Armada Intelligence » Other

Cement Prices Volatile and Unpredictable $

karen — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:58:00 +0000

Cement might as well be gold in places like Saudi Arabia and across many sectors in Asia. The Saudi King will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in creating new cement production facilities in what they are calling a “crisis” of supply in the country. The King has also authorized the importation of more than 10 million tons of cement to allow current construction projects to continue uninterrupted in the meantime.

In the United States, cement prices are varied across various regions. In the Midwest for instance, there are some

Concrete Canvas Field Shelter $

karen — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:23:20 +0000

Now that we are seeing some interesting investment by businesses in technology and new innovative products, we may run some of them from time to time. A source of ours made us aware of the item in the picture to the right, the Concrete Canvas Shelter. A short 2:30 video gives you an idea of what this thing can do – it is pretty amazing http://www.wimp.com/concretetents/. Unfortunately, if you have kids like I do, you may have been in a situation where the canvas plaster cast was used to set a broken bone. They wrap the area of the body needing the splint, then wet it and allow it to quickly cure. It hardens quickly, is lightweight prior to wetting, and flexible enough to bend around curves and rounded areas prior to hardening. This building construction takes that concept, using concrete instead of plaster, and applies it to a structured shell that is easily transported, fairly lightweight, and compact (a number of these would fit inside a semi-trailer.

Here is how it works: A canvas form is delivered on a pallet to a location. An air compressor/blower inflates the “tent” to its full size and once inflated, a worker takes a hose and

Weaker US dollar Impacting most Commodities $

karen — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 20:02:18 +0000

There isn’t a lot of news to tell on the long-term impact of a weaker US dollar. Economic activity is volatile enough that we don’t have a great idea of what to expect for the dollar moving forward. However, a drop in the dollar today helped to boost

Baltic Dry Index Update – Slow Improvement of Bulk Rates $

karen — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:28:59 +0000

Those of you who have been with us a while know that we track the Baltic Dry Index closely and that it has been hit hard since the spring of 2009 with an overcapacity issue. We have seen a slight improvement in the index over the past quarter albeit slow. The chart at right from Bloomberg of the BDI shows the 5-year trend in the BDI. The index hit highs of about 11,000 in the summer of 2008 when oil prices spiked to $147 a barrel and had fallen to less than 667 points by the following January. This year, in the first quarter, we have seen the index hit a new decade low of 649 points, only to climb back out of that to today’s level of 1,157 points.

Capacity has been taken out of the bulk maritime shipping industry to some degree as we covered last week. The bottom line for corporations and those that are sourcing bulk raw materials from abroad is that shipping prices are inching up. That’s the primary take-away from the rising index. We are hearing and seeing a similar trend on

Durable Goods Orders

karen — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:09:38 +0000

The Durable Goods Orders for March were a mixed bag of sorts. The highlights below from our friends at TranSystems provides an executive summary of the findings:

Total orders fell 4.2%, the largest drop in three years. But, [This content is for MEMBERS ONLY. Please click Subscribe in the upper right corner to continue.]

Whirlpool Threw Caution to the Market

karen — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:59:40 +0000

In today’s Whirlpool earnings report, the company did warn that sales for the rest of the year will likely be a bit weaker than expected. That doesn’t fit with what we saw in the forecast from the Industrial Production Index released last week – showing that Durable Consumer Goods would grow annually at 17.6%. Some of the IPI figure from the Fed would include other non-white goods that also qualify as durables. But, of additional interest is that Whirlpool said prices for most of their products would start to rise because of an increase in raw material prices. That might be the biggest take-away for us.

The Potassium Iodide Rumor Mill is at it Again

karen — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:55:53 +0000

The Defense Logistics Agency is the body responsible for making sure that the military troops working worldwide have the resources they need to survive, thrive, and fight if necessary. As part of a normal procurement procedure, the DLA posted a purchase order for Potassium Iodide. This pill is used to fight radiation exposure. The pill hits the thyroid where radiation is typically stored during a an exposure situation and helps to counteract the impact of nuclear radiation. The DLA even went so far as to mention[This content is for MEMBERS ONLY. Please click Subscribe in the upper right corner to continue.]

North Korea Says “All Clear” for Launch

karen — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:45:29 +0000

We wrote last week about the pending launch of a 3-stage ballistic missile (North Korea deems it to be a multi-stage space rocket delivering a satellite). North Korean officials have given the ‘all clear’ on the rocket and are ready to load the “satellite” aboard it. The launch is reportedly to take place between the 12th and the 16^th of April, given the time differential; it could be as early as tomorrow night US EST. Japan has now joined the Philippines and neighboring Asian countries in rerouting air traffic and locking ships into port across a number of maritime zones – fearing that the dropping stages of the rocket could impact civilian geography. The US, Japan, and South Korea are still on standby to shoot the rocket down if it veers from its intended path – a move that has caused some additional geopolitical tension in the region. The scenarios that would be most damaging is if 1) the launch were held till the 16^th because of the business and tourist interruptions it is causing and 2) if it did veer from its intended course and a Western allied country shoots it down – the North Koreans have vowed to react to that scenario as an act of war. The situation could run the gamut of possible outcomes – but will likely be just another tactic to draw attention in the long run.

Lumber Industry Windfall or Disaster?

karen — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:33:39 +0000

We see the headline stories regarding drought throughout the southwest – especially in Texas – and think about some of the most immediate impacts. But, a report issued today by the Texas Forestry Service (reported by Reuters) says that at least 500 million trees in the state may have been killed in the drought this year – and this figure does not account for the trees destroyed in wildfires. Note: wildfire damage is difficult to determine at first because many trees that appear to be destroyed will recover when ground-water moisture levels return to near normal. Analysts with the forestry service are also not certain how extensive the[This content is for MEMBERS ONLY. Please click Subscribe in the upper right corner to continue.]

Bird Flu Outbreaks Spreading Once Again

karen — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:33:17 +0000

We haven’t touched on H5N1 in quite a while because frankly, health authorities have figured out how to rapidly cull bird populations to help control the spread of the virus. However, new outbreaks have popped up inChina,India, and parts of Southeast Asia recently – as well as theMiddle East. It may be that the virus is hitting so sporadically that it is difficult for authorities to [This content is for MEMBERS ONLY. Please click Subscribe in the upper right corner to continue.]