Andrea Turrini

Unit labor cost measures the price of labor for a single unit of output, such as a single product. While a small business may calculate the unit labor cost specific to its business, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates unit labor cost on a national level. In general, an increase in unit labor cost means lower productivity.

When business owners examine profit margins, they often focus on two key expense categories: overhead and manufacturing costs. This helps them make projections based on revenues, sales volumes and different price points. Determining your overhead and manufacturing expenses will help you create more accurate budgets and profit projections.

International trade is one of the industries that connect all the countries of the world. Owning an export-import business can be very profitable, and to get into this “niche” is not so difficult as you may think. In the era of technology and the internet connection, a lot of people are exporting-importing goods through different web platforms. However, in order for your export business to succeed better to have some background about how the local and global trade works. There are other factors you need to consider while sinking into this industry:

1. Choose the product for export
2. Find your target audience
3. Make contact with reliable shippers

These are the main steps that should be considered while going into exports, but if you are interested only in selling products worldwide, then it is easier for you to find a platform that already has thousands of buyers and freight forwarders who are ready to ship your products permanently. One of such platforms is Export Portal, which facilitates transactions between buyers, sellers and manufacturers involved in the export and import.

The biggest category of imports that takes place in Chile is that of machines. Machines make up for almost one-quarter of the total imports, therefore coming up to $15.2 billion. Under this department, the goods that are most frequently imported include computers, video displays, broadcasting equipment, all coming to 1.8%, 1.2%, and 2% respectively.

Next to machines, the most imported goods are mineral products and transportation. In fact, the three major imports of Chile fall within these categories, namely that of crude petroleum ($5.43 billion, or 7.9%), refined petroleum ($5.33 billion, or 7.7%), and cars ($3.8 billion, or 5.5%).

The three biggest import partners of Chile are China, the United States of America, and Brazil. China stands at 21% with 14.8 billion dollars, the United States comes at 20% with 14 billion dollars, and lastly, Brazil falls at 7.7% with 5.31 billion dollars. Crude petroleum, which is Chile’s top import item, is supplied by Brazil (43%), Ecuador (36%), and Angola (6.4%).

Refined petroleum, which is the second largest imported good in the country at about 90%, is mainly supplied by the United States. After the US, the next two biggest suppliers of refined petroleum are Japan (4.5%) and the Netherlands (1.4%).

Cars make up for the third largest imported items in Chile, coming up to 5.5% of total imports. The top three countries to supply cars to Chile are South Korea (26%), Japan (22%), and the US (10%).

For standard (specific) purchases, a Requisition is converted into a PO. The PO is emailed to the requested department & vendor. The requester should review the PO to ensure the order is correct and must contact their Buyer immediately to resolve any questions or issues contained in the PO. The Buyer’s name is located on the bottom left corner of the PO. Open-ended purchase orders may be requested for monthly orders such as utilities, partial shipments or partial performance of services. Open-ended PO’s will be closed at the end of each Fiscal Year and need to be requested each Fiscal Year as needed. These should not be carried over from Fiscal Year to Fiscal Year. These reduce the paperwork necessary to process an individual purchase order for each separate delivery.