by Brian J. McCormick, guest columnist This is not another April Fool’s story. Finding what we at Chemcost Interactive* call “The New Cheap” – the markets that offer the lowest prices for chemicals commodities – takes digging into the data on global buying and selling...
Naming Names: Best-Price Alternative Sources for Chemicals
by Brian J. McCormick, guest columnist In past columns, Chemcost has explored where in the world US chemicals purchasers can find the “New Cheap.” This month, we focus on who can deliver lower prices, with a demonstration of how Datamyne’s US bill of lading import...
Look South Initiative Aims to Lift US Exports to Latin America
by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor While Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations grab headlines, the Obama administration is launching a program to create export opportunities for US companies in this hemisphere. The new Look South initiative aims to help companies chart...
Census Trade Data Suppression: How to Hide a $1 Billion Profit?
by Brian J. McCormick, guest columnist The US Census, the source for US import-export trade statistics, routinely modifies or suppresses selected data, primarily to protect confidentiality. Thus, statistics for two or more ports may be combined and published under an...
Reforms Ease US Export Controls, Constraint on Competitiveness
by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor Export controls have long bedeviled US business. Obviously, for national security purposes, some controls are needed. We don’t want our adversaries, or potential adversaries, to have easy access to items that could be used to attack the...
LatAm Chemical Trade Stats Point to Savings for US Purchasers
by Brian J. McCormick, guest columnist Chemcost’s search for “the New Cheap”* winds up this month with a big opportunity story in Latin American trade. Last month we focused on Brazil (see Brazil’s In-Balance Trade Offers One Sweet Saving Opportunity). This month our...
What to Expect from CBP in 2014: 10 Predictions
by Peter Quinter, guest columnist Here is my annual list of predictions for US Customs and Border Protection in the year ahead: 1. President Obama will nominate and the Senate will confirm a new, permanent CBP Commissioner. 2. CBP’s...
Brazil’s In-Balance Trade Offers One Sweet Saving Opportunity
by Brian J. McCormick, guest columnist As promised last time, Chemcost’s search for “The New Cheap”* changes course this month and heads south to Brazil. What we find is that Brazil’s trade in the 10 chemical commodities that make up Datamyne’s US Best Price Benchmark...
Getting off an A-List No One Wants to Be on: FDA Import Alerts
by Peter Quinter, guest columnist The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the responsibility under the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics (FD&C) Act to stop any adulterated or mislabeled food products from entering the United States. Foreign companies that...
Asian Opportunity: Chemicals Priced 58% below US Benchmarks
by Brian J. McCormick, guest columnist Chemcost’s search for “The New Cheap”* has taken us to China, South Korea and India over the last few months. This month, we have broadened our scope to take in Asia and – as illustrated in Chart 1 below – discovered that Asian...