1999 SALARY SURVEY
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PURCHASING HOTLINE - Is your MRO buying strategic--or do you just wing it?
- Transaction Prices
- Expect tight job market to loosen next year, but only a bit.
- Plan on shrinking rebates for business travel.
- Consider aggressively negotiating hotel rates for meetings at resorts.
- Want to be up-to-date on the latest in non-traditional purchasing?
- Expect prices for ethylene and its many downstream products to continue to rise.
- Look for major upgrading of electric power systems over next several years
- Watch for companies to work off inventory early first quarter next year.
- Plan on paying higher office rent next year.
- Get up to speed on the Internet
- Look for rising mailing costs for next several years.
- Count on Congress to okay more spending on technologies that lessen global warming.
- Expect export restrictions on thousands of U.S.-made products to be eased.
- Tougher safety law is in works for trucking firms.
- Do you need a law degree to be an effective purchasing professional?
- Don't be surprised if some Y2K disruptions continue through first quarter 2000
- Beware of compressed schedules for ERP implementation.
- Keep an eye on debut of online auction company for less-than-truckload shipments.
- Plan on paying higher prices for most raw materials
- If you want to know what to expect in purchasing over the next decade
- Look for employee health benefit costs to rise next year
- Expect continued consolidation of tier-one automotive suppliers to continue
ECONOMY - The dollar, which has slumped in recent months amid economic recoveries in Asia and Europe, is expected to weaken further in the year ahead.
- The U.S. trade deficit will grow wider over the next two years
- Manufacturing activity grew for a ninth consecutive month in October
- The 300 CEOs comprising the Business Council expect faster global economic growth in Y2000
- The Employment Cost Index (ECI) rose just 0.8% in third quarter 1999
- Gross domestic product rose at a 4.8% annual rate in third quarter 1999.
- U.S. wholesale inflation took an unexpected 0.1% tumble in October
MARKETS - German chemicals giant, Bayer, will buy the plastics business of Lyondell Chemical for $2.45 billion
- Tighter global supplies and plummeting inventories in industrialized countries suggest that Northern Hemisphere countries could face steep fuel bills this winter
- Global semiconductor sales accelerated in September to $12.7 billion
- The strong economy has kept major appliance manufacturing at a high rate and only a slight 1.8-% slippage in shipments is anticipated for Y2000
- U.S. businesses have spent at least $50 billion and the government has shelled out $8.34 billion to ensure that computers realize the world is passing from 1999 to Y2000 on January 1
- Nearly 10 million U.S. homes will undergo digital remodeling by 2003 due to growing demand for Internet access
- U.S. production of chlorine gas rose 0.5% to 10.23 million net tons in the first nine-months of 1999, compared with 10.18 million tons in 1998
- Deliveries of towable recreational vehicles in the first seven months of this year totaled 153,600 units
- U.S. paper and paperboard production totaled 72.17 million tons through September 1999, a 1.2% gain over the same period in 1998
- Danzas freight forwarding (soon to be Danzas-AEI) is becoming a serious challenger to Federal Express and United Parcel Service in the global air freight and express markets
PRICES - Crude oil prices rose to an average of almost $22/barrel in third quarter 1999
- Leading superalloys producers Special Metals and Allegheny Ludlum are pushing 7% price hikes
- The average 1999 copper cathode price will work out to around 73¢-74¢/lb
- For the second time in four months, a 3¢/lb increase in Type 360 brass rod has been rescinded
- Steel mill prices for tinplate sheet products are scheduled to rise 3.75% in January
- Domestic price for Type 304 cold rolled stainless steel sheet shipped to service centers and spot buyers rose to 87.5¢/lb
- Demand for nickel is expected to 7%-8%/year for the foreseeable future
- Prices for commodity-grade memory chips will soon resume their 5%-10% deflationary trend
- Some Russian commodities will cost 5% more next year
- Structural beam buyers had better plan for substantially higher prices in Y2000
- World aluminum consumption "will be healthy again next year," growing at about 4%
- Led by North Star Steel, mills are seeking to increase prices on select merchant bar and light structural steel products by $15-$35/ton in January
- The price of restricted uranium has fallen by a nickel per pound over the past two months
- Increased drilling for oil and natural gas continues to pump up prices for oil country tubular goods
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