June 2010 Edition
PHONES
There are now over 545-million cell-phones in India, thanks to its booming emerging economy. This number is expected to reach one billion by 2015. That exceeds the number of people who have access to toilet or sanitary facilities, about 366-million of the one billion-strong population.
POWER
Electricity rationing in Ethiopia, which has curbed domestic manufacturers' power use by half, will continue for several more months. Non-exporting factories have had to cut their electricity input following a tunnel collapse at the country's biggest generating plant earlier this year. Power cuts caused cement-production shortages in Ethiopia, resulting in a 50-per-cent price increase.
FISH
Canadian seafood exports are opening new lines of business for the East Coast industry. There is a growing European appetite for freshly harvested lobster and other seafood, coupled with environmental concerns. The total value of Canadian exports of fish and seafood last year was C$3.6-billion of which $2.3-billion were sent to the U.S. $416-million worth were exported to the European Union. Lobster alone yielded exports of $800-million.
COSTS
According to a KPMG study, Canada ranks second among 10 key countries as a cost-effective place to do business. Mexico, the only developing country included in the study because of its tight links with the two larger North American economies, came first in the overall competitiveness ranking, mainly thanks to low labour and facilities costs. But Canada beat all of its peers in the Group of Seven industrialized countries and showed a cost advantage over the U.S. which finished eighth on the list. The Netherlands, Australia and Britain were third, fourth and fifth on the list.
RULES
The Canadian government may relax the labelling rules for food products to qualify as "Products of Canada", to allow for ingredients that are difficult to source in Canada. The present rules only allow foods that contain at least 98-per-cent Canadian-produced ingredients to be labelled "Product of Canada". Food manufacturers have argued that this rule unfairly limits the number of products that can claim to be Canadian. The food and beverage processing industry is the largest manufacturing employer in Canada and produces annual shipments worth C$19-billion.
BARLEY
The Canadian Wheat Board has signed its largest long-term agreement to sell 500,000 tonnes of malting barley over three years to China, a deal valued at about C$100-million. China is the world's largest consumer of beer by volume and its production has doubled in the past decade. Breweries have been adding less malt to some of its beer brands to spread out supply but it can no longer meet demand. The Winnipeg-based Canadian Wheat Board is the largest wheat and barley marketer in the world, selling to more than 70 countries.
PACKAGING
Sporting goods maker Puma is to launch eco-friendly packaging for its sneakers next year to reduce its carbon footprint by getting rid of the old-type shoe boxes. The new packaging will put the shoes in cardboard frames wrapped in reusable bags. It is estimated that this will save over 8,500 tonnes of paper and a reduction of 60-per-cent in water and energy used during the production process and the amount needed for transportation due to lighter packaging. German based Puma is the world's third-largest sporting goods maker behind U.S. giants Nike and Adidas.
RAIL
From one end of the country to the other, China is in the midst of a railway boom that promises to transform the world's third-largest economy. By making it easier to move people and goods, the rail growth will gradually shift the centre of economic gravity inland, accelerating the development of central and western China. Taking freight and passenger traffic together, China already has the world's busiest railway. But measured by the size of the country and the 1.3-billion population it is small compared to that of Russia, the U.S. or Canada.
CHAMPAGNE
The champagne bubble has finally burst as the French turn instead to the cheaper sparkling wine Cremant. Not just in France is Cremant selling well, producers are starting to sell the fizzy wine to Britain also. Champagne sales dropped by 9-per-cent last year overall, while Cremant in Burgundy was up 6-per-cent and in Alsace, the biggest producer, by 8-per-cent, despite the global downturn, where sales rose last year to 32-million bottles. Cremant cost about half the price of champagne.
CARGO
Theft of cargo in the U.S. is big business, totalling as much as US$10-billion a year. The average net gain for cargo theft is $200,000 per incident, compared to $150,000 for robbing an armoured car and less than $10,000 for a bank robbery. Companies that outsource production and turn warehouse and distribution over to wholesalers may reduce operating expenses, but they also make it easier for cargo thieves to invade their supply chain.
GROWTH
Four years, ago when Saudi Arabia relaxed its banking laws to allow foreign direct investment, there were just 11 investment banks in the Kingdom; today there are 110. Now the hotels are scrambling to catch up. At last count there were nine international brand hotels under construction in the Saudi capital alone. Most are of the high-end luxury category, but all have sub-brands to cater to the three-and four-star markets.
ALCOHOL
Europeans put away over nine litres of alcohol a year per person and the European Commission has declared that alcohol is a key public health and social concern. Yet in most big EU countries, drinking is in decline. In France and Italy the average adult drinks over a third less than 30 years ago. Germans and Spaniards are also reducing consumption as has most of eastern Europe in recent decades.
BULK
Many grocers in the U.S. are expanding their bulk food sections across a variety of categories, which in turn prompted an estimated 15-per-cent increase in bulk food sales last year. Long a staple of natural and organic food stores, bulk foods are now making major inroads in conventional food stores. Estimated to cost 35-per-cent less than their pre-packaged counterparts, many bulk foods offer organic attributes that also appeal to a growing base of shoppers. Herbs and spices offer the greatest savings.
ASHES
Kenya's flower industry was badly hit by the cancellation of flights across Europe because of the ash cloud caused by a volcano in Iceland. In the worst period, it was costing growers nearly $2-million a day. Flowers are the East African country's export earner, accounting for about 20-per-cent of all exports. Every day, Kenya exports from 12 to 15 tonnes of roses to the European Union about 97-per-cent of its total exports. About 300 growers employ an estimated 100,000 people with about 1.2-million people deriving their livelihood from the flower export industry.
POPULATION
In 1800 the world's population was one billion. Thanks to advances in public health and the industrial revolution, the figure is now 8-billion, having doubled in the past 50 years. Global consumption of food and freshwater has more than tripled and fossil-fuel use risen four-fold in the last 50 years.
FINES
New York City's oldest library says one of its ledgers shows that George Washington, the first U.S. president, has racked up 220 years' worth of late fees on two books he borrowed but never returned. Both books were due back on Nov. 2, 1789.
TAXES
Amazon.com Inc. says it is taking a stand for free speech by fighting a request from North Carolina tax authorities for information on people who have bought about 50-million items since 2003. North Carolina requires residents to pay taxes on online purchases if buying the same item in a store would result in a sales tax. But out-of-state retailers can't be forced to collect North Carolina's tax if it has no physical presence in the state.
CONTAINERS
South Korea's biggest port, after having been overwhelmed with empty containers a year ago, is now dealing with shipping lines that have more cargo than they can carry. Surging shipments of electronics, clothes and furniture to the U.S. and Europe, along with capacity cuts by shipping lines, has caused as much as 15 per-cent of containers to be delayed this year, often by more than a week. After slumping trade and an excess supply of vessels caused industry-wide losses of about US$20-billion, container lines cut trips and imposed higher rates.
GOLD
The World Gold Council forecasts that Chinese demand for gold will soon outstrip its domestic supplies. Although the country's per capita use of the precious metal lags that of India, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia, demand is expected to double within 10 years. China's demand for gold has increased by an average of 13-per-cent each year for the past five years. And in six years, China could exhaust its known gold reserves unless China were to attract significant capital investment for gold exploration.
MAGAZINES
The Canadian-English-language edition of Reader's Digest has experienced pronounced declines in circulation and readership in the last 20 years but a recent survey shows the 62-year old monthly continues to have the largest overall readership among Canadian periodicals. The publication has, on average, 6.36-million readers each month. Canadian Living is in second spot with 4-million readers in the English market. Chatelaine occupies third place with 3.56-million readers. Among business publications, Report on Business Magazine, published by the Globe and Mail, held top spot with an average of 1.27-million readers.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is America's second biggest civilian employer. It has more outlets than McDonald's, Wal-Mart and Starbucks combined. But the Government Accounting Office (GAO) reports that since 2006, mail volumes in the U.S. have dropped by 17-per cent and in the last fiscal year, revenues fell by nearly US$7-billion. The USPS says it will lose $8-billion this fiscal year and as much as $238-billion by 2020 unless big changes are made. The recession prompted businesses and advertisers, which account for the bulk of its income, to cut back on mailing.
SERVICES
China may have overtaken Germany to become the world's largest exporter of goods in 2009, but the U.S remained the biggest exporter of services. During 2009, the value of world exports of services was about a quarter of the value of global trade in goods. America's service exports in 2009 were 14.2-per cent of the world's total with a value of US$470-billion. The market share of Britain, the world's second-biggest exporter of services was just over half that of the U.S. and worth $270-billion.
WORTH
According to Forbes Magazine, the number of Russian billionaires and their combined fortunes doubled last year. There are now 62 Russian billionaires, up from 32, with a combined fortune totalling US$297-billion, up from $142-billion the year before.
Thank you for reading the A & A Economic News Digest. For more information visit our website www.aacb.com or contact A & A Contract Customs Brokers Ltd. at strehler@aacb.com.
Past issues of the A&A Economic News Digest can be found at http://www.aacb.com/publications/ed/index.asp
Posts
