Many companies buy the way they always have. They import because they always imported, or sign an annual contract because the last purchase head did. Nobody checks whether it still makes sense, because nobody has the prices to check it against.

We have them. Using our own price history for feedstocks, intermediates and finished products, we test how your buying over the last five years compares with the alternatives: contract against spot, and domestic against imported, priced month by month from our assessments.

The spreads
We follow the chain from feedstock to intermediate to finished product, so your cost model and your buying decisions rest on the same prices. We show the gaps between domestic and imported, and between spot and contract, grade by grade.

The early signals
Some prices tend to move before yours does. We find them, and tell you how many weeks ahead they move and how reliable they have been.

The buying rule
The result is a written rule: when to contract, when to buy spot, when to import, and which price signals to watch, with the trigger points set out. Where it helps, we add key contacts at alternative suppliers.

If you want it continued, we check the rule against actual prices every quarter, so it keeps up with the market rather than hardening into another habit.

The study takes six weeks; after that the quarterly check runs by subscription. We need two to five years of your purchase records, and the grades and plants to be covered.

•  Key contacts at alternative suppliers
•  A comparison of your buying over the last five years with the alternatives
•  Spreads by grade: domestic against imported, spot against contract
•  Early signals, with how far ahead they move and how reliable they have been
•  A written purchasing rule, with trigger levels
•  A quarterly review against actual prices, if you continue

Time
Six weeks; after that, a quarterly review by subscription.

What we need from you
Two to five years of purchase records, and the grades and plants to be covered.

Terms
Scope, time and fee are agreed in writing before work starts.

What this work is not
This is commercial and market analysis. It is not legal, tax, customs, regulatory or investment advice, and it is not a recommendation to buy, sell or acquire any business or security. Please take your own professional advice before acting on it.