US consumers are losing their taste for canned foods, according to Euromonitor International. As Business Week reports, while the recession gave lower-cost canned foods a reprieve, the long-term trend has been a steady decline in retail sales of canned, jarred and...
The Shutdown’s Collateral Damage to Trade
by Peter Quinter, guest columnist Even as agreement was being reached to re-open the federal government, the shutdown scored another hit on trade: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on its website and to all registered attendees that it has postponed the...
Follow-up on Shutdown’s Impact on US Imports: New Trade Data
Frankly, we didn’t think the US federal government shutdown would last this long. Anecdotal information is that imports are arriving at US ports and being processed by Customs, but delays in moving shipments out of port facilities are just beginning (see Bloomberg,...
Will Shutdown Hit Imports? Keep an Eye on Bill of Lading Data
It’s too soon to tell whether and to what extent the US federal government shutdown will impact US imports. But it’s not too soon to start keeping track. Here’s what our bill of lading data shows about the volume of trade through four major ports October 1 through 5...
Opportunities to Buy at Bargain Chemical Prices Rise as Rupee Falls
by Brian J. McCormick, guest columnist Our search for “The New Cheap”*, which took us to China in August and South Korea in September, now leads us to India, where declines in the value of the rupee against the US dollar should set the stage for attractively priced...
Import and Export Companies Can Cut Costs in FTZs, But Few Do
by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor Whether you’re an importer, exporter or distributor, doing business within a Foreign Trade Zone offers many opportunities to trim costs, yet relatively few companies pick up on them. “We were surprised that that so few companies were in...
ITC Calls No Harm, No Foul on Imported Shrimp despite Foreign Subsidies
In a 4-2 vote, the US International Trade Commission has decided that the US domestic industry has not been materially injured by imports of frozen warmwater shrimp from China, Ecuador, India, Malaysia, and Vietnam. As a result, countervailing duties on shrimp from...
Staying Thirsty: Trade Data Shows Rising Mexican Water Imports
Hoping to curb Mexican consumption of sugary soft drinks, President Enrique Pena Nieto has proposed a peso per liter tax on soda as part of a package of tax reforms. The public-health conscious measure follows a UN Food & Agriculture Organization report that...
Chemicals Price-Setter: South Korea
On the trail of “The New Cheap*” Chemcost finds an opportunity to save on precipitated silica | by Brian J. McCormick, guest columnist. Chemicals buyers – in whatever country they are based – can economically benefit from discontinuous price opportunities, wherever...
Apple Season
It’s time to watch US import data for signs that new Apple products are ready for picking. The Loop reports that Apple has sent out invitations to an event on September 10 at the company’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. Cue the rumors that a new iPhone is about to...