Purchasing - March 9, 2000
Features
Supply leaders are trying to boost prices on carbon and high-strength low-alloy steel plate by $20/ton in April.
Supply leaders are trying to boost prices on carbon and high-strength low-alloy steel plate by $20/ton in April. Demand for plate is improving, but the market is still somewhat oversupplied.
- AUTOMOTIVE/OEM
- BUYING ENERGY
- BUYING IN THE OEM
- BUYLINES
- Roundup: Business bills in progress
- BENCHMARKING
- It pays to be different
- COMING UP
- E-business summit
- GRASSROOTS BUSINESS SURVEY
- Optimism runs rampant
- PURCHASING SURVEY
- Buyers see cost squeeze in 2000
- WASHINGTON PERSPECTIVE
- Congress advances major legislation on energy, liability, workplace rules
- CPI EDITION
- BUYER'S NEWS
- Buyers see prices going up this year
- Pulp and paper market slows
- CORPORATE CHANGES
- Buyers look to outsource
- CHEMFORECAST
- Buyers watch prices rise gradually
- CHEMICAL TRANSACTION PRICES
- Buyers report rising prices
- Purchasing transaction price survey results
- Plastic resin prices
- PETROCHEMICALS
- Prices will rise and fall with feedstock oil
- WATER TREATMENT
- Suppliers keep expanding services
- Buyers look at new technologies
- INSIDE PURCHASING
- LTL REPORT
- TRANSPORTATION
- Fuel prices breed rate increases and skepticism
- METALS
- COPPER & BRASS PRODUCTS
- Latest copper market outlook supports higher prices
- Copper and brass metalcenter CEOs 'marginally optimistic' about 2000
- Tiny wiring boosts copper use
- Strong demand tightens supplies and pushes prices up
- NEWS
- Kaiser sells Micromill to Alcoa
- Dumping seen in structural beams
- Despite glut, maven sees zinc averaging 57¢/lb
- Alternate materials threaten copper in many applications
- Trader strikes e-biz deal for Russian steel
- Industry exec says mega-marriages should be nixed
- Alcan, Ford ink aluminum supply pact
- National Steel wins top spot in annual buyers' poll
- Asian steel exchange targets huge Chinese market
- Stainless steel faces dynamite year
- Buyers are somewhat bullish on 2000 metal buying
- Plate duties due out soon
- European steel mart opens
- CHIPS
- High steel orders create big backlogs
- Palladium, platinum prices soar due to big supply deficit
- Steel plate transactions gain strength
- STEEL PIPE & TUBE
- Trade group collecting as-welded tube data
- LTV Copperweld now dominant tubing supplier
- How long will tight supply last?
- NAFTA UPDATE
- PRODUCT UPDATE
- PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
- PURCHASING HOTLINE
- Need guidance in benchmarking practices?
- Consider trying for reduction in workers compensation insurance premium.
- Also be aware that major industry groups are lining up against the BNSF-cn merger.
- Plan on lumber pricing to rise as spring approaches
- Look for oil prices to drop off
- Plan on more paperwork and delayed shipments if you ship or receive radioactive materials
- Is your MRO buying strategic--or do you just wing it?
- Check out new hard material developed by Dept. of Energy's Ames Research Lab
- Plan on paying more for most paper grades this year.
- Look out for new EPA lead-reporting rules by 2001
- Don't be surprised if labor shortage continues for several months.
- Track closely battle on rail rate hikes
- Count on some relief on wastewater rules
- Researching market price trends?
- Plan on paying more for plastic resins
- Plan to pay more for steel plate this year
- Expect shipping lines in westbound Pacific trade to keep trying to hike rates
- Count on having to confront one sure-bet shortage in your future: Talent
- Keep close watch on results of rail merger meeting.
- TRANSACTION PRICES
- Keep an eye on "electronic border check" system that could delay imports
- Expect other chemical producers to jump into bioplastics
- Look for airlines to keep trying surcharges
- Check out Purchasing's book
- ECONOMY
- For the first time since 1995, all the major world economies are growing simultaneously, eliminating a major inflation drag in the U.S.
- Economists continue to revise up their real GDP growth outlooks for 2000
- Buyers are beginning to report slippage in supplier on-time performance, a harbinger of stretching leadtimes
- Real GDP grew at a 5.8% annual rate in fourth quarter 1999
- A significant fourth quarter jump in the GDP deflator is "a big deal
- Productivity continues to grow at an astonishing rate
- MARKETS
- U.S. machine tool buys from all domestic and foreign sources dropped 28% to $5.6 billion last year
- Central American nations will phase out 3% import tariffs on such raw material commodities as copper
- IMC-Agrico, the nation's largest phosphate producer, will close mines and plants
- The number of U.S. adults using credit cards to purchase goods and services online more than doubled between 1998 and 1999
- U.S. car and light-truck sales will rise to a record 17 million units in 2000
- Ladish Co. has purchased Wy-man-Gordon Titanium Castings
- The newly combined Exxon-Mobil Corp. will produce 3.8% of the world's oil with 120,000 employees and $138 billion in assets
- The market for natural fiber thermoplastic composites exceeded $200 million in 1999, reports analyst Carl Eckert at Kline & Co
- Protecting privacy of buyers on the Internet is becoming big business these days
- DaimlerChrysler's struggling Adtranz railway unit is closing plants in Elmira, N.Y., and five in Europe as it restructures
- Electronic applications will become largest sales segment for specialty gases by 2000
- Polyurethane processing will grow at an average 3.1% rate in the U.S. and Canada to 6.17 billion lb in 2000
- PRICES
- Specialty chemicals maker Degussa-Huels will raise its pigment blacks prices by 4%-8% in mid-March
- Freight railroads are raising certain rates by an average of 4% to counter rising labor and diesel costs
- Consensus forecast still puts domestic copper prices at 85¢-86¢/lb in 2000, but market mavens now see a rise to 90¢-95¢ in 2001
- Several steelmakers want to boost galvanized sheet and corrugated culvert sheet prices by $30/ton in April.
- Retail gas prices rose to an average $1.37/gallon by mid-February
- Uncle wants trucking companies to work more closely with customers in deciding shipping categories to ease pressure for higher rates.
- Mini-mills are trying to raise U.S. prices for so-called special bar quality steel by about 5%.
- Wire rod producers are seeking another $25/ton price increase
- Crude oil prices are on the front burner in the U.S. for the first time in a decade
- The Canadian government will prevent price gouging and predatory pricing by Air Canada.
- Producers will delay 10% linerboard price increases until April
- Independent truckers want a 30% rate increase and a 15% fuel surcharge from customers
- Justice is investigating the newsprint industry for possible anti-competitive pricing practices
- PURCHASING RESEARCH
- RECYCLING RESOURCES
- SUPPLY INSIGHTS
- LEADTIMES
- BUYING PLANS/PRICE EXPECTATIONS
- FORECASTS
- ...as i-rates sap consumers...
- ...and costs dent biz outlays
- Real GDP growth will slow...
- STRATEGIC COST INSIGHTS
- Paper bag prices pop
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