As the transportation industry braces its self for the start of a new year, the railroad industry seems to be in an excellent position to thrive quickly. Even though The Association of American Railroads stated that mid-December intermodal traffic continues to be down year-over-year, volumes seems to be stabilizing and even seeing a few increases. [...]

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Office equipment is expected to remain a buyer’s market for the next few quarters as a result of macroeconomic conditions, which are reducing the demand for devices such as printers, copiers, fax machines, and multi-functional devices (MFDs). These conditions have caused office equipment sales to deteriorate throughout 2008 and 2009, with no upturn anticipated [...]

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As many of you know, the Category Managers who contribute to Supply Excellence also create a quarterly report called SupplyWatch. The Q1 issue is up and includes detailed category breakdowns for…

Metals
Plastics, Rubber & Raw Materials
Transportation
Electronics, Electrical & IT Hardware
Paper & Packaging
Services & Capital Goods, Construction & Engineering

In addition, there is a feature article on Cutting [...]

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The media buying market is has moved into unfamiliar territory lately. So unfamiliar that even the granddaddy of advertising itself, The Super Bowl, has had to resort to lowering prices. The market has softened so much that for only the second time in the history of the Super Bowl, advertisers are getting a [...]

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Buyers of chemicals always need to know what’s happening in their markets, and more importantly what will happen, to make informed purchasing decisions. The problem is that forecasting chemicals markets is more of an art than a science, and well-structured (but subsequently erroneous) predictions have made some of the best analysts look like novices [...]

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