally forth
- ..as businesses pull back...
- THE POWER BUY
- TRANSPORTATION
- BULK TRANSPORTATION REPORT
- It pays to know your options
- NEWS
- Persistent service problems put UP-SP union on ropes
- News
- New rail merger may get green light despite UP woes
- Con-Way regionals link up for coast-to-coast service
- Trucking pact quells strike fears, ends freight shifts
- Shippers see an urgency to get shipments overseas
- Aviation deal opens more cargo routes to Japan
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