Chris Jones, EVP of Industry and Services for Descartes, explains the value of looking beyond one’s supply chain to better understand how commodities and freight flow. View the PDF
Copper Down Cycle Drags on Japan Traders
The copper down cycle has taken a big bite out of the profits of Japan’s trading companies. This morning, Mitsubishi Corp., Japan’s biggest trading house, announced ¥430 billion (US$3.8 billion) in write downs on a list of commodities assets, starting with...
Mercosur’s Falling Currencies Failing to Lift Exports
One benefit of a weakening currency should be exports priced to move in the global marketplace. So the slide in value of, for example, Brazil’s real should be translating into rising exports. But that’s not happening in Brazil or other key emerging markets that the...
Copper Exports: Volume Down, Value Up
Chilean, Peruvian copper fetches record prices as shipments slip in 1H11 End of July, we looked at copper exports from top source Chile and top comer Peru through year-end 2010, when the price of copper began its climb toward a record US$10,000/ton [Copper Benchmark]....
Copper Benchmark
Peru is poised to boost copper output as global demand outstrips supply Glencore, the commodities trader whose May initial public offering raised $10 billion, has just paid $475 million in cash to CST Mining Group for a 70% interest in Marcobre S.A.C., sole owner of...
Following Glencore
Trade data can shed light on a low-profile company’s x-border commerce Back on April 7, we took a look at what Datamyne trade data can reveal about Colombia’s consumption of US exports. We noticed then, but didn’t comment on, the fact that three of Colombia’s top five...