a leading international payment processor, and International Checkout, a leading third-party payment and fulfillment service for US retailers selling globally online, announced today an expansion of their multi-currency pricing agreement. Planet Payment’s Multi-Currency Pricing via its iPAY Global Gateway helps online merchants more effectively target international markets with pricing and payment transparency in any supported currency, through the ease of a single US-based merchant account.
International Checkout will now offer an additional twenty cardholder acceptance currencies - including the Turkish Lira, the Egyptian Pound, the Iceland Krona and the Belize Dollar, thereby bringing its total currency offering to over 65 currencies. To attract more merchants and help them sell more goods around the world, International Checkout has also agreed to take advantage of Planet Payment’s multi-currency processing support of JCB cards, enabling Japanese holders of JCB cards to pay in their own currency. The company will also extend Planet Payment’s multi-currency payment processing services to its newly launched Enterprise Solution, which enables a US online retailer to login to International Checkout’s database and print shipping labels and customs documentation.
Since launching these multi-currency processing services in 2009, International Checkout has seen a substantial increase in its sales to buyers from outside the United States using credit and debit cards. By partnering with Planet Payment, International Checkout has enhanced the international customer experience for its 500-plus merchant set.
“Planet Payment’s goal has always been to help merchants target new markets, and sell more goods and services,” said Drew Soinski, Managing Director of the Americas “Our partnership with International Checkout demonstrates how our multi-currency payment processing solutions can help merchants increase sales, by helping them tap into new markets and convert more international browsers to customers.”
“We are very excited to offer additional services that make selling and shipping internationally easier for our customers,” says International Checkout CEO and President, Saskia Chiesa. “Our goal is to make selling globally as seamless for our merchants as possible. Through valued partnerships with companies like Planet Payment and with the launch of our new Enterprise Solution, we continue to deliver solutions that make accessing the international e-Commerce marketplace as easy as possible.”
2011年6月14日 星期二
2011年5月29日 星期日
Crop prices need to fall along with the rain
With the current outlook for crop yields, who can blame them? Droughts across most of Europe have caused deep concern in the agricultural industry this spring.
Over the past three months, rainfall has been 50pc lower than usual, so even if June has a downpour, yields will still be lower.
And as the healthy fields begin to wilt, grain prices have soared in anticipation of poor harvests – by more than 70pc over 12 months in the case of wheat.
Partly due to Russia's drought and low harvests last year, the cost of a Hovis soft white loaf is already up 11.7pc in the past year, from £1.03 to £1.15.
The lack of rainfall is now being particularly keenly felt in the main producing areas of Germany, France, Britain and Poland, which account for more than two-thirds of European harvests.
Most worries are about the staple crop of wheat, with the International Grains Council cutting its forecast for world production in 2011 to 2012 by 5m tonnes to approximately 667m tonnes.
Arvalis, the grain institute, is forecasting damage of 5pc to 10pc of France's soft wheat crop, the region's biggest. It could be even worse in the UK, with estimates of a 10p to 15pc reduction.
A vast array of other produce has also been hit. One of the worst affected grains is malting barley in the UK, which has reached record price highs this week. Gleadell, a grain merchant, said on Friday that brewers are expecting serious impact on supply into 2012.
There is further concern about oilseed yields. As Jonathan Lane, trading manager at Gleadell, said in a weekly market report: "The weather continues to diminish world rapeseed prospects and the market is concerned as to where it will source imports. Traders are on edge about threats to output after weather disasters."
Dry conditions are jeopardising beet crops as the plants need moisture to access key minerals for growth. Meanwhile, livestock farmers are facing higher feed prices and grain shortages. Although Europe is the most seriously affected area, other parts of the world are also suffering, with Chinese authorities firing more than 4,000 cloud seeding rockets into the sky to try to bring rain to its river regions.
Wheat and corn are also drying out in the southern US. It was therefore a relief when Russia decided on Saturday to lift its ban on wheat exports, which should somewhat ease pressure on global supply.
"We are lifting the grain export ban on July 1," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced.
Ukraine, known as the bread basket of Europe, already lifted its export quota earlier in the week, causing a sigh of relief in the markets.
"Additional grain supply from Russia and the Ukraine should ease supply fears in the global market somewhat, as substantial crop losses are likely in other main export regions such as the US and the EU because of the drought," said analysts from Commerzbank, the German investment bank.
"This is likely to take the upward pressure off wheat prices."
Some more pressure may be eased if high prices make it uneconomic for biofuel producers to use wheat.
The UK's Ensus site near Teesside was last week mothballed for at least four months because of high grain prices.
Speculative investment in wheat has also dropped this week, indicating funds are not confident that prices will increase further from their current high levels.
A report from Rabobank notes that: "Managed money more than halved their net long position in wheat this week from 24,136 contracts to 11,206 contracts, the lowest level since November 2010."
All this may not be enough to puncture the high prices, maybe just to arrest their climb. Analysts say the best hope of lower prices would be a bout of rain in June – but dampening the price of grain has no easy solution.
And the cotton is high
The cotton price moved higher last week as exceptional drought conditions continued in Texas, the biggest cotton producing US state.
May is typically the wettest month in the Lone Star State, but parts of Texas haven't seen any significant rainfall since August last year, damaging crops.
Yet again the unusual weather has been blamed on the unusual patterns of La Nina, a cooling of the Pacific waters near the equator.
China braced for fall in metal output
Summer energy shortages in China will hit the country's production of metals and bolster global prices, Commerzbank said.
"It is often forgotten that China is not only the world's largest metal consumer but also its largest producer," analysts at the German bank state said. "Consequently, electricity rationing in the country in the next few months should also hit the metals industry hard and support prices."
Commerzbank believes falls in China's metal output on the back of likely electricity shortages are not yet sufficiently priced into metal prices.
"While the China Electricity Council had initially expected an electricity deficit of 30 gigawatts, the electricity provider State Grid now expects a shortage of up to 40 gigawatts, if coal shipments do not pick up soon," it said.
Rising thermal coal prices coupled with government caps on the price of energy is making electricity generation unprofitable in many parts of China.
Coal accounts for more than 70pc of the fuel requirements of power plants in the Asian nation, Commerzbank notes.
Some coal-fired power stations in provinces such as Gansu, Hubei, Hunan, Shanxi and Shaanxi have closed, resulting in the worst electricity deficit since 2004, the official Xinhua News Agency said last week.
Over the past three months, rainfall has been 50pc lower than usual, so even if June has a downpour, yields will still be lower.
And as the healthy fields begin to wilt, grain prices have soared in anticipation of poor harvests – by more than 70pc over 12 months in the case of wheat.
Partly due to Russia's drought and low harvests last year, the cost of a Hovis soft white loaf is already up 11.7pc in the past year, from £1.03 to £1.15.
The lack of rainfall is now being particularly keenly felt in the main producing areas of Germany, France, Britain and Poland, which account for more than two-thirds of European harvests.
Most worries are about the staple crop of wheat, with the International Grains Council cutting its forecast for world production in 2011 to 2012 by 5m tonnes to approximately 667m tonnes.
Arvalis, the grain institute, is forecasting damage of 5pc to 10pc of France's soft wheat crop, the region's biggest. It could be even worse in the UK, with estimates of a 10p to 15pc reduction.
A vast array of other produce has also been hit. One of the worst affected grains is malting barley in the UK, which has reached record price highs this week. Gleadell, a grain merchant, said on Friday that brewers are expecting serious impact on supply into 2012.
There is further concern about oilseed yields. As Jonathan Lane, trading manager at Gleadell, said in a weekly market report: "The weather continues to diminish world rapeseed prospects and the market is concerned as to where it will source imports. Traders are on edge about threats to output after weather disasters."
Dry conditions are jeopardising beet crops as the plants need moisture to access key minerals for growth. Meanwhile, livestock farmers are facing higher feed prices and grain shortages. Although Europe is the most seriously affected area, other parts of the world are also suffering, with Chinese authorities firing more than 4,000 cloud seeding rockets into the sky to try to bring rain to its river regions.
Wheat and corn are also drying out in the southern US. It was therefore a relief when Russia decided on Saturday to lift its ban on wheat exports, which should somewhat ease pressure on global supply.
"We are lifting the grain export ban on July 1," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced.
Ukraine, known as the bread basket of Europe, already lifted its export quota earlier in the week, causing a sigh of relief in the markets.
"Additional grain supply from Russia and the Ukraine should ease supply fears in the global market somewhat, as substantial crop losses are likely in other main export regions such as the US and the EU because of the drought," said analysts from Commerzbank, the German investment bank.
"This is likely to take the upward pressure off wheat prices."
Some more pressure may be eased if high prices make it uneconomic for biofuel producers to use wheat.
The UK's Ensus site near Teesside was last week mothballed for at least four months because of high grain prices.
Speculative investment in wheat has also dropped this week, indicating funds are not confident that prices will increase further from their current high levels.
A report from Rabobank notes that: "Managed money more than halved their net long position in wheat this week from 24,136 contracts to 11,206 contracts, the lowest level since November 2010."
All this may not be enough to puncture the high prices, maybe just to arrest their climb. Analysts say the best hope of lower prices would be a bout of rain in June – but dampening the price of grain has no easy solution.
And the cotton is high
The cotton price moved higher last week as exceptional drought conditions continued in Texas, the biggest cotton producing US state.
May is typically the wettest month in the Lone Star State, but parts of Texas haven't seen any significant rainfall since August last year, damaging crops.
Yet again the unusual weather has been blamed on the unusual patterns of La Nina, a cooling of the Pacific waters near the equator.
China braced for fall in metal output
Summer energy shortages in China will hit the country's production of metals and bolster global prices, Commerzbank said.
"It is often forgotten that China is not only the world's largest metal consumer but also its largest producer," analysts at the German bank state said. "Consequently, electricity rationing in the country in the next few months should also hit the metals industry hard and support prices."
Commerzbank believes falls in China's metal output on the back of likely electricity shortages are not yet sufficiently priced into metal prices.
"While the China Electricity Council had initially expected an electricity deficit of 30 gigawatts, the electricity provider State Grid now expects a shortage of up to 40 gigawatts, if coal shipments do not pick up soon," it said.
Rising thermal coal prices coupled with government caps on the price of energy is making electricity generation unprofitable in many parts of China.
Coal accounts for more than 70pc of the fuel requirements of power plants in the Asian nation, Commerzbank notes.
Some coal-fired power stations in provinces such as Gansu, Hubei, Hunan, Shanxi and Shaanxi have closed, resulting in the worst electricity deficit since 2004, the official Xinhua News Agency said last week.
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