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McDonald's: Price changes had no dye link
McDonald's China denied its latest price adjustments on Wednesday are related to Sudan I, the carcinogenic food dye found in some of McDonald's products in the United Kingdom earlier this month.
The famous fast food brand reduced prices for several products sold on the Chinese mainland including its chicken fillet burger and cheese quarterpounder by an average 24 per cent beginning February 23. That was two days after the UK food quality control watchdog recalled some of McDonald's products.
In the meantime, some of the gargantuan fast food provider's product prices have actually increased a tad.
It was on the same day when McDonald's China adopted new prices that the nation's General Administration of Quality Supervi-sion, Inspection and Quarantine division, launched a nationwide campaign to inspect suspicious foods that may contain Sudan I. It said it would ban items that include the dye.
"The decision to adjust some prices was made after a painstaking market survey and aims to better cater to our customers," said Chen Yun, manager of the McDonald's Chang'an outlet in Beijing.
Of the four sauces used by McDonald's which were reported in the UK to possibly contain Sudan I, mustard is the only also sold on the Chinese mainland, said the company.
Responding to some reports that McDonald's outlets in Guangdong have ceased selling the firm's mustard, an executive from Guangdong Sanyuan McDonald's Co Ltd yesterday said the report is false.
All the mustard in Guangdong's McDonald outlets was produced on the Chinese mainland and contains no carcinogenic dye, said the executive who declined to be named. None of the sauces and other products that are being sold in Guangdong's McDonald's outlets are imported from the United Kingdom and European Union where the dye has been found.
He believed the dye will do little to harm the business of the McDonald's outlets in the province that borders Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.


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Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated by all in America. The reason is simple: we’re meat eaters and the holiday falls on a Friday. The two are not synonymous; Thanksgiving is a holiday, and we need to celebrate it.
Of course, many of us don’t go to the stores over the holiday, opting instead to cook a meal, or to watch football or just hang out with the family. It’s a day where we can do these things for ourselves and still be thankful. Thanksgiving was first celebrated in 1863, when Abraham Lincoln declared it a national holiday. In more recent years, there have been a number of national holidays – that are associated with Christianity and history, such as Mardi Gras or St. Patrick’s Day – that have taken a bite out of Thanksgiving’s popularity. Some industry experts have estimated that the number of people eating Thanksgiving dinner at home has fallen by as much as 30% over the past few years. But it’s interesting that the casual, large annual eating event, which should have inspired Americans to enjoy turkey legs and stuffing, has gone bye-bye in most places.
Thanksgiving is the single biggest reason for Americans to drive to states with Thanksgiving dinner nearby. A survey by AAA found that 13 million drivers from November to January of each year travel to more than 100 destination spots in order to spend Thanksgiving away from home. In contrast, Memorial Day, which is a Christian holiday in the US, saw only a 7% drop in the number of people traveling over the weekend. This according to AAA, which surveyed both passengers and drivers.
Places with Thanksgiving meal close to home are a dime a dozen. Some of the leading destinations include cities like New York, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, and San Francisco, which are all within driving distance. Others, like Portland, Maine, don’t even offer a Thanksgiving meal within close proximity, but still see a huge increase in holiday travelers. Some of these hot spots will receive 30% more Thanksgiving-goers than a city that has no meal close by. Those travelers are much cheaper to fill up than those who have to drive to an expensive destination.
Tack on the fact that the US is melting away, and the future of Thanksgiving isn’t looking bright. Over the past 30 years, the number of Americans without permanent US residency has risen to 33 million. This means that Thanksgiving road trips, which used to be seen as out-of-reach luxuries for Americans to indulge in, are becoming more common. On average, the average Thanksgiving-bound traveler spends $680 – double the typical Thanksgiving trip. The most popular Thanksgiving destination for Americans? Sandusky, Ohio. More than 37,000 people visit the town on Thanksgiving to shop or cheer on their favorite football team, according to USA Today.
So this year, spend Thanksgiving week eating at home with your family. Relax. Though it may be nice to drive somewhere to go on the big day, you won’t need much more than blankets to lounge out. You’ll also have prepared meals to enjoy, and plenty of fuel – gas is about the cheapest it’s been in years. Who cares if you have to shell out for a Thanksgiving meal somewhere other than your native state? Spend that dollar at home.

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Asia Bizz: McDonald’s has officially slipped to the number two spot as Subway became the largest restaurant chain in the world. Subway, which is famous for its sandwiches and salad-based meals, has a total of 33,749 outlets around the world, whereas McDonald’s has 32,737. Both are US-based fast food restaurants, but Subway has been seen doing considerable development.
Analysis shows that Subway has been doing quite well, especially around the world where it has pushed its business to another level. Subway is still a privately-owned company and it has been doing exceptionally well. McDonald’s on the other hand, has said it is performing well in the market, but it wants to do better and just not grow.
Today Subway has its outlets spread in more than 95 countries and McDonald’s has almost 117, but the performance of Subway has been exceptional compared to McDonald’s. Subway made its debut in the US back in the year 1965 and today its is the largest restaurant chain in the world.
One main reason why Subway has taken the topÂ spotÂ is because more people are opting for healthier meals – similar to the ones offered by Subway – as compared to deep fried, high-fat foods sold by McDonald’s.


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A new version of the University of Adelaide’s World of Wine: From Grape to Glass course was launched this month on its AdelaideX platform and already has 10,000 enrolments following the success of last year’s inaugural course, which attracted almost 40,000 students from 160 countries via the edX platform.
The free six-week MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) is aimed at educating beginners through to passionate wine enthusiasts and covers the principles and practices that underpin grape and wine production and their impacts on wine style and sensory properties with an Australian focus.
Associate Professor of Oenology at the University of Adelaide Kerry Wilkinson said a large number of industry workers in non-winemaking roles such as food technologists, wine marketers and sommeliers had enrolled in the course from a wide range of countries including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia.
“That’s been really interesting to see that engagement and it’s great that we’re having that influence globally,” she said.
“We thought our target audience last year was going to be the average wine consumer and we totally missed that there is a lot of people who work in the industry, whether it’s in administrative roles or cellar door, so we ended up with a lot of people who were working in the industry but didn’t have any formal qualifications.”
The inaugural course, also known as Wine101x, received the Best Wine Educator award from Wine Communicators of Australia in November.
The new course, similar to the first one, requires about 2-3 hours study a week for its six-week duration. It encompasses short video lectures from University of Adelaide team members, video interviews with industry professionals, interactive activities such as a virtual winemaking app, discussion forums and several assessment tasks to evaluate learning. It also includes new features such as sensory videos to evaluate different wine styles and additional content on canopy management.
“But our biggest accomplishment is we’ve put a field trip in. Essentially it’s a three dimensional map of the Yalumba Winery (in the Barossa Valley) and you can click on different buildings and that launches a video to show what goes on in that particular location,” Assoc Prof Wilkinson said.
“It covers harvesting out in the vineyard through to the weighbridge, the laboratory, the cooperage where barrels are made, the wine tasting room, the bottling facility, the white and red cellars, the barrel hall and the nursery.
“It brings everything that we’ve talked about throughout the course together and lets people see how it looks in a commercial setting.”
The new course launched on July 7 and already has enrolments approaching 10,000. The major countries represented so far are the United States (28 per cent, Australia (6 per cent), Canada, India, Brazil and the United Kingdom (all four per cent).
“With the enrolments we’ve got in the new course I’ve been really surprised with the number of people from the industry saying ‘I’m working in a marketing role or a food and wine role and I’m doing the course to gain confidence in what I’m doing in my career,” Assoc Prof Wilkinson said.
“We’ve found a lot of cellar door managers who wanted their staff to be able to talk the talk but rather than then trying to train a handful of staff they said they wanted them to do this course.”
South Australia is consistently responsible for almost 50 per cent of Australia’s annual production.
There are 18 wine regions in South Australia, including the Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Coonawarra, Adelaide Hills, Langhorne Creek, McLaren Vale, Limestone Coast and Riverland.
Since its launch, the university’s AdelaideX offering has released seven MOOCs on topics from across the university curriculum, including both live classes, and on-demand courses which students can enrol in at any time.
The most popular course so far is Introduction to Project Management, which has attracted more than 100,000 students from 200 countries in just five months.
South Australia’s capital Adelaide has three long-standing public universities, Flinders University, University of South Australia, and the University of Adelaide, each of which are consistently rated highly in the international higher education rankings.Jump to next article


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The Bank of Africa-Ghana on Monday said it is ready to roll out 15 branches in the next three years in line with its vision to meet customer need in every region of the country.
Mr Kobby Andah, Managing Director of the Bank, said the move aims at providing convenience to its customers.
He said Bank of Africa was also exploring alternative service delivery channels to ensure that customers were able to transact their businesses undisturbed.
Mr Andah was speaking at the launch of five innovative banking products targeted at employees in the public and private sector as well as small scale business owners.
The products are Public Sector Pack, Employee Pack, Ambitious Savings Plan, Education Loan and My Business Pack.
Mr Andah said Bank of Africa Ghana as a regional bank has a vast experience in delivering financial services in Africa and Europe where it has branches in 14 African countries and one in Europe.
“The strong heritage in Africa gives the Bank time tested insights for product development. Our products have performed creditably throughout the years,” he said, adding that the products launched have been successful in several countries on the continent.
Mr. Andah said the bank would continue to identify the needs of customers, research solutions capable of delivering value and introduce practical product propositions that deliver convenience.
Mr Allen Quaye, Head-Sales Coordination, said each product was designed to support lifestyle, meet emergencies, provide convenience and make banking affordable.
The packs also provide the holder a range of products and services for a flat monthly fee.
The Public Service pack, he said, is targeted at employees working in the public and civil service to enable them meet specific needs. Benefits include a current account, saving account, no cost on transactions, among others for a flat monthly fee.
Other benefits include overdraft of up to 50 per cent of salary and a month automatic net salary in the form a loan repayable in 10 months.
Mr Quaye said the Ambitious Savings Plan allows holders to make regular savings to build up funds to deliver own projects. It allows the account holder to borrow up to twice the amount saved after 12 months.
He said the educational loan offers salaried workers the opportunity to upgrade themselves while the My Business Pack is to address the needs of small shop owners working in the informal sector by bringing them into mainstream banking.
Mr Allen said the innovative products would impact on the way retail banking was being done in the country.
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Lumia 929 – the first phone without the ‘Nokia’ branding?
- On December 18, 2013
Verizon’s Lumia 929 could be called Lumia Icon
Multiple sources claim that the future high-end smartphone for Verizon, Nokia Lumia 929, will be launched in Q1 2014, after the Nokia-Microsoft deal is completed. The new Windows Phone is likely to be the first handset offered by Microsoft without the Nokia branding. Microsoft is reportedly considering ditching the number designation for the new models and the Lumia 929 could be released as ‘Lumia Icon’.
NPU explains the delay with Verizon’s decision to sign a marketing / promotional deal with Microsoft rather than Nokia, so the US wireless provider needs to wait until Nokia-Microsoft deal is finalized in early 2014.
The 5-inch, quad-core smartphone is powered by a Snapdragon 800 processor at 2.2 GHz with 2 GB of RAM. Lumia 929 or Lumia Icon for Verizon will have a 20 MP PureView camera with dual LED flash. The follow up to the Lumia 928 will be offered in matte black or matte white. Sources close to the matter have revealed that the Lumia Icon is likely to be launched in late January /early February 2014, before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
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Kym Johnson Poses Nude for PETA's Cruelty-Free Campaign
‘Dancing with the Stars’ pro Kym Johnson has become the latest celeb to drop her clothing for a PETA campaign.
“It’s basically making people aware of choosing cruelty-free products, which I didn’t realize animal testing was still happening, so I just want to make people aware,” Kym told Life & Style. “If it brings awareness to people and people become aware of what they’re putting on their faces — and what an animal has to go through for us to wear some mascara or hairspray — then it’s worth it.”
Check out a video of Johnson’s photo shoot – as well as her thoughts on working with PETA on the campaign – below.


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Blog: Cutting A&P, no excuse for glee?
Olly Wehring | 13 March 2009
Results season is never the most joyous of times for us journalists – ploughing through reams of paper looking not only for the basic figures but also for 'Any Other Business' that may have played a part in making up the numbers.
What has been of particular concern this time around, however, is the large number of companies who boast of, at best, flat or inching up profits, but – as the trawling throws up – have had their bottom line improved by the curtailing of advertising & promotional spend. In delivering its full-year results today, for example, Jones Soda said that it cut its promotional allowances and slotting fees in 2008 by 11% on the year before.
This sort of news reminds me of something John McDonnell, COO of Patron Spirits Company said to me when we met last year. "We're firm believers in keeping supporting brand equity and awareness in tough economic times,” he said. “When you come out of it, things will be all that much better for the brand.”
Several firms have pointed out that the economic downturn has also brought a sharp drop in media rates, particularly for television advertising. TV ad rates have fallen by up to 20% in the UK, for example, inevitably offering companies the chance to maintain "voice" for less hard cash.
Still, some companies have indicated that they intend to cut A&P spend as a percentage of sales in the next few months.
Trust us to keep an eye out for it, but do be aware of companies who claim to have bucked the trend in their sector.
Reducing your A&P can't be the answer to your ills, can it?
Today is SABMiller's final day. Some time this evening, Brussel's time, the second-biggest brewer in the world will be subsumed into the biggest, creating a beer behemoth of unprecedented proportions....
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12 MAY 2017, UNITED STATES – The global leader in branded lifestyle apparel VF Corporation, that includes major brands as The North Face, Timberland and Vans, will no longer use materials of extreme animal cruelty such as fur, angora or exotic leather. After working together with Fur Free Alliance members The HSUS, HSI and LAV, the VF Corporation has released its first animal welfare policy, which not only bans some of the cruelest materials used in the apparel supply chain, but makes clear that animal-friendly alternatives are the future of fashion.
Letitia Webster, VF’s Vice President of Global Corporate Sustainability said:
“As we continue to promote the development of viable commercial substitutes to animal materials, this policy will help to ensure that the materials we use today are procured from sources that prioritize animal welfare and responsible business practices.”
VF has also banned down feathers from force-fed, live-plucked geese and wool from sheep who are subjected to the particularly cruel practice of “mulesing,” a procedure in which farmers pull strips of wool-bearing skin off sheep without painkillers.
PJ Smith, manager of fashion policy for The HSUS, says:
“The Humane Society of the United States applauds VF for demonstrating compassionate leadership in the apparel and footwear industries. This robust policy sets a bar to which others in the industry should aspire.”
There has been a trend within the fashion industry in recent years of switching to humane alternatives. Last year, Armani announced it would go fur-free. Brands and designers like Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Stella McCartney, and Ralph Lauren have also disassociated themselves from animal cruelty and switched to cruelty-free alternatives that are indistinguishable from the real thing. The HSUS and HSI continue to talk with companies to point them toward the humane economy, and today’s announcement is one of the most important.
Simone Pavesi, Animal Free Fashion Division Manager at LAV, adds:
“This innovative Animal Derived Materials Policy and VF Corp’s commitment to further improvements towards animal-free fashion is a major milestone that can not be ignored by the fashion world. LAV is happy to have made a small contribution to achieving this goal”.
The North Face, Timberland and other major brands are ditching fur


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The VW Group is planning on investing €73 billion ($86 billion) within the next five years in future technologies such as e-mobility, hybrids and digitalization.
As part of this investment, the group will also be increasing electric vehicle and battery production in Germany, while expecting the global economy to grow moderately between now and 2025.
Of those €73 billion, roughly €35 billion ($41 billion) will go into fully-electric vehicle tech, with €11 billion ($13 billion) earmarked for the development of hybrid variants, stated the carmaker.
Read Also: VW Touareg Joins The Remote-Parking Crowd With New Smartphone-Compatible Function
“As part of Volkswagen Group’s investment planning, the Board of Management and Supervisory Board today set the cornerstones for securing the Group’s future success. The transformation of the Group and its brands and the strategic focus on the core areas of mobility will be consistently implemented. Considering the enormous challenges we face in the coming years, our financial basis is very solid,” said VW Group chairman Hans Dieter Potsch.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess added that the company is now “a global leader with our electric platforms and a broad range of electric vehicles,” and that in the coming years “it will be crucial to also reach a leading position in car software in order to meet people’s needs for individual, sustainable and fully connected mobility in the future. To that end, we have doubled our digitalization spend.”
Within the next 10 years, VW envisions producing some 26 million fully electric models for Europe, China and the United States, with 19 million of them based on the carmaker’s MEB architecture and the other 7 million on the high performance PPE platform. Over that same period, it will produce around 7 million hybrids.
On the software side, the group will rely on Audi’s Artemis project, which from 2024 will yield a proprietary software stack. Meanwhile, a large chunk of the funds set aside for digitalization will be invested in fields such as artificial intelligence and autonomous driving tech.
Germany as a center of industry
VW is also looking to contribute to the German economy by turning Lower Saxony into the country’s second center of electric mobility, after Saxony. The group will also invest around one billion euros in battery tech and build a cell production facility with Swedish joint venture partner Northvolt come 2024.
Also starting in 2024, VW’s plant in Wolfsburg will begin building a new SUV aimed at European buyers – although we don’t know if it’s going to be fully electric or not. The Emden plant however will produce the four-door all electric VW Aero sedan (from 2023), along with the ID.4 crossover.
Last, but not least, the next-gen Passat will be built in Bratislava, Slovakia, starting in 2023, together with the Skoda Superb.


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Aside for developments in displays, one of the serious pushes we’re seeing in 2017 flagships comes from the camera, with dual-lens zoom the big deal at the moment. Oppo’s take, however, is a little different than the rest.
What’s the one thing the Apple iPhone 7 Plus, the HTC One M8, and the LG G5 (and G6) have in common aside for all being 4G smartphones?
Two lenses for two distinct views.
Two specific camera modules has been a crazy idea in smartphones ever since HTC started dabbling with the idea of a dual-camera system back in 2014, and now three years later, everyone is jumping on board.
We saw LG add the technology to its G5 last year, as well as Huawei which had a different take using the two cameras for different colour sensors in the P9 and Mate 9 instead of the two focal lengths. Apple, meanwhile, took the approach of the rest with the focal length differences, and easily had the smoothest jump between standard cameras and that of a close-up telephoto lens, as seen in the iPhone 7 Plus.
And this year, you can expect to see more as companies dabble in improving the camera to make it the must have critical feature that decides if you’ll spend big with them.
Growing brand Oppo is investing big in this area too, and this year plans to bring a take on the close camera technology with a spin on the idea in a slightly different way.
While Oppo’s latest technology will have two cameras, one of the cameras will work a little like a periscope, bouncing light using internal lenses and a small prism to account for a level of zoom.
Oppo is calling the technology “5X Dual-Camera Zoom”, and will even have a version of optical image stabilisation that works in tandem with the concept, stabilising not just the internal lenses themselves, but the prism changing the direction of the light, keeping vibrations down so imagery and video can remain still.
Technically, the two cameras will work as wide and telephoto, the periscope camera acting as telephoto, effectively making up 1X to 3X, but to get that “5X” Oppo mentions, the company will rely on a proprietary image technology for improved digital zoom.
“The ‘5X Dual Camera Zoom’ has opened up yet another realm of possibility in terms of smartphone photography, and is a reflection of our dedication to delivering on what our customers want and need – to take beautiful and clear pictures,”
“We are definitely putting a stake in the ground in terms of technological breakthroughs for mobile photography,” said Sky Li, Vice President and Managing Director of Oppo’s International Mobile Business.
“The dual cameras with wide-angled and telephoto lens, together with the periscope-style construction, our image fusion technology and the Optical Image Stabilisation, edges mobile photography even closer to what digital cameras are capable of doing. Our 5x Dual-Camera Zoom will again set yet another technological standard that others will emulate,” said Li.
Oppo says more than 50 patents have been filed for the technology being used in the 5X camera zoom concept, and while it’s a new idea in a smartphone, the company has managed to keep the size down, with the whole module of two cameras and the periscope lens construction measuring 5.7mm thick, easily thin enough to keep in a body that measures as thin as what is currently available on market.
Unfortunately, no phone has been listed to receive the technology first, because while Oppo used Mobile World Congress in Spain to talk about the technology, no phone using the concept has been announced.
We’ll just have to wait to see what flagship Oppo plans to show off later in the year.


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Consulting Engineers iron ore industry such as Kumba and Assmang will allow and nurture junior BEE mines to become part of the South African iron ore supply chain as there still remains a.
If you are interested in our company and our products, please contact us!Chat Online
Feb 16, 2021 “The significant impact on prices of weak Brazilian supply during 2018 2020 illustrated how vulnerable the global iron ore supply chain is to disruption in a major supplier.Dynamic Determinants in Global Iron Ore Supply Chain Claude Comtois1,2, , Brian Slack1,3 1 Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT) 2 Department of Geography, Universit de Montr al, 520, chemin de la C te Sainte Catherine, Montr al, Canada H2V 2B8 3 Department of Geography, Planning Environment, Concordia University, Hall F.
Jan 25, 2011 Railway While “multiple sources of evidence” were used, it is accepted construction has not kept up with the rapid economic 34 Multimodal supply chains iron ore from Australia to China Supply Chain Management An International Journal Anthony Beresford, Stephen Pettit and Yukuan Liu Volume 16 Number 1 2011 32–42 development and.Apr 25, 2019 In an iron clad commitment to supporting small businesses operating within the communities in which it operates, Kumba Iron Ore has grown its procurement targets by 75 from R 500 million two years ago, to a target of R2 billion by the end of 2019. General Manager for Supply Chain at Kumba Iron Ore.
Jan 18, 2021 According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), global crude iron ore reserves stood at around 170 billion tonnes as of 2019, comprising 81 billion tonnes of iron content. Around 2.5 billion tonnes of the metal were produced from mines worldwide in 2019, with Australia holding a dominant position among the world’s top iron ore producing countries .Iron Ore Mining in Australia trends (2016 2021) Iron Ore Mining in Australia industry outlook (2021 2026) poll Average industry growth 2021 2026 x.x lock Purchase this report or a membership to unlock the average company profit margin for this industry.
Mar 31, 2021 That said, Guinean iron ore will still have to pass through SE Asian choke points to reach China so it doesn’t fully resolve supply chain issues if things turn serious.Supply Chain Steel Outlook Dims as Iron Ore Powerhouse Flags Growth Woes. The trade war continues to impact the worldwide steelmaking industry. Bloomberg. Sep 30, 2019. The world’s top iron ore exporter cut its outlook for global steel demand, joining a growing chorus of warnings that trade tensions and slowing growth are hitting the sector.
Rio Tinto produced 333.4 million tonnes of iron ore products in 2020, compared with 326.7 million tonnes in 2019. Shipments were also up from 37.4 million tonnes in 2019 to 330.6 million tonnes in.May 05, 2020 The bottlenecks in the iron ore supply chain were once a logistics issue, but that has shifted to an actual mine issue, with production not growing and reserves running out. “For example, most of the $10bn Rio spent up until 2015 was spent debottlenecking its rail and port capacity,” Eames said.
Australian iron ore firm Fortescue Metals Group has officially opened the company’s newly expanded Integrated Operations Centre (IOC) ‘Fortescue Hive’ in Perth, Western Australia (WA). The IOC uses the latest technology, bringing together the company’s integrated supply chain.Feb 21, 2021 Another 7 MT of iron ore will be back into the supply chain, he said adding that NMDC contributes about 18 20 per cent to India's total iron ore requirement annual. When asked for his comments, Jayanta Roy, senior vice president and group head (corporate sector ratings) of ICRA, said, This should be good for the industry, definitely.
“The whole supply chain has been affected by the inspections,” she said. China has been sending out environmental inspection teams to iron ore mining operations across the country since late.Jan 20, 2021 The company achieved an iron ore output of 128.4 million mt in the given period, increasing by six percent year on year, reflecting record production at Jimblebar and a strong performance across the supply chain. The company’s iron ore output in the October December quarter totaled 62.4 million mt, up by six percent compared to the previous.
The steel industry’s biggest product today isn’t steel—it’s carbon. Roughly 1.8 tons of CO 2 are released into the atmosphere for every ton of liquid steel produced on the still predominant, integrated route. And this number is based on calculations that assume an average, modern blast furnace operated in OECD Europe—many plants around the world emit three or tons of CO 2 per.Dec 11, 2020 Iron ore futures on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange surged by almost 10 on Friday to an all time high, crossing the 1,000 yuan ($152.95) per ton mark for the first time in history.
Visualization Iron Ore Supply Chain. Blog. March 15, 2021. Video conference trends for 2021 March 12, 2021. Tips to elevate your hybrid or virtual sales strategy.Mar 29, 2021 Iron ore shipments are expected to rise from 900 million tonnes in 2020–21 to 1.1 billion tonnes by 2025–26, as the country expects to retain its dominant market share even as Brazilian supply.
Heavy reliance on foreign supply makes Chinese steel makers especially vulnerable to iron ore prices. Every $10 increase of the price of a ton of iron ore will lead to an extra $10 billion of.Jan 15, 2021 “In 2020, iron ore demand proved to be extremely strong, as infrastructure investment drove a robust recovery in the economy. “But as the effects of those stimulus measures ease through 2021, demand should soften. In turn, mill output will, too — and, hence, iron ore demand.” UK electric vehicle supply chain.
Jan 25, 2011 – This paper aims to analyse available multimodal transport route variations for iron ore shipments from northwest Australia to northeast China, focusing on a major iron and steel manufacturer., – The research is focused on a case study and uses an established cost model as a framework, for the first time, in the context of heavy bulk cargo shipments.Value chain for flat and long products. Steelmakers create value through the processing of raw materials such as ferrous scrap or iron ore. The processing.
6 hours ago RESEARCH Brazil's iron ore export volumes recovering mildly positive outlook for met coal The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets’ team of analysts are ready to view. In the iron ore market, supply issues including heavy rains at the start of the year, followed by staffing problems during the Covid 19 pandemic, have affected exports from Brazil.The iron ore market has several characteristics that make it distinctive as an investable asset. Supply is concentrated in a handful of geographic regions, notably Brazil and Australia and held by.
Iron ore supply chain modeling and simulation. By Laherce Ribeiro de Castro Neto. Abstract. O sistema produtivo da minera o de ferro caracterizada por um ciclo de produ o longo com processo integrado em s rie e cont nuo, desde a mina at a distribui o. Este ltimo est gio realizado, em grande parte, por meio do modal.Dec 04, 2020 In addition, the iron ore supply chain has some characteristics similar to other commodities, such as a few numbers of products, a high cargo volume, high lead times and low price, which makes the.


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Supply lines are moving slower across the U.S./Canada border, especially in the Detroit area, as protests continue throughout Canada in the wake of Covid-19 vaccine mandates affecting truck drivers, which took effect in January.
Data from supply chain visibility platform FourKites showed changes in on-time delivery, shipment volume, and wait times as the vaccine mandates went into effect the weeks of January 15 (for U.S. to Canada travel) and January 22 (for Canada to U.S. travel), and the company is continuing to track volatile conditions, especially at the Detroit/Windsor, Ontario, border, which is the busiest land crossing between the two countries and a vital corridor for auto industry trade.
Glenn Koepke, FourKites’ senior vice president for customer success, said the situation marks one more in a long line of supply chain disruptions companies have had to deal with in the past two years. He said the slowdowns and lower shipment volumes will be “pretty significant” over the next week or two in the Detroit area, with residual effects in the broader regions on both sides of the border.
“I think folks didn’t anticipate as much of a reaction to what happened [after the vaccine mandates and protests], and it immediately was reflected in poor on-time data [and] decreased performance,” Koepke said. “We see a shift in volume as well.”
FourKites tracked a 9% decrease in on-time delivery performance, a 7% decrease in total shipment volume, and a 17% increase in average wait times for all U.S./Canada cross border shipments the week of January 15, compared to the previous week.
On-time delivery performance fell 4% and average border wait times increased 8% the week of January 22, with no decrease in shipment volume. On-time delivery performance for U.S. to Canada shipments have since improved, but the data show declining rates for deliveries from Canada to the United States, likely due to continuing effects from protests and blockades, Koepke said. Wait times from the U.S. to Canada were trending downward by roughly 30% as of this past Monday, but wait times from Canada to the U.S. were up by 20% or more compared to the previous week.
As of Thursday morning, Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge, which Koepke says typically handles around 8,000 trucks a day crossing the border, remained temporarily closed.
Automotive production lines face the most immediate threat, but Koepke said he expects impacts on the customer fulfillment side over the next few weeks as companies deal with delays and the need to re-route deliveries.
“We’ll see a slowdown in inbound raw materials shipments, a slowdown in production, and customer deliveries,” he said.
As of Wednesday, major automakers in the region had closed some operations and reduced shifts as a result of shortages.
The cross-border vaccine mandates have spurred protests against the Canadian government’s broader Covid-19 restrictions. Led by the “Freedom Convoy” of truckers that made its way across the country to the capital city of Ottawa last week, the protests have attracted people from all over Canada and are impeding business and trade in Ottawa, Windsor, and elsewhere.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance, which has said it opposes the protests, released a statement this week urging government and business leaders to work together to end the blockades.
“The patience of drivers and the vast majority of the trucking industry regarding these blockades has long-since expired. The trucking industry and its drivers are paying a heavy price for the unlawful actions of those who choose to politicize and target our borders and highways and choke off trade between Canada and the United States. Their actions simply hurt Canadians and they have shown a blatant disregard for all the lives they are impacting,” CTA President Stephen Laskowski said in the statement.
U.S. trade groups have also weighed in on the issue. Earlier this week, the Missouri-based Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) sent letters to both the Biden Administration and to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Troudeau asking that truck drivers be excluded from the cross-border vaccine mandates, as they were under previous Covid-19 restrictions. OOIDA has more than 150,000 members in North America, including 1,000 Canadian drivers. The group says the nature of the drivers’ work and their status as essential workers should exclude them from the mandates.
“Throughout the Covid-19 emergency, professional truckers have been risking their lives to deliver critical goods to communities throughout the U.S. and Canada. Prior to January 2022, truckers were operating safely back and forth across the U.S-Canadian border to ensure North Americans had the food and supplies they needed without having to show proof of vaccination or disclosing any other aspects of their personal medical history,” OOIDA wrote in the letter to Prime Minister Trudeau. “Since commercial drivers spend the majority of their time alone in their vehicle and outside, there is no evidence that truckers present a higher risk of spreading the virus. Because the current cross-border policy disregards the economic contributions of the trucking industry and overlooks the basic operating procedures of the profession, we urge you to immediately exempt professional truck drivers from the vaccination mandate.”
OOIDA said the mandates impede cross-border trade, noting that many drivers have elected not to operate cross-border routes under the new rules and that others have experienced excessive wait times at the border due to the new protocols.
“This has intensified existing challenges facing North American freight networks and the supply chain and has resulted in higher prices for consumers,” they wrote in letters to both administrations.
Victoria Kickham, an editor at large for Supply Chain Quarterly, started her career as a newspaper reporter in the Boston area before moving into B2B journalism. She has covered manufacturing, distribution and supply chain issues for a variety of publications in the industrial and electronics sectors, and now writes about everything from forklift batteries to omnichannel business trends for Supply Chain Quarterly's sister publication, DC Velocity.


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eBay launches classified ad site
eBay Inc. is launching a new site aimed at international users as the Internet auction leader expands into classified advertising.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company launched Kijiji.com on February 28 as a place for users to buy and sell goods and services that are difficult or impossible to ship - such as baby-sitting services in the Montreal suburbs or a matching leather ottoman and recliner in Beijing.
Users can post advertisements in local languages if they're looking for a new roommate or potential love interest, want to find someone to share driving expenses on an upcoming trip, or are looking for day laborers or longer-term employees.
eBay says the "intensely local" site was the brainchild of a group of entrepreneurial employees looking for a new business niche. Kijiji means "village" in Swahili.
The site, which lists items for more than 50 cities in Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, is a stark contrast to ebay.com, a global e-commerce destination where buyers and sellers rarely live in the same ZIP code and frequently ship goods across state and country lines.
"It's a great local trading platform, as opposed to eBay, whose whole focus is building a global platform for trade where geography is irrelevant," said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy.
eBay will not say how many people have used the site since its debut less than three weeks ago. The site is not expected to affect 2005 revenue, and costs associated with the unit were incorporated in eBay's most recent financial outlook.
It's unlikely that eBay will launch a similar site for Americans, who comprise the company's largest national audience.
That's because Kijiji is similar to craigslist, a popular online network of classified ads that a San Francisco programmer founded in 1995. eBay purchased a 25 percent stake in the company in August so it could learn about the online classified business, in which e-commerce rivals Yahoo! Inc. and Google have invested heavily.
Each month, craigslist posts more than 2.5 million classified ads and more than 100,000 new job listings and gets more than 1 billion page views and 5 million unique visitors per month.
"We believe that craigslist has been incredibly successful in addressing the needs of the communities it serves," Durzy said. "Because of their success we saw less of a need for a service like Kijiji in the United States."
Copyright © 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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Indigo Paints partnersâ€™ U Mumba Kabaddi team as title sponsor for Pro Kabaddi Season 2018, â€™19
Indigo Paints, one of India’s fastest growing decorative paint manufacturers, has associated with former champions, U Mumba Kabaddi team, for the Pro Kabaddi Season 6 that started last week, as its title sponsor. The Mumbai-based franchise is owned by U Sports, promoted by celebrated media tycoon Ronnie Screwvala.
The sponsorship deal with U Mumba is for a period of two years, till 2019. This is the second biggest association for Indigo Paints this year, after signing MS Dhoni as its brand ambassador at the start of FY 2019. The company has plans to spend around Rs 200 crore on various advertising campaigns including television, print and digital in the next 2-3 years.
U Sports CEO and Co-founder Supratik Sen said, "We are pleased to have a brand such as Indigo Paints that believes in the long-term plan for a very Indian sport. We look forward to making this partnership a positively memorable one!"
Indigo Paints Managing Director Hemant Jalan said, “While the current sponsorship deal is for two years, we intend to support the U Mumba team for many years to come. We look forward to a much deeper engagement and not limited to only title sponsorship. We not only want to provide support to the current players but are also keen to help find and nurture exciting prospects for the future.”
Indigo Paints has been in the decorative paint business since 2000 and is synonymous with innovations in the paint category. The company has emphasised on launching new paint concepts for consumers and has invented paint categories that never existed before. The list includes floor paints, ceiling paints, PU enamel etc. This differentiation has helped Indigo Paints clock a CAGR of over 40% over the last 10 years.


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Haggen bankruptcy is a buying opportunity for Smart & Final, other grocers
The misfortunes of Haggen Inc. spell opportunity for several rival grocers.
Remnants of the Northwest chain, which underwent an ill-fated expansion this year, will be parceled out by a bankruptcy judge to bidders in the next few days.
The 18-store Haggen operation had bought and begun rebranding 146 Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions and Safeway locations, which regulators had ordered sold as part of the merger between Safeway and Albertsons. After failing to entice shoppers, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in September and closed all but 37 stores in Washington and Oregon.
Several supermarket chains have put in bids on the stores in California, Arizona and Nevada. They include high-end grocer Gelson’s, for eight stores, and Sprouts, for four locations, according to court documents. Even Albertsons has bid on 36 stores.
Not all Haggen shops have bidders, and some may eventually end up subdivided into smaller storefronts for other businesses.
Haggen’s retreat represents a prime chance for other grocers to expand in Southern California’s ultra-competitive supermarket industry, analysts said.
Smart & Final Stores Inc., the warehouse-style grocer that went public last year, could be a big winner: It will acquire 32 stores in Central and Southern California.
David Hirz, chief executive of the Commerce chain, said the new locations are “a real opportunity to accelerate growth.”
“A lot of these markets are markets we have been trying to get into in the last three years,” Hirz said. “They are on really good real estate.”
Smart & Final is paying nearly $70 million in cash for the stores, and sinking another $70 million into rebranding and refreshing the stores, Hirz said. The chain currently operates 270 stores under the names Smart & Final, Smart & Final Extra and Cash & Carry Smart Foodserve.
The company, which has deep roots in Los Angeles, is betting that the investment will pay off, Hirz said. The longtime leases at these stores are about 40% cheaper on average than current market rates. And the locations are in well-trafficked areas — or “on Main and Main,” as Hirz put it.
Smart & Final will have to woo shoppers back to the locations it’s buying because they will have switched to other supermarkets by the time the stores are converted, Hirz said. But before Haggen came, many of those locations were “high-volume Albertsons or Vons stores,” he said.
“When we talk to Haggen customers, we looked at why they weren’t successful,” Hirz said. “A lot of it goes to price.”
That shouldn’t be a problem for Smart & Final, which attracts shoppers with its lower prices and bulk items, Hirz said. A third of its sales come from businesses. Products will be priced about 17% lower than Haggen, he said.
Smart & Final has been expanding since going public; in September, it announced plans to add 100 more stores in the next four years.
This week, Smart & Final reported net income of $12.4 million for the third quarter, up from $10.2 million a year ago. Sales grew 10.1% to $1.3 billion.
Grocery chains are facing growing competition in the Southland supermarket industry.
Local grocers such as Trader Joe’s have been opening new locations, while big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have beefed up their food offerings. Even e-commerce companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. are expanding grocery delivery.
The rivalry has done in not only Haggen but Fresh & Easy, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month and will close stores by mid-November.
Extra competition is coming in the form of Aldi, the German discount grocer that plans to open 45 Southern California stores next year.
Twenty-five of the stores will open from March through July. The company has already built an 800,000-square-foot distribution center and regional headquarters in Moreno Valley to support future expansion.
“With the population density here in Southern California, it’s a market where we can do well,” said Liz Ruggles, Aldi’s director of public relations.
More than 90% of products for sale at Aldi are private label, with stores offering only one or two options for items such as cranberry sauce or canned green beans.
Aldi also saves on labor costs. Customers who want to use a shopping cart, for example, must deposit a quarter, which they get back once they return the cart. Shoppers also bag their own groceries.
Ruggles said Aldi isn’t looking to make big acquisitions of stores that are coming on the market with Haggen or Fresh & Easy’s departure. But she said the chain might pick up one or two locations.
“We want to make sure store locations are convenient for our customers,” she said.
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- New gTLD database
The Net's biggest balancing act yet
by .Nxt | 29 May 2012 |
Privacy in the online era means big changes in all our thinking
"People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people," Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg told an audience in January 2010. "That social norm is just something that has evolved over time."
Zuckerberg's comment came hot on the heels of another from Google's then CEO Eric Schmidt: "If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know," he said in response to privacy concerns over the information his company possesses, "maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place."
For two companies that had found their way into millions of people's lives, these comments represented what they were seeing every day: literally millions of pieces of information freely provided by individuals from every corner of the globe. Facebook and Google's brilliance lies not just in gathering this vast quantity of information but in making sense of it and relaying it back to both individuals and advertisers alike. Personal information means personal service and everyone was thrilled with the results.
The response to these observations must have come as somewhat of a shock to Messrs Zuckerberg and Schmidt. "This sounds like something the Stasi or KGB would tell the public," the Wall Street Journal's John Dvorak said of Schmidt's comment. Other commentators, bloggers, tweeters and Facebookers were less kind.
Such words from the lead figures of the Internet's two biggest success stories also served as a wake-up call to legislators worldwide. While everyone loved the services these two American companies provided, their apparent attempt to redefine privacy for millions of people was a step too far.
Fast forward two years and privacy has become the Internet's biggest policy topic. It is likely to remain so for the next few years. Major pieces of legislation are planned in both the European Union and United States and everyone from big business to academia to civil society and civil servants is trying to make sense of what privacy looks like in a world where a picture can be taken, posted and seen by an unlimited number of people within seconds, and where people's identities, right down to their sexual preference, have become selection boxes for marketers.
New concepts and new laws
One of the first things that policy-makers have come to understand is that the Internet really has changed things. Much has been made of the fact that "digital natives" - that generation of people that has never not known a globally networked world - have a more relaxed sense of privacy and the provision of personally indentifying information. This is, of course, only partially true. As the negative impact of sharing information too widely is being felt over time, digital natives are becoming increasingly savvy about where and how their information is being used.
Europe as a continent has learnt the catastrophic downsides to being easily identified, and so after a few years of soul-searching has reached what it feels is the right balance between allowing people to freely choose what information they share with not having to live with the consequences of it for the rest of your life. The "right to be forgotten" forms a key part of legislation that aims to provide a trans-European law on privacy.
How that principle will work in reality is uncertain and it will be the cause of much discussion and argument as the legislation makes its way through the European Parliament and then Council. The law is expected to be in place within three to four years.
On the other side of the Atlantic, another new concept is taking root. A report from the Federal Trade Commission frequently references "privacy by design" in its template for new privacy rules and laws. The recognition is that the use of people's data is of such paramount importance that it needs to be written into every stage of product development.
While new concepts abound, so old ideas, some hard-coded into laws, have come under question. "Consent" is one such case. When people have no idea what they are agreeing to, and do not even have a realistic choice of disagreeing, the idea of consent loses all meaning. The problem is that despite the determined efforts of a large number of people, no one has yet uncovered a suitable replacement.
Some cold realities
As these efforts to devise new approaches and new laws progresses, the businesses behind a remarkable (and remarkably profitable) generation of products and services are rightly concerned.
If Facebook is not able to use the wealth of information it has on its users to produce highly targeted ads, it will not be able to provide 900 million people with a free service. Despite having become a household name, the company's fragility is there to see: the news that the company's ads are not performing as well on mobile phones as laptop screens was enough to ruin the company's initial public offering last week. Share prices continued to fall.
Likewise, the threat within EU legislation to fine companies up to two percent of their global revenue has got companies rattled. Companies like Google have been pushing at the envelope for a decade and taken fines and reprimands in its stride as it continues to produce such revolutionary products as Gmail and Street View. The cost of making mistakes is about to get a whole lot bigger.
Naturally enough companies that use personal data - and it's not just the Googles and Facebooks but also most online technology companies and the entire online advertising sector want to see self-regulation introduced ahead of legislation.
A public comment period recently held by the US Department of Commerce as a way of kickstarting the production of enforceable codes of conduct brought a number of topics to the fore. Self-regulation was one of them (see our comprehensive summary of all 80+ responses).
Unfortunately for business, it has already blown its chance. In the late 1990s, the FTC passed over legislation in order to give business an opportunity to regulate itself. The result was a wide range of new organizations created amid great fanfare but poorly resourced and ineffective. Many folded just a few years later when the political pressure was off.
The FTC and Department of Commerce (DoC), not to mention the White House appears determined not to make the same mistake again, although the European approach of broad-base legislation looks unreachable thanks to continued Congressional dysfunction.
The multistakeholder model
And this is where the most intriguing aspect of the privacy debate comes in. Seemingly faced with an intractable problem and no solution, the DoC with the backing of the FTC, has come up with a new approach to the problem, modeled partly on the "safe harbor" program it developed the last time privacy was causing problems, and partly on the systems that have been used to decide Internet technical issues for the past decade.
In what we will call the "multi-stakeholder sandwich", the DoC is hoping to find a hybrid solution to this highly complex problem. In the middle lies a policy-making process open to all, with the US government acting as convener, and the end goal of codes of conduct. At the front is the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights - principles that will act as a guide. And at the back, the FTC - legally empowered (within the US at least) to enforce the codes of conduct.
Such a model, on paper at least, avoids many of the problems associated with self-regulation, as well as with legislation. It also makes use of a system of decision-making that has been used, with varying degrees of success but increasing sophistication by organizations such as ICANN, the IETF and the IGF.
Finding a workable solution to privacy issues on the Internet is going to be one of the greatest balancing acts of modern times, not least because the issues are so new, and the consequences so significant.
Whether the extraordinary communicative possibilities that the Internet makes possible will be used to reach a common end point, to encourage all parties to work in tandem to achieve a spectacular feat we will have to see. Such an approach requires all the actors to move outside of well-worn habits and put consensus above all else.
Regardless of the end result, what the US approach will provide is a fascinating parallel track to the traditional legislative approach that Europe has just embarked upon. By 2015, we should have a pretty good idea whether the decision-making systems used to build the Internet in a technical capacity will work as effectively in dealing with the social problems that it continues to generate.


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Microsoft’s Windows 10 has now been officially available for just over four months, and so it’s time to check out its progress in taking over the operating system world. Last month, Windows 10 stood at 7.94%, representing steady progress. For November 2015, according to NetMarketShare, Microsoft’s latest OS has captured roughly 9% of market share, more than a percentage point increase month-over-month.
Windows 7, which remains the dominant desktop OS, fell from 56.11% to 55.71%, and Windows XP actually slid into third place at 10.59% behind Windows 8.1 at 11.15% (an increase from 10.68%, perhaps as OEMs pushed existing inventory out the door). All versions of Apple’s OS X combined for a paltry 6.98%.
Steady improvement like this bodes well for Microsoft’s goal of a billion Windows 10 installs over the next three years. We’re sure that this year’s holiday blowouts should result in even better results for December.Further reading: Market Share, NetMarketShare, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows XP


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Well, there it is. Apple's big September event is over and barely any mention was made of the Mac ecosystem. Tim Cook did remind us that Mac OS Mojave is on its way in a few weeks, but that was the only mention of anything Macintosh.
For those of you (and me) counting on a new Mac mini or Mac mini Pro or any news about a Mac Pro, there was nuttin'. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Even though the rumor mills have been rumbling about a new Mac mini, Apple sure as heck left it out there to swing in the wind.
Also: Apple's MacBook Pro 2018 updates: A cheat sheet TechRepublic
For those of you keeping score, that leaves the Mac mini without an update since October 2014 and yet it's still for sale. The Mac mini back then was introduced with MacOS Yosemite. For those of you keeping track, we've had Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, and now Mojave OS releases - but the Mac mini is still running ancient, 2014-vintage processors and no upgradeable memory.
Also: The 12 best features of MacOS Mojave CNET
Stay tuned. There might be an October event. After all, not only were the Macs not addressed in this keynote, Apple didn't mention AirPods, iPads, or AirPower either. Those were huge omissions to the product line, and we definitely expect news sometime soon.
Also: macOS Mojave: A look at the new features TechRepublic
That's it. No news is just no news. Sigh.
You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.
PREVIOUS AND RELATED COVERAGE:
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The new Samsung Galaxy Note 9 was just announced and we expect three new iPhones and two Google Pixel phones to launch soon. Now is the time to consider selling your current one before market prices drop or plan to participate in a trade-in program.
he major smartphone launch season is upon us and one of the first out of the gates is the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, immediately taking over the top spot in our list of best smartphones.
The mostly excellent Galaxy S9's new features aren't quite as good as we'd like, but you'll probably want to buy one anyway.
Best smartphones of 2018 for tech experts TechRepublic
Looking to get a new smartphone? Here are 12 devices with the best features out now.
- How to watch Apple's 2018 iPhone event on September 12
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MORE FROM THE IPHONE XS EVENT:
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RLGR editor’s note: Arizona cotton farmers produced the nation’s top 2011 upland cotton yields with 1,548 pounds per acre, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. The 1,548-pound yield is a record in Arizona.
The Department of Agriculture has pledged to support the cotton industry as it faces massive contract defaults that threaten the growth of exports from the United States, the world’s biggest shipper.
Members from the National Cotton Council, the American Cotton Shippers Association and the National Council of Textile Organizations met last week with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and trade officials as contracts worth nearly $1 billion are in default or may unravel with little sign of resolution, the Cotton Council said. The sessions followed up meetings in August and March.
“We will continue to encourage trading partners to honor commercial commitments and adhere to the rule of law to ensure a predictable and vibrant environment for trade,” Matt Herrick, a USDA spokesman, said Friday.
Cotton prices on ICE Futures U.S. in New York surged to a record $2.197 a pound on March 7, 2011, from 66.55 cents on Feb. 5, 2010, amid rising demand from China. The commodity then plunged to less than $1 by July 2011 and closed Friday at about 70 cents. Warehouses from China to Australia are bulging with the biggest-ever glut, a year after the the high prices spurred farmers to expand output.
Textile mills in countries including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam have defaulted on contracts, resulting in severe losses for merchants and marketing cooperatives, according to Ricky Clarke, a merchant with Cargill Cotton, a division of Cargill Inc., in Cordova, Tenn., and chairman of the American Cotton Shippers Association.
DPS makes huge find of stolen copper/Arizona Daily Star


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Germany: Polyurethane Dispersions Covestro Starts Production of PUD at New Facilities
Covestro has begun operations at a new production facility for aqueous polyurethane dispersions (PUDs) at its Dormagen site. Along with a current expansion of production in Barcelona, the company is boosting its capacities in Europe.
Leverkusen/Germany — The new capacity is primarily needed to satisfy rising demand from the coatings and adhesives industry: manufacturers remain determined to replace solvent-based products with more sustainable waterborne systems that have equally good properties. Also driving the trend are regulations that require lower emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC).
In order to meet global demand, the company is also building a new facility in China, as well as planning to resume production in the United States and at the same time modernizing and expanding facilities there.
“With these investments, we are preparing for the continued growing demand for polyurethane dispersions as well as expanding our globally leading position,” says Michael Friede, global head of the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties segment at Covestro. “At the same time, thanks to our diversified production, we have the flexibility to meet many different requirements.”
The diversified production is the key to their comprehensive line of polyurethane dispersions (PUDs), the company said.


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Russia to decrease grain exports through deep-water ports
In July, 2014 Russia may decrease grain exports through deep-water ports to 321 thsd tonnes, as opposed to 685 thsd tonnes in July, 2013, declared the deputy director of the strategic marketing department of Rusagrotrans, Igor Pavensky on July 9, 2014.
I.Pavensky stated under the current price situation on the global grain market, grain exports from the Russian ports will be profitable under the VAT recovery conditions.
He also mentioned, that within the tenders (with delivery in 2014/15 MY) there was purchased over 4.3 mln tonnes of Russian and Ukrainian grain. In particular, nearly 2.4 mln tonnes should be exported within nearest months (July-August).
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text: Kroger Co. KR, +0.71% and Nuro, a robotics company, announced Thursday that they have partnered to pilot driverless delivery vehicles in Scottsdale, Ariz. Shoppers can place their orders beginning today at Fry's Food Stores via the mobile app or the grocer's website. Deliveries can be scheduled for the same or next day. There is no minimum order, but there is a $5.95 delivery fee. Deliveries will be made at the shopper's curb. The pilot will begin with the self-driving Toyota Prius and will introduce the custom driverless vehicle in the fall. Kroger shares are up 2% in Thursday premarket trading, and have gained 9.5% for the year to date. The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.69% is up 5.4% for 2018 so far.


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The number of staff quitting final month fell in well being care and social help jobs, in addition to eating places, inns and development. Quits went up in nondurable good manufacturing.
Even although a record number of individuals quit their jobs final yr, the US labor market nonetheless recorded a internet employment acquire of 6.4 million.
In whole, 75.3 million staff have been employed final yr, whereas 68.9 million quit, have been laid off or discharged. Out of these so-called separations, 47.4 million have been voluntary quits.
In line with that, the number of layoffs hit a brand new record low at 1.2 million in December, exhibiting that the unfavorable impression from the Omicron variant did not totally hit the labor market on the finish of final yr.
Worker scarcity continues
The world’s largest house enchancment retailer stated Tuesday that job candidates “could receive an offer within one day of applying.”
Home Depot stated the “accelerated” hiring course of is an element of its plan to rent greater than 100,000 new associates forward of its busy spring season.
“In today’s climate, jobseekers are shopping for the best opportunity,” Eric Schelling, Home Depot’s vp of world expertise acquisition, stated in a press release.
To entice staff, Home Depot stated it presents jobseekers varied incentives, together with upskilling applications, tuition reimbursement, a money bonus program and discounted inventory purchases.
–CNN’s Matt Egan contributed to this report.


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Redmi Note 10S receives THIS new update ahead of launch on May 13; Check all details here
The launch of Redmi Note 10S is around the corner. The new budget smartphone from the Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi will make its official debut in India on May 13. Ahead of the launch, the device is said to have been receiving the update to MIUI 12.5.
Redmi Note 10S release date: The launch of Redmi Note 10S is around the corner. The new budget smartphone from the Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi will make its official debut in India on May 13. Ahead of the launch, the device is said to have been receiving the update to MIUI 12.5.
WATCH | Click on Zee Business Live TV Streaming Below:
According to a report from GSMArena, the MIUI 12.5 builds for the Redmi Note 10S are numbered 22.214.171.124.RLLINXM for India, 126.96.36.199.RKLEUXM for Europe, and 188.8.131.52.RKLMIXM for other global markets. The update is said to be either pre-installed on the units or be made available as a ‘day-one’ update following the device unboxing.
The Redmi Note 10S launch event will take place on May 13 at 12 PM IST. The event will have no physical attendance and will be streamed live on Redmi India’s official YouTube channel and social media handles.
A dedicated page for the smartphone is live on e-commerce site Amazon India. It suggests that the device will be exclusive to the e-retail platform besides being available on the company’s official site mi.com. The phone is expected to cost under Rs 20,000 in the country.
Redmi Note 10S Specifications
According to a report from 91Mobiles, the largest gadget discovery website, the Redmi Note 10S will be made available in three storage configurations: 6GB RAM/64GB storage, 6GB RAM/128GB storage and 8GB RAM/128GB storage.
The company has already teased the retail packaging and the key specifications of the upcoming device. The device will be made available in Blue, Dark Grey and White colour options, the report said.
As per 91Mobiles, It will run Android 11 with the company’s own MIUI 12.5 skin on top and will feature a 64-megapixel primary camera sensor on the back. The smartphone will be geared towards gamers and will come with support for Hi-Res Audio, and feature a Super Display.
Please note that Xiaomi has already unveiled the Redmi Note 10S globally last month. The global variant sports a 6.43-inch full HD+ AMOLED display with a resolution of 2400×1080 pixels. It is powered by the MediaTek Helio G95 SoC paired with an ARM Mali-G76 MC4 GPU. The device comes with a 5,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging.
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Coca-Cola to discontinue production of Tab soda3 Nov 2020
As the soda giant Coca-Cola looks to slim down its portfolio and focus on profitable brands, Tab soda has become the latest legacy brand to be put on the chopping block.
Tab soda came around in 1963 and was Coke’s first diet soda brand. While it remained popular for two decades, it lost its luster with the debut of Diet Coke in 1982. Since then, the brand has become difficult to find on store shelves and accounted for a mere 0.1% of the $22 billion in global sales of diet cola in 2019, reported the Wall Street Journal that cited Euromonitor International data.
Other Coca-Cola brands top the charts in terms of diet cola market share with Diet Coke representing 35% of sales and Coke Zero Sugar taking 22% of the category’s sales.
This minuscule market share put Tab in a category inhabited by a large portion of Coca-Cola’s brands. Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey has endearingly termed these brands “zombie brands,” which total over 200 individual lines within the company’s portfolio of over 500 options. Coca-Cola said it plans to cut its portfolio by more than half as these zombies only make up 2% of the company’s profit.
“This isn’t about paring down to a specific number of product offerings under our brands. The objective is to drive impact and growth," Cath Coetzer, Coca-Cola’s global head of innovation and marketing operations said in a statement. The Atlanta-based company only kept Tab alive for those die-hard fans called Tabaholics that continued to enjoy the soda that has been around for nearly 60 years.
However, with Coke’s uncompromising approach to paring down its portfolio, it’s no surprise that a mostly-forgotten soda brand is getting canned. Already, more recent and popular brands have found themselves left behind. This summer, Coca-Cola announced it would close its Odwalla juice and smoothie brand by August, and last month, the company announced it would discontinue Zico coconut water. Diet Coke Feisty Cherry and Coke Life will also be shuttered along with more regional brands like Northern Neck Ginger Ale and Delaware Punch.
At the same time, Coke has invested heavily in some of its star brands like Topo Chico that it recently announced would add a hard seltzer to the brand line.
As the company looks to improve efficiencies in its operations and align its product offerings with areas of high consumer demand, the loss of Tab only represents the beginning of what will end up as a substantial purge in order to facilitate investment in innovation and product offerings that have evolved with people’s tastes.
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King Digital is in trouble.
The British mobile games studio behind the wildly successful Candy Crush Saga, saw its stock plummet 11% in after-hours trading after posting a disappointing outlook for Q2 yesterday.
It posted strong Q1 results, beating revenue estimates, and CEO Riccardo Zacconi says the company is "pleased by the sustained popularity of our games."
But this morning, a handful of investment analysts have published negative notes on the company. Credit Suisse said "Candy Crush will continue to decay at a steep trajectory but further that 3 out of 5 [new game] launches will be a commercial failure."
Founded in 2003 by Riccardo Zacconi and Melvyn Morris, it first really came into the public eye in 2012, with the launch of Candy Crush Saga. A simple, free-to-play puzzler funded through in-app purchases, it went super-viral, and has netted hundreds of millions of players.
King has been beset with difficulties
Despite this wild success, there have been financial — and legal — hurdles. The company's IPO in March 2014 was disastrous, falling 15% on its first day — one of the worst of the year.
People questioned the wisdom of the IPO upon its initial announcement, given the unpredictable, hot-hit-wonder nature of mobile gaming. "Games companies seem like the kind of startups who might best remain private," my colleague Jim Edwards wrote, "where they can ride the financial roller coaster of the App Store behind closed doors."
And at one point last year, the company, there was speculation that King Digital had "waved the white flag on its future" after electing to issue a $150 million dividend. Stock subsequently dropped 25% in after-hours trading.
At the start of 2015, "Games Guru" Tommy Palm left King Digital. It was a major loss — Palm is "credited with helping to create the most popular mobile game on the planet, Candy Crush Saga," VentureBeat reported at the time. (Palm went on to start his own mobile games company.)
Then in March, King was sued over allegations tht it denied "lives" to players that had been donated to them by friends, in in attempt to force people to buy new lives. The complaint asserts that King is "intentional[ly] profiteering at the expense of customers." (King says they "believe the claims are without merit and intend to defend them vigorously.")
The same month, it was also sued for allegedly inflating user numbers ahead of its IPO the year before. The lawsuit says that the user figures provided to investors were "materially inaccurate, misleading, and/or incomplete."
Of course, legal battles don't detract from the sheer addictive popularity of Candy Crush. A 2013 Daily Mail story referred to it as "crack candy," interviewing women who said "it's taking over my life" and played for 8 hours a day. ABC put together a piece on "cautionary tales from people obsessed with Candy Crush," including one woman who ignored her daughter, and another who spent hundreds of dollars on the game.
Earlier this year, things were looking up
But flagship title Candy Crush's popularity has begun to wane, and with it, questions have been raised about the company's future. Earlier this year, when King posted 2014 Q4 earnings, it looked like these concerns might have been assuaged — and the stock soared by 15%.
In Q4 2014, King Digital booked sales of $586 million, above expectations of $520 million. But this isn't why investors were excited. Instead — for the first time — less than 50% of King's revenue was coming from Candy Crush.
It's a dangerous game developing mobile app casual games. They can become multi-million-dollar businesses overnight, but there's little-to-no brand loyalty from consumers towards the development studios themselves. Games are also unpredictable: They can become hits at any time, then fade away as quickly as they came.
The ultra-simple Flappy Bird was one of the biggest viral sensations of 2014. It got so big that developer Dong Nguyen ultimately removed it from app stores, as he was unable to handle the pressure. But when his studio .GEARS released its second title, Swing Copters, later that year, it failed to get the same traction.
Another example is Mind Candy. It's the studio responsible for the web-based mega-hit Moshi Monsters. But it has also seen massive losses over the past few years, as it has failed to capitalise on its success and diversify its portfolio. "Moshi Monsters captured the imaginations of children and launched at a time when the consumer web was just taking off," CEO Michael Acton Smith said at TechCrunch Disrupt in October 2014. But it's "been a tough time in the last couple of years... There have been lots of sleepless nights."
Analysts — and investors — thought that King Digital had managed to sidestep this trap. Its new title, Candy Crush Soda Saga, was doing extremely well, along with its broad stable of other titles — including Bubble Witch Saga 2, Farm Heroes Saga, Pet Rescue Saga, and Diamond Digger Saga.
Analysts praised King — then turned on it
At the time, Deutsche Bank said in a research note that the company "has come a long way towards proving it can bring more hits to market." JP Morgan, meanwhile, believed that King was "increasingly benefiting from its scale & marketing power as it can outspend peers and leverage significant data to encourage cross-game adoption."
Since then, however, things have soured.
King Digital's 2015 Q1 results were relatively strong. Revenue beat expectations, coming in at $569.5 million versus $553.9 million.
King CEO Riccardo Zacconi said that "first quarter 2015 results demonstrate the continued strength of our franchises, with Candy Crush Saga, Candy Crush Soda Saga and Farm Heroes Saga remaining top 10 grossing games in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in the U.S. We are pleased by the sustained popularity of our games which is also reflected in our second consecutive quarter of company-high network reach metrics and we look forward to leveraging the extraordinary power of our massive player base in launching new innovative games in 2015 and beyond."
But the company predicts bookings will decline from $604.5 million in Q1 to the $490-$520 mark in Q2, saying the "mid-year period [will] be seasonally softer."
62% of total gross bookings have come from titles other than Candy Crush in Q1, suggesting King is slowly moving beyond the title — but some analysts are slamming the company nonetheless.
Deutsche Bank now says King "needs another hit," and that while Candy Crush Soda Saga "[came] on strong, it has "likely peaked already." As it stands, "all existing games are now in decline, and new game genres may have structurally lower margins... Without clear success from upcoming titles, it appears most likely revenue and margins will decline going forward."
A research note from Pacific Crest says that "King is in need of a steady new schedule of new titles to grow, which is a much less profitable model than launching a few longer-performing, highly profitable games." It continues:
We are not sure about the non-Candy Crush growth opportunity. Candy Crush has carried KING since its release in 2012, and we think the story for growth after Candy is still uncertain. Mobile game developers initially rely on a key franchise or genre, and diversification has been a rare occurrence. We are not sure KING is going to buck the trend. It has plans to launch new games, but the probability that any one will be a big contributor is relatively small.
Credit Suisse, meanwhile, warns "not only that Candy Crush will continue to decay at a steep trajectory but further that 3 out of 5 launches will be a commercial failure."
In short: The mobile gaming industry is notoriously volatile, and the era of Candy Crush Saga is drawing to a close. With no guarantee that King Digital will ever be able to replicate its success again, some analysts fear the company's future is looking dimmer than its past.


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Festivals across Europe have seen attendances decrease over the course of the year while ticket prices rise, according to IQ Magazine’s European Festival Report 2018.
The cost of a festival pass rose by an average of 8.3 per cent in 2018 to €178 (£155/$202), only a year after EU festival prices had stabilised.
The report found that 59 of the 105 festivals that disclosed pricing details, or 56.2 per cent, upped their prices from 2017 to 2018. Meanwhile, 44 of those froze prices and only two decided to make them cheaper.
IQ said in its report that the main factors driving prices up are the fact that artist fees are rising and that production costs are becoming more expensive.
Eric van Eerdenburg of Dutch powerhouse Mojo Concerts said, according to IQ, the “crisis in talent” is accountable for “pushing up the price that the consumer has to pay”, making it more challenging to attract a young crowd.
He added: “We’re pricing ourselves out of the business by potentially alienating the next generation of fans and not enough people seem to care about that situation.”
In addition, attendance figures fell slightly from 40,575 in 2017 to 39,475 in 2018, with an average decrease of 2.7 per cent.
Only 43 per cent of EU festivals sold out in 2018, compared with 53 per cent the previous year. Eighteen per cent of those that were surveyed reported a downturn in ticket sales.
According to the report, organisers gave a host of reasons for a fall in attendance and ticket sales, citing market saturation, competition from new, small festivals, unfavourable weather, lack of headliners, fear of terror attacks and uncertainties surrounding Brexit.
Image: Eva Rinaldi


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MIDTOWN — Sanctuary Hotel’s new sports lounge is opening its doors for the first time on Super Bowl Sunday.
Sanctuary Ultra Lounge is decked with 16 televisions, a projector, and a DJ who will spin during the commercial breaks, said Brandon Freid, owner of Sanctuary Hotel, located at 132 E. 47th St.
“We want to keep the energy climbing higher and higher,” Freid said.
The walls of the lounge appear to be mirrored on a normal day, but when a big game is on, the mirrors turn into TV screens.
“The TVs are behind a one-way mirror, so when the TVs are off, you’re looking at a mirrored wall,” said Freid. “That’s the great thing about this space, it’s very versatile.”
The lounge, which is on the ground floor of the hotel, will open for the first time on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3, and it will remain open seven days a week following the opening day.
On the day of the Super Bowl, the hotel will kick off festivities with a tailgate party on the hotel’s rooftop bar called Haven, which is tented and heated during the winter.
The new lounge will open at 4:30 p.m., for the Super Bowl viewing party, Freid said.
It will be serving a full menu, including beef sliders, truffle mac n cheese, and chicken with waffles.
On the night of the Super Bowl, the price of wings will be reduced to 50 cents per wing, said Freid. A bucket of beer will be priced at $25 on that day, and package deals are available for larger parties.
“It’s a sports bar,” said Freid. “It’s the perfect way to kick off this venue.”


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Container spot rates reach milestone point
After almost six months or 25 straight weeks of falls, container spot rates out of Shanghai managed to put a halt and increase as 2010 came to an end.
After almost six months or 25 straight weeks of falls, container spot rates out of Shanghai managed to put a halt and increase as 2010 came to an end. According to the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index, rates were upwards for all destinations, including the main trading lanes to Europe and US West Coast. Following a 29% drop on average spot rates, the index rose 4% during the 52nd week of 2010.
According to a new analysis from BIMCO’s Peter Sand, container freight rates on the Shanghai-Europe trading lane peaked as early as March (week 9) at USD 2,164 per TEU on the back of strong demand that outstripped available vessel capacity; at that time 10 % of the overall fleet was idle. On the back of a limping world trade back in early 2009 – front-haul volumes into Europe grew as much as 17.3% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 2010 and by 18.4% in Q2 2010. Last week freight rate was at USD 1,401 per TEU.
Spot rates for US West Coast improved throughout the 1st and 2nd quarter going into 3rd due to soaring volumes. Rates for containers shipped to the US West Coast peaked in early July at USD 2,833 per FEU. Last week freight rate was at USD 1,962 per FEU.
What has happened? During the low point of the crisis in 1st half of 2009, freight rates for Shanghai –Europe went close to USD 250 per TEU - since then rates took a magnificent climb until March 2010. Translating this – current freight rates are still at solid levels even after a 35% fall from the top. The big difference, however, is that today’s volumes and available capacity are much higher than two years ago; as opposed to the bleeding chaos in early 2009 – where a fierce fighting for market share took place forcing carriers to cut rates fast to protect market share and cash flow with subsequent heavy financial losses in the process – the container trades has since March 2010 retained profitability although at a reduced level”.
As a result, from the rate peaks of March and July, freight rates for Europe and US West Coast fell by 35% and 31% respectively. As volume started to decline after the traditional peak season in the third quarter of 2010, carriers started to remove capacity out of the market, in a bid to balance supply and demand. “Withdrawal of vessels from the market in a combination with extensive super-slow-steaming on the main and long haul trades proved to be the remedy to maintain rates at a comfortable distance from the disastrous freight levels during the crisis. “In October, BIMCO estimated that some 300 vessel of approx 750,000 TEU would be sufficient to keep rates from falling further, but as history shows only less than half of that was made idle causing freight rates to slide week after week. Lately increased bookings prior to the effectiveness of the 1st January rate hike, announced by most carriers may have turned the tide temporarily. Volumes tend to go slightly up in the month up to the Chinese New year – only to drop considerably during and immediately following the celebrations, caused by a slow-down in economic and industrial activity” said Peter Sand.
So where will the market move from here. During January and the weeks leading up to the Chinese New Year early February, volumes are expected to slightly increase as shipowners tend to expedite shipments anticipating the slowdown in activity during the public holiday.
“Freight rates are expected to stay at about current levels, since announced rate increases will be difficult to enforce due to the availability of slots. One could, however, expect a tendency for rates to slide a bit as a consequence hereof. BIMCO expects volumes to grow immediately following the Chinese New Year slow-down, but the forward looking development in volumes as well as rates depends highly on US consumers and when they will start to feel wealthy again increasing spending on imported containerized goods. A growing container fleet will also be a reason for concern throughout 2011” concluded BIMCO’s analyst.


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* Aims for peak annual sales of 500 mln euros from pill
* Shares gain 0.4 percent in early trade
(Adds details and background)
FRANKFURT, July 8 (Reuters) - Bayer BAYG.DE, Germany’s largest drugmaker, has filed for approval in the United States for a new birth control pill it started to market in Europe in May to shore up its best-selling contraceptives business.
Bayer is seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration for the pill, based on a new type of the female hormone oestrogen, for use as contraceptive and to treat excessive menstrual bleeding, the company said on Wednesday.
Bayer has previously said it aimed to generate sales of up to 500 million euros ($698.9 million) per year from the pill, marketed in Europe as Qlaira.
It aims to build on the market success of its established birth control pills, which it obtained as part of its takeover of German rival Schering.
The group of contraceptives comprising the Yasmin, YAZ and Yasminelle brands are Bayer’s best-selling pharmaceutical product, generating 1.2 billion euros in revenues last year.
Qlaira is the first contraceptive pill with a type of oestrogen that is identical to the hormone produced by the female body.
Bayer has said that the combination of estradiol, or body-identical oestrogen, and the progestin dienogest used in Qlaira put less of a strain on the liver and the body’s metabolism than conventional pills. (Reporting by Ludwig Burger)


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Pub Original Bacon Jerky hits the shelves this month offering consumers a totally unique way to enjoy their favourite food. It has already achieved a listing in Tesco, and is now on sale in around 700 stores nationally.
Packed in attractive 35g foil bags, this ambient ready to eat snack is made from quality 100% sweet cured bacon and can be enjoyed at anytime at home or on the move.
Freshers Foods are a specialist manufacturer of meat snacks, with an extensive range of best selling Pork Scratchings. Pork Crackling and Pork Crunch marketed under the Pub Original brand.
“We have an established range of fast selling impulse snacks and using our expertise and know how, believe we are bringing something completely new to the market” said Freshers Sales & Marketing Director Alan Barnes. “We have spent many months developing this product and getting it just right. There is nothing like it on the market and we think the public will love this convenient and delicious way to enjoy one of their favourite foods.
In a recent survey that T Mobile commissioned for a TV ad, 60,000 people were asked what they loved most about Britain. The bacon butty came out on top trumping other British icons such as the Queen, Fish & Chips and the Aston Martin.
The booming bacon market bears testament to this fact with 90% of British households buying bacon and retail sales reaching £1.348m +6% over the last year (52 w/e 18 March 12 – source Bpex).
Tel: 01942 825840


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redBus plans to expand global footprint in next three months
Firm aims to launch ops in at least four South and Southeast Asian countries, says CEO Prakash Sangam
Online bus ticketing platform redBus is planning to expand its global footprint by launching operations in at least four South and Southeast Asian countries in the next three months, a top company executive said.
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