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...
FTZs: No Drawbacks for Exporters, Big Gains for Local Economies
by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor For exporters that use significant amounts of imported components or raw materials, there are significant benefits to be had from setting up in a Foreign Trade Zone. The most obvious benefit is that they do not pay Customs duties on...
ITC Weighs Inquiry into Dumping of Refrigerant by China
Mexichem Fluor has petitioned the Dept. of Commerce International Trade Commission to open antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) investigations into imports of 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane from China. Mexichem Fluor markets the refrigerant under the registered...
Who’s Who in Pineapple: Del Monte is One – but Which One?
One of the great things about Datamyne’s data assets is that you can dig into the transactions that underlie the statistics – and profiles of the parties to the trade. The market shift in US pineapple imports (see Fresh, Not Canned) led us to the bill-of-lading data...
Fresh, Not Canned: Changing Tastes Shape Pineapple Trade Trend
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...