Falling Electricity prices create possible negotiating opportunities
Monday, January 23, 2012
A recent Standard and Poor’s report says lower Natural Gas prices have been exerting downward pressure on Electricity prices in the United States.
Wholesale Electricity prices are down more than 50%, on average, since 2008, and more than 10% during the last 3 months of 2011.
For example, the price at PJM (west hub), the largest wholesale market in the country was under $40 per megawatt hour last month, less than half the price three years earlier.
Good information to have when suppliers try to raise prices blaming energy costs. Or, better yet, why not take the initiative and go after price decreases?
To read more about the U.S. Electricity market, click the Professional Purchasers’ Blog link below:.
http://blog.propurchaser.com
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China losing competitive edge as wage costs rise
Monday, June 27, 2011
According to a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group, China’s average wage rate was 36% of the United States’ in 2000.
At the end of 2010, this “gap” had shrunk to 48%.
By 2015, BCG predicts it will be 69%.
A recent article in Daily Tech says the age of cheap labor in China is coming to an end. Annual wages for manufacturing workers continue to increase at a rapid rate, as China becomes wealthier with a stronger currency.
For more insights into this subject, visit the Professional Purchasers’ Blog:
http://blog.propurchaser.com/2011/cheap-labor-china-end/
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Interesting predictions by Kiplinger
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
(In the U.S.) Manufacturing growth is chewing up the slack in production capacity.
April’s slight dip in the capacity use rate…a measure of how busy factories are…
followed 22 months of expansion since the recession ended in summer 2009.
Auto and auto parts output, which was down nearly 9% in April…will pick up again,
though not before declining more in May and June. By 2012…a full recovery.
By year-end…about a 12% jump in business investment in new equipment,
following last year’s 15% increase. Spending on computers, machinery, electrical
and other equipment and more, used here or abroad, is an economic bright spot.
A rebound in global construction is also behind strong equipment demand.
Spending around the world will climb about 3% this year and come close
to $6 trillion in 2012, topping the 2007 prerecession total.
And it’ll keep upward pressure on commodity prices…copper, lumber, steel,
cement and so on…despite the continued dearth of construction activity in the U.S.
Thank you to Kiplinger for permission to excerpt from their May 20th, Kiplinger Letter (Vol. 88, No. 20).
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