With no established commercial cultivation of natural rubber in the US, demand for natural rubber is met by imports from countries such as Indonesia and Thailand. Due to the necessity of natural rubber in various products (e.g., tires), rubber product manufacturers and other industry participants are researching ways to produce natural rubber outside of tropical climates, including in the US, to try to avoid price volatility as well as the relatively high price of natural rubber in the current natural rubber supply.
October 9, 2019There are a lot of stereotypes about the differences between men’s and women’s shopping habits. But what do the data say?
October 1, 2019With environmental concerns increasing exponentially around the world, many automotive firms are directing their research and development towards electric vehicles. By electrifying medium- and heavy-duty (MD/HD) vehicles, a large portion of potential emissions typically created by traditional engines will be eliminated.
August 7, 2019Terpenes – the aromatic compounds found not only in cannabis, but a wide range of plants – are a largely untapped source of revenue for firms across a wide range of industries. As more isolate-based cannabis products enter the market, producers are seeking to keep the chemical profiles of their products true to nature by reintroducing the natural terpenes before retail.
August 7, 2019The US footwear market is heavily dependent on Chinese sourcing; as of 2018, the country accounted for 53% of all footwear imports. While this makes China the largest provider of footwear to the US, China’s market share has been falling from a 2010 peak of 76%.
August 7, 2019As climate change grips the globe and car sales in dominant markets begin to slump, numerous countries are embracing the novelty of all-electric personal vehicles – some more so than others. With purchase assistance coming in the form of government-subsidized credits, will electric vehicles overtake traditional internal-combustion-engine-driven vehicles?
August 7, 2019Bikesharing programs have grown in popularity in recent years and are sweeping cities across the nation as an environmentally friendly form of public transportation. Their presence certainly sparks interest in cycling among a demographic far-removed from bicycles in their daily lives, but will traditional bike sales benefit or be cannibalized by a new rental industry?
July 9, 2019Airbnb has quickly grown from a novel idea to rent air mattresses to strangers for a night to a major player in the lodging and travel industry, and the growth has caught the attention of numerous parties.
June 19, 2019Quick question: what products can you sell as a service? Clothing? Check. Furniture? Check. Music? Check. Cars? Yes indeed. Even Americans’ love affair with vehicle ownership is going by the wayside – or so it seems. Proclamations of the end of personal car ownership are in vogue. Car subscription services – where consumers pay a fixed monthly fee to drive a vehicle they are renting – are one of the innovative services aiming to liberate us all from the responsibility of ownership. However, the prospects of car subscriptions as a mass-market mobility service appear limited.
June 17, 2019The US civil aircraft industry is projected to continue growing through 2023, with shipments expected to reach a nominal value of more than $100 billion that year. In part, the growing volume of aircraft assembled in the US by Airbus will help boost output. That and other key trends in the US industry are outlined below.
June 10, 2019