Heightened risks of meeting with disaster (not to mention the mundane need to trim T&E budgets) have businesspeople grounded ... and looking for ways to deal with each other at an often-considerable distance.

Email, fax, and phone work - up to a point. But what is the substitute for being there when it comes to finding new sources for global supply chains? PIERS Overseas Supplier Profiles.

PIERS West Coast Sales Representative Joe Davis reports a surge in requests for supplier data from manufacturers and importers of furniture, auto parts, and appliances that rely on Asian sources. "Our information is very timely and very detailed, down to contact names and addresses in some cases," he says. "Sales volumes, market reach, product descriptions, other companies they are supplying to - all the critical business information needed to identify and qualify potential suppliers can be drawn from the PIERS database."

To learn more about PIERS Overseas Profiles, log on to www.piers.com/piersproducts/, or call +1 800 952 3839, ext. 7016.

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That, at any rate, is the theory ... the barge company's management turned to PIERS for the facts - hard data that would test the feasibility of their business model.

"PIERS Cross-Border database documents the commerce between the U.S. and Mexico to a highly refined degree," says Rabbia. "For our barge company client, we've been able to aggregate the data in easy-to-follow spreadsheets that give them a complete grasp of an evolving situation as well as the ability to segment the data to identify the biggest players, for instance, or the strongest sectors."

Solid commercial intelligence is indispensable to building a sound business case - whether the aim is to attract capital, better deploy resources, or launch a new market initiative. To learn more about PIERS databases, log on to www.piers.com/piersproducts/, or call +1 800 952 3839, ext. 7016.

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headed back to Asia for more imports, were launching vessels that were, among other things, better able to handle bulky scrap. These post-Panamax vessels were too wide for the Panama Canal - but they didn't have to go further than the Port of Los Angeles, with its new truck-and-rail "land bridge" to the East Coast. Recycling was on the rise. Wastepaper sales to timber-poor Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Mexico were growing. And China was finally on track to industrialization.

Fast forward to 2002: Cheung's company, America Chung Nam Inc., is the leading U.S. direct exporter by volume - shipping 156,500 TEUs, twenty-foot-equivalent units, almost exclusively to China - according to The Journal of Commerce annual special report on top 100 U.S. importers and exporters (based on PIERS data). Nine other Southern California wastepaper exporters also made the top 100. They shipped an additional 143,700 TEUs to Asia in 2002, again, most of it to China, which also bought 2.3 million metric tons of scrap iron and steel, and 450,000 tons of scrap plastic from the U.S. last year.

It's easy - looking back - to see the opportunity seized by Yan Cheung. Much harder to look ahead and spot the next opportunity as it takes shape.

Where to start looking? PIERS Senior Economist Salma Ehsanuddin notes that the IMF projects 7.5% economic growth for China, the leading destination for U.S. containerized goods in 2002. She adds that PIERS research indicates that trend will hold through the next two years. Growth in GDP in the range of 4% to 6% is forecast for such Asian markets as Malaysia and India. The IMF is also bullish on Brazil, the biggest South American market for U.S. exports. Meanwhile, the drop in the value of the dollar is expected to make U.S. products more price competitive in export markets across the Pacific and the Atlantic.

And what to look for? It depends. The economics of overseas transport (like the new all-water services from Asia to the East Coast), the efficiencies of local warehousing and distribution (new cold storage facilities in Gulf ports to handle rising poultry exports to South America), sales volumes and market trends (a growing taste for dairy products among the Chinese), how and where your competition is selling ... these factors - and more - work together to flatten demand in one market while they create fresh selling opportunities elsewhere. The trick is to detect the shifting patterns in a welter of data.

PIERS can help here. PIERS has comprehensive, accurate, and timely trade information you won't find anywhere else. Just as important, PIERS Global Intelligence Solutions can help you sift and analyze the data to get a clear picture of your strategic opportunities in U.S. import-export trade.

Interested in export opportunities? Not sure where to look, or what to look for? PIERS information specialists are ready to help you frame the questions that will get the answers you need. To request a free consultation, log on to www.piers.com/register/ (enter code ENEWS-6003), or call+1 800 952 3839, ext. 7016.

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