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PURCHASING HOTLINES - Check out the results of Purchasing's
- Transaction Prices
- Expect inflation to creep up a bit this year to about 2.5%
- Plan on paying higher prices and seeing tighter supplies of active matrix liquid crystal displays (LCDs)
- Look for voluntary restrictions to begin stemming steel import flood
- Is your MRO buying strategic--or do you just wing it?
- Expect high-tech suppliers to react to customers' desires for slower technology migration
- Don't count on announced price hike for polystyrene to stick
- Electronic commerce may be accelerated
- Watch for MRO buying on the Internet to explode
- Another bullish e-commerce forecast comes from United Parcel Service
- Consider delaying computer and software purchases until year 2000
- Visit Purchasing's Web site
- Keep an eye on new ocean carrier alliance that could affect shipping rates from U.S. East Coast to South America
- Also look out for unification of two rail unions that will increase bargaining power with carriers
- Take a look at mediation to resolve year-2000 computer problems
- Understanding data and the sophisticated methods used to produce business forecasts will be vital to your career in supply management
- Expect oil prices to stay in the doldrums for some time
- Don't think that mergers of oil giants are over
- Don't think that mergers of oil giants are over
Economy - Risk of global recession has receded but not disappeared
- Commerce revised sharply upward its estimate for third-quarter real GDP growth
- Revised third-quarter productivity growth rates were 5.2% in total manufacturing
- There's demographic evidence to suggest a consumer spending slowdown may be imminent
Markets - The U.S. dollar will remain the prime currency on the London Metal Exchange
- IBM and Intel have teamed up to promote a standard framework for Internet security software
- Mobile computers, cellular phones, and other electronic applications will boost demand for tantalum-metal-based capacitors
- 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
- AEP Industries of South Hackensack, N.J., is streamlining its facility in Matthews, N.C.
- Noble International Ltd. of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
- Low mortgage rates, low unemployment, and a healthy U.S. stock market share equal credit for the 1998 construction boom
- North American motor-vehicle manufacturers will match their 1998 production rate (around 14 million)
- Exxon's agreement to acquire Mobil for $73.7 billion
- The American Forest & Paper Association says total U.S. paper capacity will rise
- Demand for machine tools in the first 10 months of 1998 totaled $6.6 billion
- Dunn Industrial Group has dumped Flint, Mich., as the site for a planned steel-producing mini-mill
- Federal Express has formed a wide-ranging alliance in international transport services
- Thyssen Industries of Germany is buying Dover Elevator of Horn Lake, Miss.
- Growing global demand for motor vehicles, stricter emissions standards
- Royal Hoogovens NV, Europe's ninth-largest steel producer, wants to buy aluminum plants in the U.S. and Asia
- Brass mill product distribution through October fell 7.6%
- California Steel Industries in Fontana looks to build a 1.2 million ton/year thin-slab mini-mill
Prices - Resin buyers can expect 1999 demand growth for large-volume thermoplastics
- Free sheet paper prices--especially cut-size and forms bond grades--continue to trend downward
- The worst of the decline in stainless steel flat-rolled prices may be past
- At $4.75/ounce in early December, the spot price for silver is too low for expected demand
- Gasoline prices appear to have bottomed out
- Polyvinyl chloride tags continue to slide despite recent attempts by some producers to boost selling prices 2¢/lb
- Vanadium sale prices are expected to crash this year because of weakening demand and rising supply
- Some newsprint producers have lowered prices on standard 30-lb newsprint
- Don't expect any dramatic rise in copper prices
- Benchmark coated groundwood (No. 5 40-lb offset) is selling at up to 30% off the $1,240/ton list price
- Cuts in logging and sawmill capacity are needed to haul the U.S. lumber industry out of recession
- World crude oil prices will remain between $11 and $15 per barrel
- A glut in propane has pushed U.S. Gulf prices down to 25.5¢/gallon
- Palladium's annual price average is expected to slip to $250/oz next year
- U.S. International Trade Commission may revoke old dumping duties
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