Purchasing - April 8, 1999
Features
It's a good bet there won't be any major changes to interest rates
It's a good bet there won't be any major changes to interest rates. Federal Reserve Board favors steadiness if possible, and inflation indicators continue to be quite mild.
- AUTOMOTIVE/OEM NEWS
- BUYING ENERGY
- BUYLINES
- Mixed support in Europe forsupplier self declaration to ISO
- Buyers split on whether deflation will end in '99
- United Nations, D&B rollout standard product codes
- WHO'S NEWS
- BUYING OPPORTUNITIES
- In search of price cuts, MRO buyers should study costs
- JIT II PROGRAMS
- Creating a relationship framework for JIT II
- NEGOTIATION PERSPECTIVE
- Art of obtaining commitments
- Purchasing Focus
- What is the regional transportation situation in the U.S. this year?
- STRATEGIC BUYING
- GM inks two key long-term metal-buying agreements
- SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
- SCOR model users getnew benchmarking tool
- SYSTEMS PURCHASING
- Anderson, Morgan roll out systems purchasing for the next century
- Standards update
- ISO 9000 revision mightmiss year-2000 deadline
- WASHINGTON PERSPECTIVE
- Congress moves to limit Y2K liability litigation
- CAREER DEVELOPMENT
- CPI EDITION
- Supplies tighten, but prices remain flat
- Buyers respond to market shifts
- BUYER'S NEWS
- Sigma-Aldrich
- Chevron Chemical
- Producers get increase, propose another hike
- It's a buyer's market for fibcs
- PRICE INCREASES
- Producers propose 1/2¢/lb price hike
- algroup lonza
- Ashland Chemical Co.
- Union Carbide and Tosco
- Rising R&D, new technologies push demand
- ChemSyn Laboratories
- Cardolite Corp
- Columbia Chemical
- Good availability is keeping buyers optimistic
- Prices will increase slightly
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- Prices bottom out, producers propose increase
- CHEMICAL TRANSACTION PRICES
- Index is set to rise in the months ahead
- CUSTOM & TOLL MANUFACTURING
- DON'T FORGET Cost Control
- INSIDE PURCHASING
- METALS
- NEWS
- Ford looks to boost magnesium use
- News
- Japanese steelmakers won'tbe able to compete in U.S.
- Galvstar LP
- U.S. steel use will slide 2.7%
- Metals USA
- TW Metals
- Flat Rock Metal Inc.
- Ameristeel
- Leroux Steel
- No world steel inflation--yet
- Aluminum mill products face dull growth in 1999
- Congress likes $1 billionloan program for steel
- Airport Metals
- Maksteel Inc.
- End users don't likeU.S.-Russia steel pact
- Birmingham Southeast
- Buyer optimism is down, but prices remain low
- Dofasco Inc.
- Alcan Aluminum
- Steel plate, the next battleground
- Grupo Villacero
- Reliance acquires Liebovich Bros.
- Altos Hornos de Mexico SA
- Wyman-Gordon Co.
- Minnesota Iron & Steel
- Demand steady for aluminized sheet
- Samuel Plate Sales
- Allegheny Teledyne
- Excaliber Tube
- PART III: APPLIANCE MANUFACTURING
- PRODUCT UPDATE
- PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
- PURCHASING HOTLINE
- Ocean deregulation may spur global shippers to consolidate proprietary information and share it with carriers
- Expect the U.S. dollar to strengthen for the rest of the year
- TRANSACTION PRICES
- Keep an eye on polyethylene prices
- But don't expect South American countries to tie currencies to U.S. dollar
- Expect prices for plywood to move up this year
- Check out Purchasing's newest book
- Looks like another good year for sales of new cars and trucks
- Keep an eye on interaction between ocean shippers and Federal Maritime Commission
- Look for U.S. companies to continue acquiring Japanese firms
- Good news for small firms: Computerized postage is coming!
- Understanding data and the sophisticated methods used to produce business forecasts will be vital to your career in supply management
- Pay close attention to oil prices
- What's your favorite Web site?
- Visit Purchasing's Web site at www.purchasing.com
- Watch for unions across U.S. to focus on organizing service industries
- Count on rising costs for workers' comp insurance
- Consider conducting voluntary environmental audit
- Expect Congress to approve loans to small businesses to fix Y2K problems
- Expect at least a portion of recently announced linerboard price hikes to stick
- Ocean shippers: Expect to pay more to move cargo from South America to the U.S.
- Plan on Congress raising federal minimum wage
- Don't expect Congress to pass airline "passenger rights" law this year
- ECONOMY
- Only 2% of the business economists polled recently by the National Association of Business Economists (nabe)
- BLS says the Producer Price Index (PPI) fell 0.4% in February
- A recent member survey by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) finds manufacturers less sanguine
- Fed's latest Beige Book regional roundup of economic conditions contains mostly good news
- Deflation is the debate du jour among economists
- J.P. Morgan economists have reversed their lonely call for a mild recession in second-half 1999
- Visit Purchasing Online (www.purchasing.com) to enter Purchasing's 1999 Crystal Ball
- Markets
- Securitas of Sweden is buyings Pinkerton's, underscoring the consolidation and globalization of the security industry
- U.S. shipments of major home appliances set an all-time record of 56,599,200 units in 1998
- U.S. aluminum production totaled 286,848 metric tons in February
- Rouge Steel in Dearborn., Mich., damaged by an explosion on February 1, should be operational in all areas by late April
- Russia has agreed to roll back to 1996 levels its shipments of hot-rolled steel sheet to the U.S.
- Polyethylene terephthalate plastic resins producer Nan Ya of Houston will add 360 million lb/year
- Ashland Chemical is being split into two businesses--Ashland Distribution and Ashland Specialty Chemicals
- Ailing world oil demand will stage a feeble 1.2% revival in 1999
- Energy analysts continue to doubt that members of the dysfunctional family of oil-producing nations
- Digital Equipment, which has the fastest running microprocessor at 600 megahertz, will likely be the first
- The Big Three automakers have raised their U.S. sales expectations
- The newly formed Noranda Magnesium is mapping plans to market pure and alloyed magnesium products
- Construction equipment and machinery maker Caterpillar says early 1999 demand in the U.S. is stronger than expected
- Dominion Resources of Richmond, Va., has become the fourth-largest utility
- Tired of being cited for unfair trade practices due to currency devaluations, Brazil's CSN wants to increase sales in North America
- Prices
- Manganese alloy prices will rise sharply in 2000
- Mini-mills will try to boost steel wire rod prices by $20/ton in May
- Mounting overcapacity in the North American polypropylene (PP) market
- "Industrial inflation will remain a non-issue in 1999,"
- A co-chairman of BP Amoco Plc, one of the world's top three private-sector oil companies, says the era of low oil prices is not over
- Agricultural-equipment manufacturers were far from pleased with the annual farm-market price and planting forecast
- Uncle will neither regulate the Internet nor make computer users pay long-distance fees
- Market insiders say excess stocks and cheap imports are holding back a 10% proposed February price hike
- North American polystyrene (PS) makers say they've pushed through a 4¢/lb price increase
- Lumber prices--averaging $290/ thousand board feet for key structural-use grades--are "relatively strong"
- Weyerhaeuser is trying to restore benchmark northern bleached softwood kraft (nbsk) pricing to $500/metric
- Despite heady domestic demand for copper mill products from builders and manufacturers
- Product Update
- HEALTH AND SAFETY SUPPLIES
- Prices will stay where they are
- Recycling Resources
- SUPPLY INSIGHTS
- TRANSPORTATION
- TRUCKING REPORT 1999
- TRUCKERS TRY TO STOP THE EXODUS!
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