Sept 2011 Edition
SOFTWOOD
May
of this year saw British Columbia's lumber sales to China eclipsing
those to the United States for the first time. Producers sold
US$120-million of softwood lumber to mainland China, triple the level of
a year earlier and more than the $119-million in sales to the U.S. The
States has always been the biggest customer for the province's sprawling
forests of spruce, pine and fir. The higher Chinese sales may not last
as America's depressed new housing market eventually recovers. Total
sales to China to the end of June have reached $446-million, up 178 per
cent over last year, compared with $661-million to the U.S.
JUNK FOOD
The Association of National Advertisers, a Washington D.C. based lobby group is urging the White House to curb its enthusiasm for more restrictions on advertising many food and beverage products to children. The so-called Sensible Food Policy Coalition, which is made up of advertisers, media sales organizations, and food and beverage manufacturers, say that the proposed restrictions could result in lower sales of about US$30-billion and the loss of about 74,000 jobs over the first year.
PARKING
According to Colliers International, Calgary is now second only to New York as the most expensive city to park in North America, and 21st in the world. The average monthly rate in Calgary is US$472.50, up 4.2 per cent in the past year. Toronto is $332 down 1.2 per cent and Vancouver $288, up 7.9 per cent. Internationally, the City of London and London's West End are nearly $1100 per month, up over 16 per cent from a year earlier. Zurich is $822 a month and Hong Kong and Tokyo are tied for $744 a month.
VIEWING
The receivership of DVD rental chain Blockbuster is one of the latest signposts along a road that has seen DVD sales and rentals on a steady decline in the U.S. since 2007 and the growth in popularity of online streaming services. DVD revenue in the U.S. in 2010 was US$14-billion, an 11 per cent decline from a year earlier. At the same time, there was a 19 per cent increase in streamed and downloaded sales and rentals.
CHARITY
Canada has about 85,000 charities and they must disclose to Revenue Canada how much their 10 highest-paid workers earn. There are about a million charity workers in Canada and 6,000 of them earned above C$120,000 last year. Another 12,000 workers made between $80,000 and $120,000. A few hundred earned over $350,000. Charities defend the high pay saying they have to pay top dollar for the brightest talent. One major cancer foundation paid its 156 full-time and 30 part-time workers nearly $13-million last year.
SOLAR
The first solar park in Wales will soon be converting sunlight into electricity in Pembrokeshire. Almost 10,000 solar panels have been imported from the U.S. and are placed in 12 lines in a six-acre field which is expected to double eventually. The panels are thin film particularly suited to the local climate of largely cloudy skies.
COUNTERFEIT
U.S. Customs estimates the global value of counterfeit and pirated products to be US$600-million rising to $1.7-trillion by 2015. U.S. agencies made 19,959 seizures in 2010 compared with 3,600 in 2001. 66 per cent of the goods seized in the U.S. originated in China, the single largest source. The largest category was footwear, 24 per cent of the total.
HEMP
Canada's hemp sector is small but growing quickly, with an increase in exports of 500 per cent over the past four years. Hemp can be used for products as varied as pasta, textiles, building products and car parts. Industrial hemp and marijuana are both members of the cannabis plant family. Health Canada issued 296 licences to grow industrial hemp to June of 2011, up from 184 in 2009. A total of 3.98-million kilograms of hemp products worth C$10.38-million were exported in 2010, up from $8.09-million in 2009.
LABOUR
Following in the controversial footsteps of Arizona's lawmakers, Georgia also introduced beefed-up immigrant legislation this spring. As a result, farm workers are bypassing Georgia, causing a massive labour shortage in the state and sending the US$1.1-billion industry into a tailspin. Farmers are experiencing labour shortages of up to 50 per cent and it is estimated that up to a quarter of Georgia's crops will go unharvested, representing $300-million in lost revenue. Despite the economic ramifications, the governments of Alabama and South Carolina are considering similar legislation.
TRASH
Air France is to ask passengers to clear their seats and take trash with them when leaving the plane as they seek to cut costs and stem the advance of airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair in its home market. Cabin crews have refused to assume cleaning duties at a low-cost operation it is introducing in a push to claw back traffic at provincial airports. Ryanair is now the fifth largest passenger carrying airline in the world.
DISPUTES
After a 17-year dispute, the U.S. and Mexico have signed a deal to allow their trucks to use each other's roads. The 1994 NAFTA called for Mexican trucks to have full access to U.S. highways, but were kept to a border buffer zone because the U.S. cited concerns about the ability of Mexican trucks to meet U.S. safety and environmental standards. In 2009, Mexico imposed higher tariffs on dozens of U.S. products in response.
POTATOES
Scientists in Scotland has decoded the full DNA sequence of the potato for the first time. The breakthrough holds out the promise of boosting harvests of one of the world's most important staple crops. It should soon be possible to develop improved varieties of potato much more quickly. The genome of an organism is a map of how all its genes are put together. Each gene controls different aspects of how the organism grows and develops.
INSURANCE
After two years of decline, the global insurance industry returned to growth in 2010. Overall, insurance premiums rose by 2.7 per cent to US$4.3-trillion in 2010. Rich countries dominate, but growth was concentrated in emerging markets. In the U.S., which accounts for more than a quarter of the world market, premiums rose slightly to US$1.116-trillion. Canadian premiums were worth $115-billion and Japanese premiums $557-billion.
MARITIMES
Time was when the economies of the four Atlantic provinces were virtually indistinguishable, depending on the fortunes of fish, farming and forests. But Newfoundland and Labrador's remarkable oil and mining boom is creating a new gap between the haves and have-nots of Atlantic Canada. Its economy is powering ahead while those of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island languish, waiting for a national recovery. In Newfoundland, workers are increasingly scarce because mining, oil and government sectors are all in full expansion, raising concerns that there will be a shortage to bring a series of new projects on stream.
CIRCUITS
Scientists in the U.S. have created a roller ball pen that can be used to draw functioning circuit boards. They have used conductive silver ink to sketch electrical circuits on paper, wood and other flexible surfaces. Similar pens have been available for a number of years, but their ink tends not to be bendable when dry. Most of the work in this area is focused on developing inkjet printers capable of creating circuits.
PUMPS
Canadians already paying steep gas prices have also been paying out money for gas they didn't receive. Government data shows that six per cent of all gas pumps tested over the past 2 1/2 years failed to dispense the right amount of fuel. The loss adds up to an average of a couple of dollars for every 50 tankfuls. An inaccurate pump in their tests equals a discrepancy of more than 100mL, over or under for 20 litres of gas. Saskatchewan rated the highest for overcharging at 83 per cent.
TIRES
China's insatiable demand for commodities has prompted a tripling in the price of mining truck tires, making them more expensive than a Porsche 911 or a condo in Miami. Prices for 3.5 metre tires used by Caterpillar trucks have touched US$100,000. Demand from China, the world's biggest metals buyer, has driven copper, iron ore, gold and coal to record prices this year, forcing companies to compete for the equipment and labour needed to mine them.
FORMULA ONE
Some of the most sophisticated data-acquisition and analysis equipment is found on F1 cars allowing them to shave fractions of a second off lap times. Now the technology pioneered in motor racing is being applied to sailing, another discipline where split seconds provide an edge. Sailing teams for the Olympics have adopted the technology as have several competitors in the America's Cup allowing them more accurately to measure wind speed, yaw, rudder angles and other factors.
GREENHOUSES
Statistics Canada reports that there were 22.9-million square metres of greenhouses in Canada in 2010, up from 22.4-million. There was a 3 per cent increase in the sales of greenhouse products to C$2.5-billion. Sales of fruit and vegetables increased by 10 per cent to surpass $1-billion. Sales of nursery products were $644-million and sod was worth $147-million.
PAPERS
Between 2005 and 2009, the average circulation decline in newspapers in Japan was 50 per cent. In Britain it was 15.9 per cent. In the United States the decline was 13.3 per cent and in Germany 19 per cent. However, in the same period, readership rose by 6 per cent in South Africa, 109 per cent in China, 8 per cent in Brazil and 110 per cent in India. In the same period the number of paid-for daily newspapers in India increased by 44 per cent to 2,700 and the total number of papers increased by 23 per cent to more than 74,000. In 2008, India overtook China to become the leader in paid-for daily circulation with 110 million sold each day.
RETIREMENT
In Greece, the retirement age is 62 except for those who labour in "hazardous professions" such as hairdressing where the retirement age is 50 with full pension.
SIZE
China has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge which stretches five miles further than the distance from Dover to Calais. The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 26.4 miles long and links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the offshore island Huangdao. The bridge is 110ft wide, cost nearly US$2-billion and took four years to build. It will hold the record for only a few years as the government has announced the construction of a even longer bridge to link southern Guangdong province with Hong Kong and Macau. To be completed in 2016, the bridge will be 30 miles long and cost over $10-billion.
WATER
In many countries around the world, access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities is still limited. Researchers now say that contaminated water can be cleaned much more effectively using a novel, cheap material. Dubbed "super sand", it could become a low-cost way to purify water in the developing world. The technology involves coating grains of sand in an oxide of a widely available material called graphite, commonly used as lead in pencils.
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
JUNK FOOD
The Association of National Advertisers, a Washington D.C. based lobby group is urging the White House to curb its enthusiasm for more restrictions on advertising many food and beverage products to children. The so-called Sensible Food Policy Coalition, which is made up of advertisers, media sales organizations, and food and beverage manufacturers, say that the proposed restrictions could result in lower sales of about US$30-billion and the loss of about 74,000 jobs over the first year.
PARKING
According to Colliers International, Calgary is now second only to New York as the most expensive city to park in North America, and 21st in the world. The average monthly rate in Calgary is US$472.50, up 4.2 per cent in the past year. Toronto is $332 down 1.2 per cent and Vancouver $288, up 7.9 per cent. Internationally, the City of London and London's West End are nearly $1100 per month, up over 16 per cent from a year earlier. Zurich is $822 a month and Hong Kong and Tokyo are tied for $744 a month.
VIEWING
The receivership of DVD rental chain Blockbuster is one of the latest signposts along a road that has seen DVD sales and rentals on a steady decline in the U.S. since 2007 and the growth in popularity of online streaming services. DVD revenue in the U.S. in 2010 was US$14-billion, an 11 per cent decline from a year earlier. At the same time, there was a 19 per cent increase in streamed and downloaded sales and rentals.
CHARITY
Canada has about 85,000 charities and they must disclose to Revenue Canada how much their 10 highest-paid workers earn. There are about a million charity workers in Canada and 6,000 of them earned above C$120,000 last year. Another 12,000 workers made between $80,000 and $120,000. A few hundred earned over $350,000. Charities defend the high pay saying they have to pay top dollar for the brightest talent. One major cancer foundation paid its 156 full-time and 30 part-time workers nearly $13-million last year.
SOLAR
The first solar park in Wales will soon be converting sunlight into electricity in Pembrokeshire. Almost 10,000 solar panels have been imported from the U.S. and are placed in 12 lines in a six-acre field which is expected to double eventually. The panels are thin film particularly suited to the local climate of largely cloudy skies.
COUNTERFEIT
U.S. Customs estimates the global value of counterfeit and pirated products to be US$600-million rising to $1.7-trillion by 2015. U.S. agencies made 19,959 seizures in 2010 compared with 3,600 in 2001. 66 per cent of the goods seized in the U.S. originated in China, the single largest source. The largest category was footwear, 24 per cent of the total.
HEMP
Canada's hemp sector is small but growing quickly, with an increase in exports of 500 per cent over the past four years. Hemp can be used for products as varied as pasta, textiles, building products and car parts. Industrial hemp and marijuana are both members of the cannabis plant family. Health Canada issued 296 licences to grow industrial hemp to June of 2011, up from 184 in 2009. A total of 3.98-million kilograms of hemp products worth C$10.38-million were exported in 2010, up from $8.09-million in 2009.
LABOUR
Following in the controversial footsteps of Arizona's lawmakers, Georgia also introduced beefed-up immigrant legislation this spring. As a result, farm workers are bypassing Georgia, causing a massive labour shortage in the state and sending the US$1.1-billion industry into a tailspin. Farmers are experiencing labour shortages of up to 50 per cent and it is estimated that up to a quarter of Georgia's crops will go unharvested, representing $300-million in lost revenue. Despite the economic ramifications, the governments of Alabama and South Carolina are considering similar legislation.
TRASH
Air France is to ask passengers to clear their seats and take trash with them when leaving the plane as they seek to cut costs and stem the advance of airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair in its home market. Cabin crews have refused to assume cleaning duties at a low-cost operation it is introducing in a push to claw back traffic at provincial airports. Ryanair is now the fifth largest passenger carrying airline in the world.
DISPUTES
After a 17-year dispute, the U.S. and Mexico have signed a deal to allow their trucks to use each other's roads. The 1994 NAFTA called for Mexican trucks to have full access to U.S. highways, but were kept to a border buffer zone because the U.S. cited concerns about the ability of Mexican trucks to meet U.S. safety and environmental standards. In 2009, Mexico imposed higher tariffs on dozens of U.S. products in response.
POTATOES
Scientists in Scotland has decoded the full DNA sequence of the potato for the first time. The breakthrough holds out the promise of boosting harvests of one of the world's most important staple crops. It should soon be possible to develop improved varieties of potato much more quickly. The genome of an organism is a map of how all its genes are put together. Each gene controls different aspects of how the organism grows and develops.
INSURANCE
After two years of decline, the global insurance industry returned to growth in 2010. Overall, insurance premiums rose by 2.7 per cent to US$4.3-trillion in 2010. Rich countries dominate, but growth was concentrated in emerging markets. In the U.S., which accounts for more than a quarter of the world market, premiums rose slightly to US$1.116-trillion. Canadian premiums were worth $115-billion and Japanese premiums $557-billion.
MARITIMES
Time was when the economies of the four Atlantic provinces were virtually indistinguishable, depending on the fortunes of fish, farming and forests. But Newfoundland and Labrador's remarkable oil and mining boom is creating a new gap between the haves and have-nots of Atlantic Canada. Its economy is powering ahead while those of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island languish, waiting for a national recovery. In Newfoundland, workers are increasingly scarce because mining, oil and government sectors are all in full expansion, raising concerns that there will be a shortage to bring a series of new projects on stream.
CIRCUITS
Scientists in the U.S. have created a roller ball pen that can be used to draw functioning circuit boards. They have used conductive silver ink to sketch electrical circuits on paper, wood and other flexible surfaces. Similar pens have been available for a number of years, but their ink tends not to be bendable when dry. Most of the work in this area is focused on developing inkjet printers capable of creating circuits.
PUMPS
Canadians already paying steep gas prices have also been paying out money for gas they didn't receive. Government data shows that six per cent of all gas pumps tested over the past 2 1/2 years failed to dispense the right amount of fuel. The loss adds up to an average of a couple of dollars for every 50 tankfuls. An inaccurate pump in their tests equals a discrepancy of more than 100mL, over or under for 20 litres of gas. Saskatchewan rated the highest for overcharging at 83 per cent.
TIRES
China's insatiable demand for commodities has prompted a tripling in the price of mining truck tires, making them more expensive than a Porsche 911 or a condo in Miami. Prices for 3.5 metre tires used by Caterpillar trucks have touched US$100,000. Demand from China, the world's biggest metals buyer, has driven copper, iron ore, gold and coal to record prices this year, forcing companies to compete for the equipment and labour needed to mine them.
FORMULA ONE
Some of the most sophisticated data-acquisition and analysis equipment is found on F1 cars allowing them to shave fractions of a second off lap times. Now the technology pioneered in motor racing is being applied to sailing, another discipline where split seconds provide an edge. Sailing teams for the Olympics have adopted the technology as have several competitors in the America's Cup allowing them more accurately to measure wind speed, yaw, rudder angles and other factors.
GREENHOUSES
Statistics Canada reports that there were 22.9-million square metres of greenhouses in Canada in 2010, up from 22.4-million. There was a 3 per cent increase in the sales of greenhouse products to C$2.5-billion. Sales of fruit and vegetables increased by 10 per cent to surpass $1-billion. Sales of nursery products were $644-million and sod was worth $147-million.
PAPERS
Between 2005 and 2009, the average circulation decline in newspapers in Japan was 50 per cent. In Britain it was 15.9 per cent. In the United States the decline was 13.3 per cent and in Germany 19 per cent. However, in the same period, readership rose by 6 per cent in South Africa, 109 per cent in China, 8 per cent in Brazil and 110 per cent in India. In the same period the number of paid-for daily newspapers in India increased by 44 per cent to 2,700 and the total number of papers increased by 23 per cent to more than 74,000. In 2008, India overtook China to become the leader in paid-for daily circulation with 110 million sold each day.
RETIREMENT
In Greece, the retirement age is 62 except for those who labour in "hazardous professions" such as hairdressing where the retirement age is 50 with full pension.
SIZE
China has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge which stretches five miles further than the distance from Dover to Calais. The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 26.4 miles long and links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the offshore island Huangdao. The bridge is 110ft wide, cost nearly US$2-billion and took four years to build. It will hold the record for only a few years as the government has announced the construction of a even longer bridge to link southern Guangdong province with Hong Kong and Macau. To be completed in 2016, the bridge will be 30 miles long and cost over $10-billion.
WATER
In many countries around the world, access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities is still limited. Researchers now say that contaminated water can be cleaned much more effectively using a novel, cheap material. Dubbed "super sand", it could become a low-cost way to purify water in the developing world. The technology involves coating grains of sand in an oxide of a widely available material called graphite, commonly used as lead in pencils.
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
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