Purchasing - January 14, 1999
Features
Raising the Bar
The ideal manufacturing company makes no product it hasn't already sold, and buys nothing it doesn't need right away. Its suppliers behave the same way.
- AUTOMOTIVE/OEM
- BUYING ENERGY
- BUYLINES
- Grassroots Business Survey
- Purchasing's Grassroots Business Survey
- Commodity price trends diffusion indexes
- Buyers' business optimism rests on fragile foundation
- About the Survey
- Murray's Law
- The 'silent' purchase order
- Washington Perspective
- Bribery becomes riskier under U.S.
- CAREER DEVELOPMENT
- CPI EDITION
- BUYER'S NEWS
- Buyer optimism resurges, but prices start to grow
- Items in short supply
- Biggest buying problems
- CHEMFORECAST
- Prices are ready to rise
- CHEMICAL TRANSACTION PRICES
- Buyers' prices will stay low in '99
- Plastic Resin Prices
- Purchasing transaction price survey results
- SOAPS & DETERGENTS
- Supply base changes bring new challenges for buyers
- SURFACTANTS
- Suppliers explore niches
- CPI Edition
- Computers, Peripherals, and Software
- Purchasing Notes
- Purchasing Notes
- Purchasing Notes
- Purchasing Notes
- Purchasing Notes
- Purchasing Notes
- Purchasing Notes
- Buyers rate PC quality
- How corporate buyers evaluate PC quality
- 'Uptime' is mark of a quality PC supplier
- Software Sourcing Strategy
- Negotiating with giants in the software industry
- Electronics Purchasing
- Electronic Buying Conditions
- Electronic Buying Conditions
- Electronics Prices
- Contract Manufacturing
- Buyers are happy, will spend more with contract manufacturers
- Distribution Watch
- Distributors are cautiously optimistic about 1999
- Electronics Briefs
- Arrow is named a Stewart distributor
- Pioneer to carry SiliconTech chips
- Licensing agreement announced
- Two CMs merge
- Electronics Outlook
- Good buying times will end late in 1999
- Purchasing Strategy
- Using Six Sigma to manage suppliers
- Cobalt NiCd cell has 50% more energy density
- Quality
- Memory ICs have best quality
- Get ready for the 25-gig drive
- INSIDE PURCHASING
- Informex '99: Custom/Specialty Chemicals
- Six stages of the custom buy
- Exhibitor List
- The Buying Process Evolves
- Why buyers outsource
- Buyers' wish list
- Custom/Specialty Chemicals
- Suppliers expect good times to continue
- Pharmaceutical Intermediates
- Stakes are high when outsourcing
- The Buying Process
- Tips from Dow on choosing a contract chemical manufacturer
- Checklist of questions to determine supplier capability
- METALS
- News
- Duferco to buy Caparo assets
- Aluminum touts growing roles in autos
- Metals Chips
- Metals Chips
- Europe attacks use of 1916 U.S. anti-import law
- Metals Chips
- Steel consumers want open trade, not duties
- Kawasaki develops high-strength beams
- GM ends 'megacenter' plan
- Asian woes dampen world steel outlook*
- Metals Chips
- Metals Chips
- Metals Chips
- Canada, Europe also probe steel imports
- Metals Chips
- Metals Chips
- Dow exits magnesium
- Construction-grade steel faces dour growth forecast
- Metals Chips
- Metals Chips
- Metals Chips
- Metals Chips
- Mueller completes Halstead buyout
- Brass trade deficit gains 9%
- Analyst sees steel slump continuing
- Europe's steel market resembles North America
- Metals Chips
- Steel firms await Clinton plan on imports
- Alcoa predicts 2% aluminum plate shipments gain
- Metals Chips
- GM says more Alcan-style deals are likely
- Metals
- ELECTRIC-FURNACE STEELMAKING
- 'High-tech' firms lead revolution in steel supply
- ON THE INTERNET
- Office Products and Business Systems
- PRODUCT UPDATE
- LIFT TRUCKS
- Record growth has not raised prices
- PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
- PURCHASING HOTLINES
- Watch for MRO buying on the Internet to explode
- Electronic commerce may be accelerated
- Expect inflation to creep up a bit this year to about 2.5%
- Transaction Prices
- Check out the results of Purchasing's
- Visit Purchasing's Web site
- Don't count on announced price hike for polystyrene to stick
- Take a look at mediation to resolve year-2000 computer problems
- Plan on paying higher prices and seeing tighter supplies of active matrix liquid crystal displays (LCDs)
- Consider delaying computer and software purchases until year 2000
- Don't think that mergers of oil giants are over
- Don't think that mergers of oil giants are over
- Is your MRO buying strategic--or do you just wing it?
- Another bullish e-commerce forecast comes from United Parcel Service
- Expect oil prices to stay in the doldrums for some time
- Understanding data and the sophisticated methods used to produce business forecasts will be vital to your career in supply management
- Also look out for unification of two rail unions that will increase bargaining power with carriers
- Keep an eye on new ocean carrier alliance that could affect shipping rates from U.S. East Coast to South America
- Expect high-tech suppliers to react to customers' desires for slower technology migration
- Look for voluntary restrictions to begin stemming steel import flood
- Economy
- There's demographic evidence to suggest a consumer spending slowdown may be imminent
- Risk of global recession has receded but not disappeared
- Revised third-quarter productivity growth rates were 5.2% in total manufacturing
- Commerce revised sharply upward its estimate for third-quarter real GDP growth
- Markets
- IBM and Intel have teamed up to promote a standard framework for Internet security software
- Exxon's agreement to acquire Mobil for $73.7 billion
- Low mortgage rates, low unemployment, and a healthy U.S. stock market share equal credit for the 1998 construction boom
- California Steel Industries in Fontana looks to build a 1.2 million ton/year thin-slab mini-mill
- Mobile computers, cellular phones, and other electronic applications will boost demand for tantalum-metal-based capacitors
- The American Forest & Paper Association says total U.S. paper capacity will rise
- Dunn Industrial Group has dumped Flint, Mich., as the site for a planned steel-producing mini-mill
- North American motor-vehicle manufacturers will match their 1998 production rate (around 14 million)
- Royal Hoogovens NV, Europe's ninth-largest steel producer, wants to buy aluminum plants in the U.S. and Asia
- Growing global demand for motor vehicles, stricter emissions standards
- Thyssen Industries of Germany is buying Dover Elevator of Horn Lake, Miss.
- Demand for machine tools in the first 10 months of 1998 totaled $6.6 billion
- Sable Petrochemical of Houston plans to spend $400 million
- Consolidated Papers of Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., will spend $200 million on 30 major projects in 1999
- Noble International Ltd. of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
- Brass mill product distribution through October fell 7.6%
- AEP Industries of South Hackensack, N.J., is streamlining its facility in Matthews, N.C.
- Federal Express has formed a wide-ranging alliance in international transport services
- The U.S. dollar will remain the prime currency on the London Metal Exchange
- Prices
- Don't expect any dramatic rise in copper prices
- At $4.75/ounce in early December, the spot price for silver is too low for expected demand
- Cuts in logging and sawmill capacity are needed to haul the U.S. lumber industry out of recession
- Free sheet paper prices--especially cut-size and forms bond grades--continue to trend downward
- Gasoline prices appear to have bottomed out
- A glut in propane has pushed U.S. Gulf prices down to 25.5¢/gallon
- Vanadium sale prices are expected to crash this year because of weakening demand and rising supply
- The worst of the decline in stainless steel flat-rolled prices may be past
- Some newsprint producers have lowered prices on standard 30-lb newsprint
- Palladium's annual price average is expected to slip to $250/oz next year
- Polyvinyl chloride tags continue to slide despite recent attempts by some producers to boost selling prices 2¢/lb
- U.S. International Trade Commission may revoke old dumping duties
- Benchmark coated groundwood (No. 5 40-lb offset) is selling at up to 30% off the $1,240/ton list price
- Resin buyers can expect 1999 demand growth for large-volume thermoplastics
- World crude oil prices will remain between $11 and $15 per barrel
- Purchasing Software News
- QUALITY REPORT
- Computer Equipment
- Quality process leads to one global PC supplier
- Metals
- Pressure from buyers produces improved results
- Scorecard
- Quality slipped a bit in '98
- Training
- Training methods vary widely
- Transportation
- Quality systems integrate with other functions
- Recycling Resources
- STRATEGIES
- SUPPLY INSIGHTS
- BUYING PLANS/PRICE EXPECTATIONS
- Leadtimes
- Forecasts
- Weather whacks output
- Manufacturing loses jobs
- CU falls below 80%
- Strategic Cost Insights
- Pigment costs go way down
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