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PURCHASING HOTLINE - Be sure to enter Purchasing's Welcome Booklet contest.
- Keep an eye on mega-merger in copper industry.
- Watch for more buying consortiums groups to form
- Look for oil prices to soften soon.
- If you're a purchasing pro in the chemical process industries (CPI)
- Exporters: Keep an eye on two proposed regulations.
- Discount any talk of crisis when Panama takes over Canal on Dec. 31
- Expect business travel costs to increase next year
- Don't expect 1999 Water Resources Development Act to be passed this year
- Check out Purchasing's new book
- Count on increases in health-care benefit costs through the rest of this year
- Worried about computer hackers and viruses that can destroy data?
- Get up to speed on the Internet
- Expect at least some of recent price hike for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to stick
- Keep an eye on Web auction sites
- Expect natural gas and oil companies to step up takeovers of electric utilities
- Smart money says Caribbean trade bill will pass Congress this year
- Plan on business investment in plants and equipment to stay strong
- Warning: It's not just your marketplace, your strategic plan, your track record or your technology that determines your ability to grow--it's your people
- Watch for shipping conferences to continue to disband
- Rail shippers: Be aware that railroads recently lost two rate defenses
- TRANSACTION PRICES
ECONOMY - Each passing month adds another arrow to the inflation hunter's quiver
- Latest issue of Blue Chip Economic Indicators (July 1999) puts the consensus forecast for 1999 GDP at 4%-
- The economic situation for the world and the oecd area as a whole now looks more favorable that it did six months ago
- Some firms will stockpile critical components this fall
- Manufacturers lack pricing confidence
- The U.S. trade deficit continued to surge
MARKETS - CEO of computer chipmaker Intel predicts that the number of Internet users will increase six-fold to one billion within five years
- Orders for machine tools rose 39% through May to an estimated $2.2 billion compared to the same period last year
- Home builders are concerned about shortages of skilled construction workers and such building materials
- Steel shipments from abroad dropped 13% between May and June
- OPEC'S cuts in crude oil production and rising demand for gasoline and other refined products could lead to the biggest winter oil shortage in more than a decade
- North American-based plastic compound makers expect 5% sales growth this year to $9.6 billion
- Tissue demand should remain strong, particularly in commercial and industrial markets
PRICES - Steelmakers, led by Ispat-Inland Steel Co., will attempt to raise spot market prices on several sheet steel products in September
- Polystyrene producers have pushed 3¢ worth of additional price increases through to buyers.
- National average price for self-serve regular unleaded gasoline jumped 3.2¢ to $1.174 per gallon in July
- Reinforcing bar prices increased about $10/ton last month to $310 in the Midwest
- Copper cathode prices on the London Metal Exchange could slip back to 65¢/lb in early 2000
- Mexican Energy Minister Luis Tellez says crude oil prices won't rise beyond their current $20-$21/barrel
- Intel is cutting wholesale prices on its Pentium III line of microchips by 10%-15%
- Containerboard tags have yet to regain 1998 levels, but they'll continue rising as the year progresses
- Compaq Computer is offering a price cut, along with product and Internet service rebates
- Allegheny Ludlum is leading a specialty steel industry effort to boost prices for stainless steel hot- and cold-rolled sheet, strip, and coiled plate by 7%
- An attempt to boost brass rod prices by 4¢/lb has flopped
- Glues and adhesives from France, Germany, and Italy are now subject to 100% tariffs
- Price increases for unbleached kraft linerboard ($40/ton) and semichemical corrugating medium ($50/ton) appear to have stuck
- July brought an apparent end to the seven-month newsprint price slide
- Although corporate travel executives are resisting increases in excess of 3% this year
- GNB Technologies has raised August prices for lead-acid batteries by 5%
- Almost all integrated and independent containerboard producers are proposing 11.5% price increases on corrugated box deliveries in August.
- Imposition of sales taxes on electronic commerce would cut expected sales activity by 30%, according to a new study
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