Purchasing articles from January 2002

Purchasing archives from January 2002

Current business indicators. (Purchasing Magazines).(US)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)(Illustration)
January 17, 2002... A Slight rise in PURCHASING'S Business Indicator is certainly goad news. Still, it's a long way from signaling a return to growth for manufacturing. UP 4.5 [Graph omitted] Tracking the economy ...

Tighten measurements of key suppliers' health. (Tip Sheet).
January 17, 2002... Excess capacity is resulting in bargain pricing for now, but will cause major migraines later this year. Weak suppliers will fold and marginal plants will close. Significant consolidation is coming in big steel, automotive suppliers and freight...

Greatest pain may be coming in the tool and die industry. (Tip Sheet).(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... Greatest pain may be coming in the tool and die industry, which is characterized by small, family-owned companies that operate on extremely low margins. Movement to reverse auctions favored low-priced Asian tool builders, putting many American...

Expect more chaos from South American suppliers. (Tip Sheet).(Venezuela oil suppliers)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... Argentina's plight has been well publicized, but now Venezuela is hurtling toward political disarray. Civil unrest could disrupt oil supplies and put pressure on energy costs. Troubled Latin bank loans could tighten lending to U.S. customers.

Get Murray on Law on your VCR. (Tip Sheet).(John E. Murray Jr.'s coursework on purchasing law now available on videotape)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... PURCHASING columnist Dr. John E. Murray, Jr., former Dean of the School of Law at the University of Pittsburgh, has created a videotape series that covers his two-day seminar on Purchasing and Law, which includes over 10 hours of lecture...

Big step forward for electric power deregulation in the Midwest. (Tip Sheet).(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... Last month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a proposal by the Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO) to create a regional transmission organization (RTO) "of sufficient scope" and told the parties to a competing,...

Inflation in business travel costs will be slower this year. (Supply).(2002)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... Inflation in business travel costs will be slower this year, according to the National Business Travel Association, which forecasts 2002 cost increases of just 3% for airfares, hotel rooms and business meals, and 5% for rental car charges....

Corrugated packaging prices remain under downward pressure. (Supply).(U.S.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... Corrugated packaging prices remain under downward pressure as linerboard continues to slide in what has been called "an extraordinarily weak" box market. U.S. box buys fell 6% in 2001, marking a second consecutive annual decline. Despite...

Polystyrene (PS) oversupply will persist in 2002. (Supply).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... Polystyrene (PS) oversupply will persist in 2002, keeping downward pressure on prices, according to market analysts at Industrial Information Resources in Houston. The analysts say excess supply and flagging demand caused spot prices to drop 7%...

A price war is looming in the wireless telecommunications arena. (Supply).(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... Sprint, Nextel, AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Cingular and VoiceStream have completed nationwide expansion plans. That means consumers and businesses in almost every major metropolitan area now have at least four wireless carriers from which...

Major suppliers have announced a 3.25% increase in base 2002 contract prices for tin mill products. (Supply).(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... Demand has been stable for some time at around four million tons per year. However, analyst Michele Applebaum at Salomon Smith Barney's Chicago office believes at least some of the hike will stick. "Higher tariffs on imports put in place about...

Buyers' materials inventory strategy. (Purchasing Magazines).(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... Buyers won't be tempted to stockpile materials until they see same signal that prices or leadtimes are threatening to rise appreciably. According to latest forecasts, that's not likely before 2003. [Graph omitted] Buying plans, next...

Buyers see little inflation for '02. (Transaction Prices).(2002, industrial commodities)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... PURCHASING'S Industrial Supplies Price Index (ISPI) slipped to 103.6 (1992= 100), its lowest level since August 1999. Of the seven groups of materials tracked monthly, indexes for industrial energy wood products, chemicals and plastic...

It's time to drop the PPI as an indicator. (Inside Purchasing).(Editorial)
January 17, 2002... Are you tracking your progress on cost targets against the Producer Price Index? If so, you may be flailing at windmills. Example: The PPI for tantalum capacitors rose 61% from October 2000 to October 2001. The PURCHASING Magazine price...

USPS purchasing group mobilizes in anthrax scare. (Health & Safety).(United States Postal Service)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... Protect 280,000 mail processors, test about 280 facilities for contamination, sanitize 100 trailer loads of mail, and find equipment that can swiftly kill anthrax spores small enough to leak through a taped letter. Initial response to protect...

Rates go up, but surcharges go down at UPS, FedEx. (Shipping News).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... Fuel surcharges won't be around forever. That is the message being sent by shipping industry giants FedEx and UPS. Both companies recently announced their annual rate hikes would come a month earlier in 2002 than planned, but both have also...

More buyers look to integrated supply. (MRO/Distribution News).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... More companies are turning to integrated supply arrangements to meet their MRO buying needs. What's more, companies already doing integrated supply are expanding their programs to cover increasing numbers of products and services, according to...

Purchasing looks at best buying practices. (Books in Print).(publishes 'Best Practices in IT Procurement')(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... PURCHASING's latest book, Best Practices in IT Procurement, shows how some of the best and the brightest in the purchasing profession successfully approach their information technology (IT) buys. The book, a compilation of stories published...

Indian Motorcycle names new VPs. (Who's News).(Dave LaLonde and Cathy S. Allison appointments)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... Dave LaLonde has joined Indian Motorcycle Co., Gilroy, Calif., as vice president, supply chain. He has held various management positions in purchasing, sourcing and materials logistics at General Motors. He has spent the last six years as...

Buyers say business is still "ugly". (On the Street).(manufacturing buyers expect slow economic recovery for year 2002)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... Few manufacturing buyers expect a recovery before second half 2002, according to PURCHASING Magazine's latest grassroots Business Survey. Many say capacity utilization at their plants continues to fall and this is leading to dramatic slowdowns...

Get it on the web. (Exclusive).(www.purchasing.com offers purchasing and logistics news)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... Stories appearing this month only at www.purchasing.com- Happenings an Capitol Hill * PURCHASING'S Washington correspondent Daniel W. Gottlieb looks at industry's role in the new homeland security effort. * Gottlieb also reports on...

STB orders rate disclosures. (Logistics).(U.S. Board of Surface Transportation, shipping regulations)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... Barring an unlikely reversal sought by trucking rate bureaus, a Surface Transportation Board (STB) decision requiring "truth in rates" information be supplied to shippers will go into effect March 20. Although voluntary rate-bureau tariffs...

Look for more shifts in mini-mill supply. (Electric Furnace Steel Market).(Statistical Data Included)(Industry Overview)
January 17, 2002... John Correnti, the chief executive of Birmingham Steel in Alabama, isn't just "whistling Dixie" when he says: "We expect business conditions in the steel industry to remain challenging through the first half of 2002." Steelmakers saw a dramatic...

U.S. Steel mega-merger idea has many holes in it. (Steel).(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... Steelmakers contend that a four-company consolidation and new limits on foreign steel will soon reverse the recent freefall in U.S. steel market prices. Buyers, however, believe the flurry of price hikes announced for this quarter is premature....

Steel transaction indexes reflect real market volatility. (Metals Prices).(Purchasing magazine offers metals pricing indexes)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... Demand for metals pricing benchmarks has risen as the metalworking economy has fallen, and that has generated a lot of interest in PURCHASING Magazine's transaction price indexes for metals, in general, and steel, in particular. Producer...

Buyers won't boost buying for a while. (Exclusive Business Data).(metal buyers)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... Metals buyers closed 2001 with weakest-ever optimism ratings for near-term business and metals buying plans (PURCHASING started tracking this data in 1997). Only 26% of metals buyers say business improved between November and December, and 40%...

Get an edge in the sheet steel buy: Buying groups seek out supply partners, implement continuous improvement programs, initiate value engineering efforts. (Best Practices).(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... Flat-rolled steel buying is undergoing a radical change at Schneider Electric North America where the purchasing organization is implementing a "breakthrough strategy" for its 110,000-ton annual buy. Faced with stringent corporate directives to...

Deflation! Taming the risks. (Commentary).(weathering the storm of deflation)
January 17, 2002... The good news (ostensibly) is that commodity prices are falling fast. PURCHASING'S Industrial Supplies Price Index (ISPI) has plunged 24% since it peaked last December. And, according to PURCHASING'S Major Market forecasts (starting on page 26...

Key markets.(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... ASICs Standard cell application specific integrated circuits (ASICS) will cost more in 2002, but the price increase may be due to an increase in functionality rather than market conditions. Functionality increases as manufacturers cram...

ASICs market declines as systems shipments drop. (Semiconductors).(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... Declining demand for ASICS including standard cell, programmable logic devices (PLDs) and gate arrays, will result in the market falling from $17.6 billion in 2000 to $10.4 billion in 2001, according to market researcher IC Insights. It will...

Design moves into EMS spotlight. (Electronics Outsourcing).(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... Contract manufacturers are beefing up their design expertise as OEMs look to reduce costs and product development cycle times by outsourcing this activity to their manufacturing partners. In the not so distant past, the role of the...

Optimizing use of technology cuts copier costs at Harrah's. (Copier Sourcing Strategy).(Harrah's Entertainment)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2002... Paul Lanigan thinks that corporate buying operations should examine closely the processes they have in place for sourcing office equipment. The manager of strategic planning in the strategic sourcing group at Harrah's Entertainment and...

Want to lower motor costs? Focus on energy efficiency. (Motors).(economic outlook for industrial motors)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... The first few months of 2002 can best be described as a classic buyers' market for industrial motors: Demand is expected to be flat with 2001. Supply is plentiful. Leadtimes are contracting. Prices are low. What's more, smart motor purchasers...

Layoffs push some leads. (Leadtimes).(Statistical Data Included)
January 17, 2002... U.S. manufacturers have taken so much capacity--both physical and labor--out of commission that buyers are now reporting scattered problems with availability. Trouble spots include: specialized electronic components, scrap plastic, custom-made...