Welcome to PIERS
Intelligence@Work,
designed to help
businesses uncover opportunity in
today's global
marketplace.
Volume 6, Issue 2  
Opportunity Alert   High-Growth Ag Exports
Agricultural exports are hitting new highs for the fifth year in a row. Containerization has played a part in getting more U.S. soybeans to overseas markets.
Strategic Hit   More of a Fighting Chance
With the information from PIERS Trade Profiles®, Argents Express Group salespeople are better prepared to offer logistics and supply chain solutions tailored to customers' needs.
Hot Topic  Second Thoughts about Biofuels

Demand for biofuel feedstocks - including corn for ethanol - got a big boost from government mandates that are now being re-examined for unintended consequences.
Snap Shot  Ag Chart-Toppers
U.S. exports continue to grow, with grains & flour, and soybeans & soybean products setting the pace.

More Resources

Ships and Boxes
  • A large fully-laden container ship can weigh the equivalent of 300 jumbo jets.
  • A container of refrigerators can be moved from a factory in Malaysia to a port and then be shipped the journey of roughly 9,000 miles/14,484 kilometers to Los Angeles in just 16 days.
  • On average a container ship emits over three times less than a heavy truck and around 40 times less CO2 than a large freight aircraft.

  • The world's biggest container ships are about 1,300 feet long (nearly 400 meters) - with a maximum width of 180 feet (55 meters). There are 21 stories between the bridge and the engine room. They can be operated by teams of just 13 people and a sophisticated computer system and carry 11,000 20-foot containers.

You'll find these and other fast facts about container trade at the new website launched by the Container Shipping Information Service (CSIS), a new industry organization with a mission to help people understand how ships and boxes help them enjoy the lives they lead in today's world. The site features a jargon buster, current industry news, and key issues briefings.

Energy from Waste
It will take new technology, but if cellulosic ethanol, made from waste biomass, becomes commercially viable, U.S. crude oil imports could be 4.1% lower than projected in 2020. So reports the International Trade Administration in Energy in 2020: Assessing the Economic Effects of Commercialization of Cellulosic Ethanol.

Turning up the pressure
As this issue of Intelligence@Work was readied for release, the USDA reported that U.S. farmers will plant 8% fewer acres of corn this year... while they plant 18% more acres in soybeans and 6% more in wheat, two higher-priced crops. Meanwhile, riots over food prices in some of the world's poorest nations prompted criticism of U.S. biofuel policies by International Monetary Fund policy makers, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Expect even more pressure to revisit - and perhaps reverse - food-to-fuel mandates, as reported in this issue's Hot Topic.

Understanding NAFTA
 A new webinar from the U.S. Commercial Service explains how to take advantage of the North American Free Trade Agreement documentation rules and procedures to start or expand sales to Mexico and Canada.

Upcoming Events:
 Visit PIERS, Booth # 30718, at the National Hardware Show, May 6 - 8, 2008, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada. For more information visit www.national
hardwareshow.com.

Visit PIERS at the 86th Annual Meeting of the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade (BAFT), May 4 - 7, 2008 at the The Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach. To obtain more information about BAFT, visit www.baft.org.

About PIERS

PIERS - the Port Import Export Reporting Service - was launched by The Journal of Commerce over 30 years ago as its first venture in electronic information. PIERS is the primary source of U.S. waterborne import-export trade data and a leading provider of global intelligence solutions. Businesses that operate on a global basis rely on PIERS for the information they need to identify new markets, benchmark performance and calculate market share.

To learn more about PIERS, visit http://www.piers.com/.

Contact PIERS
Lisa Wallerstein,
Vice President of Marketing
tel: +1 973 848 7026
email: info@piers.com
 

Opportunity Alert   High-Growth Ag Exports
 

The latest U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecast for fiscal 2008 agricultural exports is now a record-breaking $101 billion, up $10 billion from November's forecast and $19 billion above 2007. While volumes are up (total bulk commodity exports rose 5 million tons), higher prices account for about half of the upward adjustment.

This is the fifth year in a row that U.S. agricultural exports have hit new highs. The USDA believes agricultural commodities prices will remain high for the next few years, driven by demand from the biofuels industry and from emerging markets. (The actual impact of biofuels on ag supplies and prices is the subject of debate...and this newsletter's Hot Topic.)

Certainly, the price of top U.S. export commodities soybeans and wheat are at all-time highs.

Soybeans, in particular, are a container trade success story (see SnapShot). Since 2005, the U.S. Soybean Export Council has encouraged soybean growers and soy product suppliers to use containerized shipping to reach overseas markets. The advantages are several, according to a United Soybean Board study (that cites PIERS trade statistics). The imbalance in container traffic between the U.S. and Asia means plenty of empty containers - and thus lower-cost capacity - on transpacific routes.

Containers are ideal for shipping smaller quantities to smaller customers - and so make export feasible for smaller suppliers who cannot meet bulk vessel or hopper-car shipment size requirements. Turnaround on container delivery is three to four weeks compared to three to four months for bulk vessels.

To learn more about containerized shipping opportunities, see this U.S. Soybean Export Council guide. To learn more about how PIERS can help you track buyers and sellers in the global market for agricultural commodities, log on to www.piers.com/piersproducts/, or call +1 800 952 3839, ext. 7128.

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Strategic Hit   More of a Fighting Chance
 

"PIERS Trade Profiles provides us with the information we need to get in and start speaking to prospects and customers about solutions from a solid knowledge of their current trade lanes, the commodities they're bringing in, the origins and destinations of the products they're shipping," says Trent Gustafson, Director of Sales and Marketing for Argents Express Group.

International freight forwarders and customs house brokers, Argents Express Group provides a full suite of third party logistics and supply chain services including warehousing, forwarding, brokering, customs and consultation services.

Long-time subscribers to the PIERS Directories of U.S. Importers and U.S. Exporters, Argents has been using the Web-based Trade Profiles for a little over a year, "primarily as a supplement to our own lead-generation and sales processes," explains Gustafson. "I like to say that it gives us more of a 'fighting chance:' It allows us to be far more prepared to offer solutions tailored to customers' needs."

Trade Profiles has turned up fresh prospects as well, he adds. "If a sales rep is going to be in a certain area, I'll run a search for companies in the area that would best benefit from what we have to offer - a clear improvement over randomly pulling up companies based on location alone."

According to Gustafson, Argents also uses the PIERS data to track its market share.

"And we've begun using Trade Profiles in the consulting we do. For example, I recently worked with a client company that was importing a product solely from China. They were getting some price increases, and they asked me to look into alternate sources. Using PIERS, I found a concentration of alternative manufacturers - in Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia - and, based on our recommendations, the client has moved about half of their sourcing to Southeast Asia."

Argents has just added export data to its mix of PIERS trade intelligence. "With U.S. exports booming right now - we're making bookings a month out - I'm sure the PIERS export data will be a good source on this high-growth area for our business."

Just in!
Trade Profiles Connect now offers a click-to-email capability: Simply point and click on a contact name within a company profile to create and send a message directly to that contact's email address (where available). To learn more, log on to www.piers.com/piersproducts/tradeprofiles.asp, or call
              +1 800 952 3839, ext. 7128.

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Hot Topic   Second Thoughts about Biofuels

 

Two reports in February's Science magazine raised questions as to whether biofuels will raise, rather than reduce, greenhouse gases. The researchers calculate that farmers will respond to the higher prices green feedstocks command in biofueled markets by plowing under forests and grasslands to reap more cash crops and, incidentally, more gases. One report found that corn-based ethanol, far from saving 20%, would nearly double greenhouse emissions over 30 years and increase greenhouse gases for 167 years. (Abstracts of the reports are here and here.)

The researchers were arguing for use of waste biomass for fuel [see More Resources] ... but their findings were seized on by critics who believe the biofuels cure is worse than the ill it's meant to correct. In this view, environmental damage is one more hidden cost of ethanol production, which diverts corn from the mouths of the world's hungry to fuel pumps.

Not so fast, say the alternate fuels' proponents: Studies that find biofuels have a bigger carbon footprint than fossil fuels are based on conjecture and highly selective accounting. Researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory and the Department of Energy offer a critique of the assumptions underlying the Science studies.

The National Corn Growers Association tackles the "food versus fuel" argument in a white paper that asserts that ever-increasing yield per acre will be more than sufficient to meet food and fuel needs. Nor is increased demand for biofuel driving up the price of corn and other grains, says the National Corn Growers Association. The largest contributor to higher food prices is the higher cost of fossil-fueled energy. (And biofuels are credited with reducing current oil prices by as much as 15%.)

Globalization is at work too. A New York Times article examines growing demand for American-style diets - and the grains that make it possible - around the world. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization explains why high prices and volatility look likely to become the norm in agricultural commodities across the board. Because global markets are more intertwined than ever, linkages and spill-over effects from one market to another have increased. It was wheat, not corn, that saw the sharpest price rise (as high as 80%) last Fall - and the direct cause was a drought in Australia, a major exporter. Beyond traditional supply and demand, global market variables such as petroleum prices, freight rates, and exchange rates help set the cost of food.

But, while it may be only one of many factors driving demand, biofuels got a big boost from government mandates. Those mandates will now be re-examined for unintended consequences. A paper from the OECD has already reached a conclusion: governments should stop creating mandates and phase out those in place.

To learn how PIERS can help you track global trade in agricultural commodities, log on to www.piers.com/piersproducts/, or call +1 800 952 3839, ext. 7128.

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Snap Shot  Chart-Topping Ag Exports
 

One piece of good news for the U.S. economy: export trade continues its upward trajectory. In container trade, grains & flour products and soybeans & products are the second and third biggest contributors to U.S. export volume growth (after top-ranked paper, paperboard & waste)..and the first and second fastest growing export commodities, with grains & flour exports estimated by PIERS Trade Horizons Online to have grown 164.2% in 2007.

 
 

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