July 2009

Steel Industry Musings From the 1960 Recession

by Lisa Reisman on July 31, 2009

Style:    Category: Ferrous Metals

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The Wall Street Journal just ran a fascinating series of articles entitled: Looking Back: the 1960 Steel Slump and once I stopped laughing over the constant reference to steel men say this and steel men say that, (sounds like some Men-in-Black movie title) some of the comments sound exactly like what we’ve heard some recent [...]

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Metal and Memories: Timeliness of Typewriters

by Nate on July 31, 2009

Style:    Category: Uncategorized

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Since 1967, Los Altos Business Machines have been repairing the formerly dominant method to generate content: the typewriter. A recent National Public Radio story related that one of the shop’s loyal customers was Pulitzer-Prize winning author Wallace Stegner, whose son, Page Stegner, shared this aspect of his father’s relationship to his typewriter: He typed with [...]

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Supplier Risk Management For Metals Buyers and Sourcing Professionals

by Lisa Reisman on July 30, 2009

Style:    Category: Sourcing Strategies

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Every now and again we like to examine some of the broader emerging sourcing trends, many of which we learn from our sister site, SpendMatters. Of recent interest (and perhaps a little controversy), the subject of supplier risk management has spurred a debate over whether or not supplier risk research is a waste of time. [...]

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The Modern World Finally Arrives in East Africa

by Stuart Burns on July 30, 2009

Style:    Category: Product Developments

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Internet broadband is one of those technologies that has become ubiquitous in the developed world. Adolescents probably cannot remember dial up 56k connections and we all take it for granted that broadband wireless will be available wherever we roam ” well almost. So imagine living in an area of the world where there is no [...]

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New Housing Market Data: Positive for Steel, Aluminum and Copper?

by Lisa Reisman on July 30, 2009

Style:    Category: Ferrous Metals, Macroeconomics, Non-ferrous Metals

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New statistics from Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price index suggest that for some housing markets, the trends have begun to move in a positive direction. Specifically, markets such as Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Minneapolis and San Francisco all saw house prices increase during this past month according to a recent story from NPR. [...]

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Record Setting Swimsuits to be Banned: Titanium Alloys Lose Out

by Lisa Reisman on July 29, 2009

Style:    Category: Product Developments

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Who would have thought that swimsuits could be so controversial? As it turns out, FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation) has decided to, “limit the amount and type of materials” that can be used to make the fancy swimsuits worn by elite swimmers such as Michael Phelps, according to a recent article from Scientific American. The [...]

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Shot Down — China Intercepts North Korea Bound Vanadium Shipment

by Lisa Reisman on July 29, 2009

Style:    Category: Minor Metals

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Yesterday, a story hit the Reuter’s wire that China had intercepted over 150 pounds of vanadium destined for North Korea. China customs agents found the material at a border crossing tucked under fruit in a produce truck, local reporters suggest. Vanadium, a rare earth metal, is banned from North Korea thanks to U.N. Security Council [...]

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What Do Rising Iron Ore Prices Tell Us About Steel Prices?

by Lisa Reisman on July 29, 2009

Style:    Category: Ferrous Metals

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They tell us some things of course because iron ore prices as a component of integrated steel making do have some impact on prices. See our earlier post on integrated steel mill cost build-up models. But we don’t think the correlation is as tight as one might suspect. Instead, we hypothesize (and we are running [...]

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