With a pending 1 October strike deadline on the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts by the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA), the U.S. Department of Labor has reached out to the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), a group that represents employers of the East and Gulf Coasts longshore industry. USMX membership consists of container carriers, including the largest carriers and carrier alliances worldwide, all major marine terminal operators, and port associations representing each port on the East and Gulf Coasts. This indicates that the federal government may intervene to avert a strike and gain an agreement among the parties, as happened with West Coast ports last year. The DOL helped negotiate a new contract between West...
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.