Natural gas at 10-year low.
Warm U.S. Winter Whacks Natural Gas To 10-Year Lows -- Of all the energy commodities, there's no question that weather dovetails the most with the U.S. natural gas market. Currently, the U.S. natural gas market is sitting near $2.50 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), close to the bottom of a 10-year price chart. This is primarily due to the combination of one of the warmest winters seen in the U.S. in decades coupled with several years of non-stop drilling in prolific natural gas shale areas. These events have created a massive glut of the home heating and industrial fuel. While there could still be additional near-term downside ahead for natural gas futures prices, the longer-term horizon suggests that natural gas could offer one of the most remarkable and golden opportunities seen in many years.

I'm seeing visions of game farms for all those wild pheasants in downtown Detroit??
Surplus Surprises Michigan, but Is It Safe to Spend Again? -- Over most of the past decade, budget deliberations in Michigan have taken on a glum and familiar monotony: What do we cut now? But the state that experienced an economic downturn earlier, deeper and longer than most of the rest of the country has made an unlikely discovery as its officials closed out its latest financial books: Michigan has a $457 million surplus.

[More]

Click here to read previous posts in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

Within its breakout of environmental auditing records of 14 supplier facilities, Apple reports a few findings around hazardous substance management. These include reports showing that over 33% (5) of the facilities audited had "no secondary containment and rainshelf for hazardous chemical storage." Moreover nearly two-thirds (9) of the audited facilities "made handling errors including lack of signs of waste storage, hazardous waste mixed with non-hazardous waste, and mislabeling or miscategorization of hazardous wastes." Given that Apple only surveyed 14 supplier facilitates in total and these facilities were likely larger suppliers (and more sophisticated suppliers) given Apple's track record of using an 80-20 pareto approach to selecting which suppliers to target first, these numbers are shockingly high, even though Apple reported overall in the areas of hazardous substance and wastewater management, that 68% and 89% of practices were in compliance.

[More]

Panjiva recently released its latest trade numbers covering November 11-December 11 2011. While Panjiva notes "the number of waterborne shipments coming into the U.S. experienced a 7% month-over-month decrease from November to December," the more insightful overall metrics are the wide-ranging percentages and overall volatility for the same period in recent years (which Panjiva sites in their above-linked post). In other words, this is a time period accustomed to year-over-year swings and fluctuations.

[More]

Please click here for the first post in this series.

In continuing our analysis of FullStep from late last year, we'll turn our attention to exploring how this Spain-based spend management suite vendor (currently expanding into North, Central and South America) has tailored its set of solutions for a manufacturing environment, including the middle market, where a general lack of technology, resources and cross-facility collaboration often hinders the potential for direct materials sourcing and vendor management savings programs. To review FulllStep's general breadth and capabilities, be sure to keep these items in mind:

[More]

Spend Matters welcomes another guest post from NPI, a spend management consultancy, focused on delivering savings in the areas of IT, telecom, transportation and energy.

IBM takes a lot of heat. Their diverse offerings and growth-by-acquisition business strategy means they have a staggering amount of competition in the marketplace. It also means they know when to be aggressive. Here are a few things to consider as you purchase or renew your IBM solutions:

[More]

Pucker up!
Is that Lead in Your Lipstick? FDA Tests Reveal Raised Lead Levels in U.S. Lipsticks -- In 2007, largely in response to a report released by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, the FDA began testing various lipsticks sold in the United States. After testing some 400 brands, FDA scientists concluded that none of them contained unsafe levels of lead. Many of them did contain lead, but all were below the 5 parts-per-million recommended as safe by the state of California (known to have the most conservative law on the use of lead in consumer products), and far below the 10ppm considered to be the maximum safe limit by Health Canada, which has drafted guidelines on impurities in cosmetics, such as lead. At the time, those weighing in with the most lead contained about 3 parts per million. The FDA said there was no cause for consumer concern, especially given how little lipstick is actually ingested.

Oh good.
Airbus to inspect all A380 superjumbos for wing cracks -- Aircraft maker Airbus has been ordered to check all A380 superjumbo planes currently in service after cracks were found in wing components. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has ordered all 68 Airbus A380 superjumbo planes currently in operation to be checked. It extends an earlier check of 20 A380 jets, whose wings are made in North Wales, ordered by the EASA last month.

[More]

Click here to read previous posts in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Worker safety has definitely captured the negative headlines for Apple the most in the past twenty-four months. But their code of conduct in the area of environmental impact might just be more important for those in the broader procurement and supply chain professionals. After all, Apple's actions (or lack thereof) around worker safety are tacitly one-upping local labor practices and expectations (safety nets for potential jumpers don't exactly address problems at the source).

[More]

Here at Spend Matters, we've heard stories from numerous insurers and agents involved in the underwriting process for supply chain risk policies that getting coverage is becoming a more expensive value proposition -- and that's when an organization can get coverage at all (e.g., for a named supplier, supply, facility). The recent crises and disruptions throughout Asia -- from restricting the flow of the supply of rare earth metals to Japan last year -- have combined to make such products more costly, when insurers are even willing to consider offering them in certain high-risk markets like Japan, China and Vietnam. A recent article from Business Insurance provides some context and research to back up the anecdotal challenges we've been hearing about.

[More]

To keep our readers (and ourselves) up to speed on technology developments, we field numerous briefings and product demonstrations at Spend Matters. This new Vendor Snapshot format provides a succinct look at the technology reviewed -- with a side order of quick, honest analysis. This lighter format aims to complement our regular, deeper analysis based on both in-depth solution testing and actual customer interviews. Your feedback on our new format would be appreciated.

Company Overview
CombineNet has long been the gold standard for advanced e-sourcing with a focus on heavy lifting in the bid analysis area -- the term 'optimization' has nearly becoming synonymous with the company.

[More]