AUTOMOTIVE/OEM NEWS
BUYING ENERGY
BUYLINES
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
CPI EDITION
INSIDE PURCHASING
Metals
METALS
PART III: APPLIANCE MANUFACTURING
| Product Update
PRODUCT UPDATE
PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
PURCHASING HOTLINE - TRANSACTION PRICES
- Check out Purchasing's newest book
- Expect the U.S. dollar to strengthen for the rest of the year
- But don't expect South American countries to tie currencies to U.S. dollar
- Keep an eye on polyethylene prices
- Expect Congress to approve loans to small businesses to fix Y2K problems
- Understanding data and the sophisticated methods used to produce business forecasts will be vital to your career in supply management
- Plan on Congress raising federal minimum wage
- It's a good bet there won't be any major changes to interest rates
- Look for U.S. companies to continue acquiring Japanese firms
- Count on rising costs for workers' comp insurance
- Expect prices for plywood to move up this year
- Keep an eye on interaction between ocean shippers and Federal Maritime Commission
- Pay close attention to oil prices
- Ocean shippers: Expect to pay more to move cargo from South America to the U.S.
- Visit Purchasing's Web site at www.purchasing.com
- Ocean deregulation may spur global shippers to consolidate proprietary information and share it with carriers
- Watch for unions across U.S. to focus on organizing service industries
- Consider conducting voluntary environmental audit
- Expect at least a portion of recently announced linerboard price hikes to stick
- Good news for small firms: Computerized postage is coming!
- Don't expect Congress to pass airline "passenger rights" law this year
- Looks like another good year for sales of new cars and trucks
- What's your favorite Web site?
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
- J.P. Morgan economists have reversed their lonely call for a mild recession in second-half 1999
- Deflation is the debate du jour among economists
- Fed's latest Beige Book regional roundup of economic conditions contains mostly good news
- Visit Purchasing Online (www.purchasing.com) to enter Purchasing's 1999 Crystal Ball
Markets - 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
- Rouge Steel in Dearborn., Mich., damaged by an explosion on February 1, should be operational in all areas by late April
- Ashland Chemical is being split into two businesses--Ashland Distribution and Ashland Specialty Chemicals
- U.S. aluminum production totaled 286,848 metric tons in February
- Energy analysts continue to doubt that members of the dysfunctional family of oil-producing nations
- Ailing world oil demand will stage a feeble 1.2% revival in 1999
- Construction equipment and machinery maker Caterpillar says early 1999 demand in the U.S. is stronger than expected
- Russia has agreed to roll back to 1996 levels its shipments of hot-rolled steel sheet to the U.S.
- Dominion Resources of Richmond, Va., has become the fourth-largest utility
- Securitas of Sweden is buyings Pinkerton's, underscoring the consolidation and globalization of the security industry
- Tired of being cited for unfair trade practices due to currency devaluations, Brazil's CSN wants to increase sales in North America
- Digital Equipment, which has the fastest running microprocessor at 600 megahertz, will likely be the first
- U.S. shipments of major home appliances set an all-time record of 56,599,200 units in 1998
- Polyethylene terephthalate plastic resins producer Nan Ya of Houston will add 360 million lb/year
Prices - North American polystyrene (PS) makers say they've pushed through a 4¢/lb price increase
- Despite heady domestic demand for copper mill products from builders and manufacturers
- Lumber prices--averaging $290/ thousand board feet for key structural-use grades--are "relatively strong"
- Mini-mills will try to boost steel wire rod prices by $20/ton in May
- "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
- Weyerhaeuser is trying to restore benchmark northern bleached softwood kraft (nbsk) pricing to $500/metric
- Market insiders say excess stocks and cheap imports are holding back a 10% proposed February price hike
- Manganese alloy prices will rise sharply in 2000
- Agricultural-equipment manufacturers were far from pleased with the annual farm-market price and planting forecast
- Mounting overcapacity in the North American polypropylene (PP) market
- Uncle will neither regulate the Internet nor make computer users pay long-distance fees
Recycling Resources
SUPPLY INSIGHTS
TRANSPORTATION
TRANSPORTATION NEWS
|
