Purchasing - May 7, 1998
Features
VW&R's container deposit policy: A responsible idea
Effective Feb. 1, Van Waters & Rogers Inc., the largest chemical distributor in North America, began charging standard deposits on "asset containers"--steel and plastic drums, plastic intermediate bulk containers (IBCs), and stainless steel totes.
- AUTOMOTIVE/OEM
- BUYING ENERGY
- BUYLINES
- Many sellers try price hikes in first quarter
- What's new at Purchasing Online
- Use of bad-faith bids may be on the rise
- WHO'S NEWS
- Costs are bubbling up, producers say
- Square D uses supply to end boom-bust growth cycles
- Glut drops ethylene prices; derivatives tags follow suit
- WHO'S NEWS
- REGULATION WATCH
- DOT moves to eliminate anti-competitive airline practices
- SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
- Zymark raises the bar on supplier scorecard goals
- CPI EDITION
- CHEMICAL TRANSACTION PRICES
- Index stabilizes before moving up
- CPI Edition
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- Buyer's News
- CAPACITY CHANGES
- Biggest buying problems:
- Items in short supply:
- Companies offer optionsto fit customers' needs
- Some tags are up
- Prices are bottoming out
- Hoover expands into poly-drums, Russell-Stanley opens new plant
- Consumer demands push specialties
- PRICE CHANGES
- PRICE CHANGES
- CAPACITY CHANGES
- PRICE CHANGES
- PRICE CHANGES
- Consumer shift pushes industry changes
- CAPACITY CHANGES
- CARBON BLACK
- Prices rise with demand
- CHEMFORECAST
- Prices will fall as supplies rise
- POLYVINYL CHLORIDE
- Prices soft through year-end
- PROPYLENE/POLYPROPYLENE
- Prices level off for now
- DISTRIBUTION '98
- Distributors are an important metals source
- Who's making buyers happy?
- CHEMICAL DISTRIBUTION
- Distributors evolve intostrategic supply tools
- Electronics Distribution
- Distributors view contract manufacturers differently
- GENERAL LINE
- Those adept at cost removal are more likely to flourish
- Metals Distribution
- Metal service centers search for a new focus
- SPECIAL REPORT
- Distribution redefines itself
- Special Report
- A role for the Internet?
- One producer's perspective
- Design teams: The Secret Weapon
- Design teams bring radical change in product development
- APPLIANCES
- Teamwork gives Maytag a jump on competition
- AUTOMOTIVE
- Platform teams pair with suppliers to drive Chrysler to better designs
- Harley-Davidson revs up development process
- DEFENSE
- Electronically-linked teams design the defense systems of the future
- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
- At Bay Networks--Design is not just for engineering
- HOTLINE
- Looking for reliability or product maintenance data?
- Something strange happening with productivity!
- Examine production costs among stationery products producers
- Don't get too excited by efforts of opec and others to stanch the world's weak crude oil markets
- Having a problem setting up a minority supplier program?
- Be sure to enter Purchasing's Welcome Booklet Contest
- Watch for openings created by declines in heat and power costs
- Look for "new" trouble from the EPA in '99
- Get ready to pay some hefty surcharges on containers moving all water from Asia to the U.S.
- Also--expect EPA to issue stricter rules on air conditioners
- Keep an eye on structural steel pricing
- Minor blips to watch on the labor scene:
- Look for a general easing of titanium supplies over the next few years
- Economy
- Nonfarm employment fell unexpectedly in March, quieting the inflation hawks
- There is reason to believe that there is too much new manufacturing capacity
- napm will debut on June 3, its napm report on business for nonmanufacturing sector
- CPI hits target, more or less
- In a recent speech, Fed governor Laurence Meyer attributed low inflation to a confluence of favorable shocks
- To file your Crystal Ball Entry electronically
- Nearly half (47%) of the economists polled monthly by Blue Chip Economic Indicators
- Markets
- Battery makers are feeling the mild-weather effects of El Nino
- Millennium Chemicals and Lyondell Petrochemical intend to expand their recently formed petrochemicals partnership
- Environmental concerns will drive the pulp and paper chemicals market to 18.7 million tons by 2001
- First quarter North American motor vehicle production (4.3 million assemblies) fell 1.4%
- Total construction spending keeps creeping forward
- Amoco will build a chemicals and plastics complex in the Midwest for operation in 2002
- A recent wave of mergers is globalizing the supply of paint
- Global soda ash demand will grow only 2%/year in the near future
- Overcapacity plagues market for precipitated silica
- A group of 10 stainless steel round wire producers have asked the U.S. government to impose dumping penalties
- Prices
- Aluminum ingot prices on the London Metal Exchange will continue to weaken through 1999
- Expect to pay more for ocean freight from Asia this summer
- Benzene tags are expected to rebound somewhat this summer
- Analysts now concur that spot titanium prices will remain flat all year
- Air fares for business travelers skyrocketed by 17% last year
- Purchasing's Commodity Chemical Price Index is poised to increase
- To file your Crystal Ball Entry electronically
- High-carbon ferrochrome tags will rise slightly (from 45(cent)/lb) in coming weeks
- Fleet car buyers will benefit this year as average retail incentives
- An increase in demand from industrial users is part of the reason why platinum is awakening
- Chile's Central Bank has revised down its average price forecast for refined copper
- Containerboard mills have postponed their proposed $40-$50/ton
- Buyers in the pulp and paper industry will be paying more for raw materials in coming years
- Gasoline prices won't be boosted much by increased highway travel this summer
- Most major mechanical tubemakers have pushed prices up by $20/ton
- "Increasingly aggressive pricing" will persist in the market for asics (application-specific integrated circuits)
- Second-quarter market prices for end-users of processed Type 304 stainless steel plate have fallen
- Gold prices could rise 10% this quarter to an average of $325/troy ounce
- INSIDE PURCHASING
- METALS
- NEWS
- U.S. firms ready for battle over specialty steel imports
- Prices still good, availability tightens
- News
- Steel shipments keep climbing
- CHIPS
- Aerodyne Ulbrich offers machining
- METALS ON THE WEB
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- Asian crises cast gloom over nonferrous
- Cobalt supply surge is probable
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- CHIPS
- Copper bulls are hard to find
- CHIPS
- Norsk sees aluminum advance in '98
- Metals USA keeps growing
- CHIPS
- Jorgensen: Distribution works when it's customer focused
- Steel centers set shipping record
- CHIPS
- Weirton improves on-time delivery
- OECD forecast expects flat steel demand in '98
- SHEET STEEL
- A surge in demand nobody saw coming
- PRODUCT UPDATE
- FASTENERS AND ADHESIVES
- Future regs spark moderate hikes now
- Fasteners and adhesives
- Fastener Quality Act Compliance Guide available
- Stable adhesives market sustains small hikes
- LATCHES
- Prices inch forward due to mixed demand
- PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
- RECYCLING RESOURCES
- SUPPLY INSIGHTS
- FORECASTS
- Sales tags plummet in Q1
- Forecasts
- Housing stages surprise rally
- Confidence dips a bit
- TRANSPORTATION
- INTERMODAL REPORT
- Intermodal service gains go unnoticed
- NEWS
- Shippers to pay more for ocean freight from Asia
- News
- UP-SP rail merger may be derailed by Beltway politics
- Supreme Court ruling sinks harbor maintenance tax
- Celadon Group rolls into Canada
- Air cargo traffic soars despite Asia's financial woes
- The Top 100 Chemical Distributors
- Top 100 Metal Service Centers
- Transportation
- Intermodal Report
- Who's in the pool?
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