September 2009

Zinc Market Forecast to Move into Deficit Through 2011

by Stuart Burns on September 28, 2009

Style:    Category: Commodities, Non-ferrous Metals, Supply & Demand

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Some may wonder why the zinc price is as strong as it is when the market has been in surplus for the first half of this year and with the exception of China re-stocking, demand has been comparatively weak. Smelter utilization has dropped from 83% last year to 77.2% this year as refined metal supply [...]

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Water on the Moon, Magnetic Gasses and the Next Segway???

by Lisa Reisman on September 25, 2009

Style:    Category: Minor Metals, Product Developments

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What a week for science! We’ll cover three innovations/discoveries and point out the metals along the way¦. The first innovation comes from Honda. The company unveiled its  unicycle dubbed the U3-X yesterday. The portable mobility device apparently contains tiny wheels that enable the device to move in any direction the seated person wishes to go. [...]

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Ford Figo Added to Line-up of Low Cost Small Cars Made in India

by Stuart Burns on September 25, 2009

Style:    Category: Product Developments

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With much fanfare, Ford has announced the launch of their new small car for India at a New Delhi hotel this week. It’s called the Figo (apparently Italian for cool but completely meaningless in Hindi, India’s most common language after English) and will come as a four door hatchback. Ford says it has been designed [...]

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Aggregated Purchases, Leveraged Buys, GPO’s and Rebate Programs for Metals

by Lisa Reisman on September 24, 2009

Style:    Category: Sourcing Strategies

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Throughout my years as a consultant I have come across numerous innovative sourcing models designed to aggregate or leverage purchasing volume in exchange for price breaks/discounts/rebates from preferred suppliers. In fact, our own firm has even implemented a rebate program on behalf of a middle market OEM. There are several varietals of these models and [...]

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Seismic Shift in Store for Europe’s Car Industry

by Stuart Burns on September 24, 2009

Style:    Category: Ferrous Metals, Non-ferrous Metals, Product Developments, Supply & Demand

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An article in the Economist entitled Small Isn’t Beautiful examines the current state of the car industry particularly in Europe but with reference to North America and Asia as well. The article examines the over-capacity in the European car industry but what is really interesting is the analysis of longer term structural changes that the [...]

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China, Growing but Frothy

by Stuart Burns on September 24, 2009

Style:    Category: Global Trade, Macroeconomics

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So far, China has weathered the storm well according to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in a recent Bloomberg article. Bank lending and stimulus measures would continue he said and the economy which grew at 7.1% in the first six months is expected to average 8.3% in the second half and 9.4% in 2010 according to the FT. [...]

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MAPI Calling for Free Trade Agreement Fast Track to Help US Exporters

by Stuart Burns on September 23, 2009

Style:    Category: Anti-Dumping, Global Trade

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Who would be a politician? On the one hand one part of the US manufacturing base is calling for greater tariffs and protectionism against imported products, (note our recent article on the 35% import duty the US administration slapped on tires from China) while on the other hand, a different sector of the manufacturing base [...]

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Are We Starting to Doubt the Sustainability of the Commodity Rally?

by Lisa Reisman on September 23, 2009

Style:    Category: Commodities, Supply & Demand

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We’ve been skeptical of a sustainable commodity rally for quite some time now, despite all of the evidence pointing to one (including the actual run-up in prices of most of the base metals for much of this year). On August 4, we published this piece Banking on Technicals to Support Higher Base Metal Prices after [...]

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