January 2012 Edition
TRADE
The Canadian government is showing interest in joining the emerging Trans-Pacific Partnership trade group, although the attempt to join is being resisted by some countries. Canada's supply management system for its 20,000 dairy and poultry farmers is proving to be a major impediment.
PRICES
Polysilicon is a material used to make solar cells and computer chips. In 2008 polysilicon was worth C$475 a kilogram. Today the price hovers around $33 a kilogram. The price has tumbled as manufacturers increased production for the solar panel industry. A supply glut is expected to bring down solar panel costs but unlikely to affect the prices of semiconductors significantly. 25 per cent of the cost of a solar panel comes from polysilicon whereas it is only five per cent of the cost of a computer chip.
VEHICLES
The lifespan of vehicles on Canadian roads has grown in recent years as durability improves. There has been a 20 per cent increase in the past five years in the number of vehicles on the roads that are 16 years or older and a 29 per cent increase in vehicles on the roads that are between five and 10-years old. The oldest vehicles are in Saskatchewan while the province of Newfoundland and Labrador had the youngest fleet. Pickup trucks are most popular in the Prairie provinces, where they make up 56 per cent of registered vehicles. Quebeckers lead the country in imported vehicles.
GAMES
The number of illegally downloaded video games has gone up nearly 20 per cent in the past five years according to new research. It also suggests that the top five games from 2010 were pirated online almost one million times. Industry experts worry that these figures mean that a generation of people will expect to get games for free. Piracy is costing the industry hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars annually.
FIRES
A new study has shown that human-made fires are influencing the evolutionary process of some plants species' seeds. Scientists have found that seeds that were less rounded and coated in thicker protective hair were more likely to survive fires used to clear scrub. The study which was carried out in China indicated that fire is a selective pressure that shapes seeds' traits and has more of a defining influence than other environmental factors like drought.
THAILAND
The recent flooding in Thailand is likely to slow significantly the global production of personal computers well into 2012. Thailand has a huge hard-disk drive industry, the most critical component in personal computers, which supplies about 40 per cent of the world market. There may be a 20 per cent reduction in PC shipments in the first quarter of the year which will affect smaller PC vendors and lower priced products the most.
RUSSIA
A major hurdle has been cleared towards opening up Russia's huge oil-driven economy that would allow it to join the World Trade Organization, after an 18-year effort. The deal is expected to quickly inject over US$5-billion a year into the ailing European economy by boosting EU exports. The 27-nation bloc is Russia's biggest trading partner for its agriculture, fuels, mining and manufacturing. The EU nations imported $216-billion worth of goods, mostly oil and gas from Russia last year, while exporting about $117-billion worth of machinery, cars and farm products.
PHONES
Africa continues to be the world's fastest growing mobile phone market and will soon have 735-million people using their phones for everything from transferring money to tracking animals for wildlife studies. Subscriber levels have grown by almost 20 per cent for each of the past five years. Users in South Africa can now receive text messages any time on their their bank account or credit card activity. Many African consumers, particularly in rural areas, often lack easy access to bank branches.
VALUE
The average value of a Canadian home has doubled in the past decade. In 2000, the average value of a home was C$163,951. In 2010, the figure was $339,030. Between 2000 and 2010, the value of residential building permits issued nationally was $340-billion, while the estimated amount spent on renovations was $450,000 billion. Condominiums have changed the urban landscape over the past decade, especially in B.C. and Alberta, where they comprise 25 per cent to 50 per cent of residential sales.
WINE
When France's wine producers finished picking the last of their grapes at the end of October, it is estimated that the output of wine will have climbed to a five-year high. The volume of wine produced could rise 11 per cent to over 50-million hectolitres.
GROWTH
The value of Russia's trade with China in 2011 was expected to be around US$80-billion having already reached $53-billion in the first eight months of the year. This trade is expected to grow to over $200-billion. In 2010, the value of the trade was $59-billion.
ARGENTINA
The discovery of a huge amount of shale oil in south Argentina could boost its energy reserves by 44 per cent and mark a massive potential windfall for the country and the mining industry. A Spanish company has identified 927-million barrels of oil while exploring 428 square kilometres in the Loma La Lata area, which is about 3.5 per cent of the 12,000 square kilometres it owns in the area.. The find is about three-quarters crude and one quarter natural gas. Argentina has vast shale potential ranking third in the world behind China and the U.S.
WATER
According to the Levi Strauss, a typical pair of blue jeans consumes 919 gallons of water during its production cycle, or enough to fill about 15 spa-sized bathtubs. The company wants to reduce that number any way it can and not just to project environmental responsibility. It fears that water shortages caused by climate change may jeopardize the company's very existence in coming decades by making cotton too expensive or scarce. Levi Strauss has helped underwrite and champion projects in India, Pakistan, Brazil and West Africa to teach farmers the latest in irrigation and rainwater-capture techniques.
CAMELS
A dead camel in Australia my soon pay off in carbon credits. Feral camels run rampant in the rangelands producing massive amounts of methane and the government is now proposing a camel cull to help combat climate change. There are 1.2-million feral camels in Australia and with few natural diseases and no natural predators, the population is expected to grow to two million by 2020. One camel emits an estimated 45kg of methane a year, the equivalent of a metric tonne of carbon dioxide. Camels were first introduced to Australia in the late 1800s to work in the outback.
CABS
A licence to drive a New York city taxi is not only worth more than its weight in gold; investing in a yellow cab has become more lucrative than gold. The cost of a New York licence has increased more than 1,000 per cent since 1980. The individual "medallion", the transferable aluminum plate on the hood of all cabs, sold for US$678,000 last July up from $2,500 in 1947. New York cabs move about 240-million people a year, more than the population of Brazil.
BEES
The value of crop pollination by bees each year according to the U.S. agriculture department is around US$70-billion. There are an estimated 210,000 bee hobbyists in the U.S. with $110-120 being the cost of a nucleus hive with a queen, worker bees and a starter brood. There are about 3,500 live bees to a pound and a pound of bees costs about $80.
RENT
Hong Kong has now overtaken London to become the world's most expensive city in which to rent office space. Measured in dollars, office rents in Hong Kong increased by 32 per cent in 2011, while those in London increased by 19 per cent. Mexico City offers the cheapest space in the 22 cities surveyed. Hong Kong rates are about US$1,700 a square metre while London costs $1,600 a metre.
TIME
The atomic clock in the UK's National Physical Laboratory has been declared as having the best long-term accuracy in the world. Studies of the clock's performance show it to be twice as accurate as previously thought, losing or gaining just one second in 138-million years. The international race for higher accuracy is always on, so the record may not stand for long.
PETS
As the middle class stops buying pets for security and starts doting on them, spending on pets in Latin America has taken off. In the past five years, spending on pet food and knick-knacks has risen by 44 per cent to US$11-billion according to market research. Chile now has more pet dogs per person than any other country. Rising incomes allow Latinos to treat dogs as members of the family and more young people are living alone and putting off marriage and choosing pets for company instead.
BEER
Consumption of beer in the UK has been falling for seven straight years and neighbourhood pubs are closing at a rate of 29 per week. Brewers are now scrambling for new markets and one of them has rolled out a new beer in the UK and Ireland directly aimed at women who currently account for just 17 per cent of sales. The beer contains four per cent of alcohol by volume and comes in three flavours: clear filtered, crisp rose and zesty lemon. Research shows that women in the UK rarely drink beer because they view it as being high in calories.
AUCTIONS
Greece has completed an auction of high-frequency mobile telephone licences to the country's three main operators for US$524-million. The sale is part of a privatization drive pledged by Athens in return for bailout loans from the European Union. The state originally aimed to raise $4-billion by the end of last year and $36-billion overall by 2015 but has fallen way behind schedule.
LAND
Britain plans to sell public land worth an estimated US$15-billion to address a chronic housing shortage and help erode its record budget deficit. All government departments with significant land holdings have been asked to identify land suitable for homes. This will be used to build 100,000 homes over the next three to four years, in a scheme that is expected to support as many as 25,000 jobs.
CABLES
In the high-speed world of automated trading, milliseconds matter. In fact a savings of just six milliseconds in transmission time is all that is required to justify the laying of the first transatlantic communications cable for 10 years at a cost of $450-million. The seabed survey work for the 3,741 mile Hibernian Express fibre-optic link is already underway off the east coast of the U.S and the trading firms and banks in the City of London and New York are already queing up to use it. The last cables laid were funded by the dotcom boom.
OLYMPICS
When the UK last held the Olympics in 1948 shortly after the end of the Second World War, the organizers asked athletes to bring their own food, towels and soap.
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