Key Metrics and Supply alert
Staff -- Purchasing, 5/3/2001
- Look for President Bush to explore steel import limits. Why? Politics. Bush is offering deals to get his trade bills and other legislative packages through Congress. Bush's hopes for a new national energy policy this year likely will be dashed, however. High on the presidential wish list is a bigger tax break for oil and gas exploration.
- Expect sales of cars and new homes to stay at respectable levels this year. Car sales in the U.S. are expected to fall 7% this year—but that's from an all-time record. Projected sales of 16 million new cars will provide stimulus for the economy. Sales of new homes should hit 900,000—just about the same as last year. Business is strongest in the West and South.
- Explore futures as a way to avoid volatility in materials pricing. CheMatch plans to offer benzene futures in collaboration with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Enron now offers futures for hot-rolled steel band indexed to Purchasing prices.
- Get Murray on Law on your VCR. Purchasing columnist Dr. John E. Murray, Jr., president of Pittsburgh-based Duquesne University, has created a videotape series that covers his two-day seminar on Purchasing and Law, and includes over 10 hours of lecture material. Also included with the video series is a comprehensive 100-page manual and case study workbook. Produced by NAPM Pittsburgh in cooperation with Dr. Murray, the series costs $795 for NAPM members, $895 for non-members. To purchase by mail, contact Purchasing Law Video, Mail Stop P.M., 211 Blaze Dr., Glenshaw, Pa., 15118; by phone, call 412-492-8140, ext. 1234, fax 412-492-8141, e-mail purlaw@napm-pittsburgh.org.
- E-sourcing in steel? Not so fast. For some time, online metal marketplaces have been trying to lure the purchasing community away from phones and fax machines and turn instead to direct-materials sourcing and procurement through the Internet. It isn't working—yet. Last year, buyers used marketplaces and other Internet-based systems for about 4% of their metals needs—or 5.5 million tons of the estimated 137.4 million tons of steel and nonferrous metals purchased. A new Purchasing Magazine survey of production, MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) and construction-grade metals buyers finds that 78.3 million tons of metal were bought over the telephone while another 48.1 million tons were ordered through facsimile releases. The remaining 5.5 million tons were bought through face-to-face contact with sellers.
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