For those of you involved in import-export, you are definitely feeling the pain as global economies continue to punish us with a low value U.S. dollar and swelling inflation.
For many trade media companies, this is also proving to be an incredibly tough sales period. While speaking with one of TradeMediaBlog’s partners, they admitted that they [...]

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While the trade media industry is filled with hundreds (if not thousands) of companies copying the original B2B online trade marketplace business model established by Global Sources in 1995, it is refreshing to see a unique player building marketshare in this space.
MFG.com is a B2B online trade marketplace focused on manufacturing. The site supports over [...]

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China’s National Statistics Bureau released data this week showing that inflation grew by 8.5% in April which is its highest level in nearly 10 years.
As a reminder, February’s inflation rate was 8.7%, the highest in 12 years, and March was 8.3%.
The government is doing its best to cool this trend by:
1. Requiring banks to set [...]

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Walmart has announced that any supplier failing to tag their shipments with RFID tags will be fined 2$ a pallet. Walmart has been experimenting with the use of RFID in stores and warehouses since 2004. The original announcement led to a huge amount of buzz in both the technology and supply chain industries.
However, it seems [...]

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The Canton Fair, one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive trade shows, opened its 103rd session April 14th in Guangzhou, China.
This year’s event (and almost every year) is said to be the ‘biggest and best’ with ever increasing numbers of exhibitors and expected attendees.
However, SCMP.com and our good friend, Paul Woodward, have reported that [...]

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Perhaps one of the biggest untapped resources owned by trade marketplaces is their potential to monitor and even predict trade trends. While most sites do not support online transactions, trends in inquiries through their platforms and shifts in the listed products can tell us a lot.
On a macro basis, the data could be ‘mined’ [...]

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Further to my April 3rd post, Washington state Governor Chris Gregoire signed into law the toughest toy law in the United States.
The law will dramatically cut the amount of lead, cadmium and phthalates, a commonly used plasticizing chemical, allowed in children’s toys, cosmetics, jewelry, teething items and car seats made or sold in the state.
The [...]

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Officials in the state of Washington recently passed a bill that could set the toughest restrictions on lead content in toys/children’s products for the United States.
The bill reduces lead content allowable in toys/children’s products to 90 parts per million for some products and 40 parts per million for others. This may not seem dramatic but [...]

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The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai has released a new study that shows companies that view China as both a source of lowercost labor/products as well as a growth market, and integrate these operationally, are much more profitable than companies focused on only one of these items.
The study shows (taken from press release):
• Operations [...]

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Industry Week recently reported that China’s Producer Pricing Index increased 6.6% in February (over the previous year.) This represents the highest rate of growth in three years. Full Article
Meantime inflation has hit its highest rate in over 11 years. February inflation was 8.7% across the board with food prices up 23.3% year on year.
The current [...]

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