Purchasing - March 26, 1998
Features
THE GREATOUTSOURCING PUSH!
Of all the supply chain strategies being put into place these days, outsourcing is perhaps the fastest growing. This was dramatized in a just-completed Purchasing Magazine national poll of procurement organizations.
- BUYLINES
- CRYSTAL BALL WINNER
- Balsiger strikes again in '97
- SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
- Case sample: Target costing down to the supplier level
- Buylines
- Buying Strategy
- Where the price breaks lurk
- Computers, Business Systems and Office Products
- Use of ink-jet color printers takes off
- MARKETPLACE
- To entice buyers, printer manufacturers lower prices
- OUTSOURCING THE OFFICE BUY
- Purchasing selects suppliers based on trust
- PURCHASING STRATEGIES
- Boise aligns with Wallace for integrated supply
- Purchasing Notes
- Office-equipment dealers converge in Orlando next month for the Business Technology Association's annual expo
- Compaq Computer continues to cut desktop PC prices, recently slashing tags on its Deskpro line by up to 18%
- With the acquisition of 17 companies in the first quarter of its 1998 fiscal year, ikon Office Solutions continues to build its presence in Europe
- Toshiba copier- and facsimile-machine dealers now offer the company's full line of the notebook and desktop PCs
- SOFTWARE ASSET MANAGEMENT
- SAM helps buyers to impact bottom line
- Electronics Purchasing
- Electronics Prices
- Resistor tags rise
- Connectors see healthy growth
- Asian financial woes may lower DRAM tags
- Intel names new low-cost processor
- Power ICs: Stable prices, more functionality
- ELECTRONIC BUYING CONDITIONS
- Order volumes stay steady as parts availability remains high
- ELECTRONICS BRIEFS
- Chip market grew 4% in 1997
- Electronics Briefs
- Clip-chip alliance formed
- All-American gets SMART
- INTERNET
- Electronics buyers warm up to the Web
- Product Update
- Slow growth and weak prices for switches
- HOTLINE
- Check out new IBM microprocessor that operates at 1 billion cycles per second (1000 megahertz)
- AMD is looking to IBM for help in manufacturing its K6 processors
- Don't look for reforms at osha this year
- Keep your finger on office vacancy rates
- Don't expect much seasonal push in lumber prices this year
- Don't be surprised to see weak Asian markets and lower domestic growth projections to alter paperboard demand and prices substantially
- Don't be too surprised to see a flurry of activity from the Transportation Dept. over airline passenger rates
- Be alert for more trucking delays on traffic moving across the border from Mexico
- Check out new IBM microprocessor that operates at 1 billion cycles per second (1000 megahertz)
- Mark your calendar for New England Suppliers Institute "Total Cost Reduction Conference '98,"
- Transaction Prices
- On the other hand, prices for uncoated bags have probably been run up too far--too fast
- Have plastic resin prices dropped too far?
- Where should you look for more price declines?
- Expect Asian financial crisis to keep lid on low memory prices
- Count on prime rate holding just about where it is--8.5%
- Anticipate more price increases on packaging prices
- Be prepared for higher glass container prices in the months ahead
- You don't need a law degree!
- Look for continued drop in prices on masked ROMs
- Attention MRO buyers: If you're searching for a place to trim costs, a good spot to look is lubricating oils and greases
- Count on some relief on plastic bottle and plastic sheet prices
- Economy
- On-time index resumes downtrend
- Outlook for 1998 production worker wage inflation
- On-time index resumes downtrend
- Some analysts had feared a sharp influx of low-priced commodity imports
- Room for a boom in consumer spending?
- Commerce revised downward its estimate of economic growth
- Markets
- Zemex Industrial Minerals has been created
- Superalloys leadtimes will soon stretch to six months due to
- New number one in oil-field services
- Shipments of heavy trucks in the U.S. and Canada will rise to 220,000 units
- The worldwide motor vehicle interiors market is expected to reach $54 billion
- U.S. shipments of steel mill products rose 4.6% in 1997 to 105.5 million tons
- The world prefers U.S. personal computers
- World sales of sports-utility vehicles skidded in 1997, falling
- Chrysler will re-enter the natural-gas vehicle market this autumn
- Samsung abandons forklift trucks
- Machine-tool demand totaled $8.6 billion in 1997
- Willamette Industries will build a new laminated veneer lumber line
- Arco is completing a debottlenecking project at its butandediol plant
- Housing market experiences back-to-back highs for the decade
- The global management-consulting business will grow 56% to $114 billion by the year 2000
- Praxair Surface Technologies is expanding into metal finishing
- AlliedSignal rearranges its fibers unit
- World butyl rubber supply could get dicey next decade
- The U.S. telephone-equipment market will grow at an annual rate of 11%
- Prices
- Ansonia Brass & Copper is looking to raise fabrication charges on rod, wire, and extruded shapes
- Tight supplies could boost copper-rod premiums again in April
- Metallurgical Products of West Chester, Pa., is increasing prices for 15% phosphor copper shot and waffle
- Calcium chloride tags are softening
- Sodium bicarbonate (industrial grade) prices will remain at an average 17(cent)/lb
- More copper analysts go bearish:
- Armco on specialty steel: demand up, prices flat
- Ferroalloys market watchers say there is still too much high-carbon and medium-carbon ferromanganese chasing too few consumers
- Sodium nitrite prices are under pressure
- Several domestic aluminum firms plan to increase April shipment prices
- Zinc bear awakens in London
- Led by Cerro Copper Products, most copper plumbing tube firms are looking for a 5% price hike
- Pulp prices are rapidly approaching a bottom in North America
- Air fares between the U.S. and Japan should fall quickly
- Solid demand has slowed deflation of chemical cellulose, but any recovery will fall shy of 1996 levels
- Carbon and alloy steelmakers have achieved mixed results on their latest flat-rolled price hike
- INSIDE PURCHASING
- JOB SCENE
- On the Internet
- PRODUCT UPDATE
- PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
- PURCHASING SOFTWARE NEWS
- STRATEGIES
- Contract Manufacturing
- Outsourcing boards is just the beginning
- SUPPLY INSIGHTS
- Strategies
- Contract Manufacturing
- Who needs PC companies?
- TRANSPORTATION
- NEWS
- Own, lease, or outsource? You'll soon need to choose
- News
- Software helps decide fate of fleets
- Northwest, Continental deal extends reach of shippers
- Capacity cuts in Pacific could boost rates from Asia
- New plan marks UP's last stand
- SMALL PACKAGE CARRIERS
- Strategy shift pushes more business to parcel carriers
Advertisement
Advertisement