ReleaseWire

In 2012-2013 manufacturers of sauces continued the diversification of packaging formats, mainly through the launch of plastic pouches, PET jars and bottles and squeezable plastic tubes in new sizes. The fall of glass bottles in packaging volume share was insignificant. Various manufacturers continued the production of glass pack types, simply adding other pack types to their portfolios. Although more expensive than other types, glass packaging is always demanded by consumers, who believe it improves the aesthetic of the product. Glass bottles and jars are regarded as clean and glass as a material does not negatively impact the contents. As a result, glass jars holds a strong position in sauces packaging, though plastic pouches holds the biggest unit volume share.

The growing availability of smartphones at a wider range of price points in Saudi Arabia, as well as the progressive reduction in the overall unit prices of these phones, fuelled demand for these phones from a wider section of the consumer base in the country, thus supporting the strong growth rate recorded by smartphones in 2014. Furthermore, internet surfing and social media are quickly becoming favoured pastimes amongst Saudis, with the contagion effect causing more and more people to take up these pastimes, and thus invest in a smartphone as a means of gaining access. Accordingly, smartphones increased by 24% in retail volume terms in 2014.

In 2014 direct selling grew by 10% in current value terms. The performance of this category is deeply influenced by sales of beauty and personal care direct sellers, which offer attractive discounts and promotional prices and frequently focus on product innovation.

Even though value sales of watches in Germany are expected to have registered further declines volume and value sales over the course of 2014, overall volume sales of watches remain at a fairly high level in the country. Opposing trends such as the use of smartphones and feature phones to show tell the time instead of watches in addition to the decline being recorded in the general consumer base for watches, which is the result of the progressive ageing of the German population and the overall decline being recorded in the size of the German population, continue to have a relatively limited impact on overall volume sales of watches, which remain at relatively high levels, ensuring that per capita volume sales of watches in Germany remain consistently high.

In 2013, there was an explosion of new product development within RYO tobacco in Serbia. Many manufacturers and distributors recognise the importance of this product area, due to consumers switching from cigarettes to RYO tobacco in order to save money. Cigarette prices soared during the review period due to higher tax, with more consumers thus becoming attracted to RYO tobacco. Major new product development in 2013 came from major players, with sales in 2013 indeed led by the new launches of Filter 57 and Bond Street from Imperial Tobacco and Philip Morris respectively.

After back-to-back years of contraction in both production and consumption in the metals sector in the Ukraine between 2012 and 2013, the sector turned a corner last year. Despite being rocked by the ongoing conflict with Russia and the subsequent political and economic uncertainty BMI estimates that the sector bounced back to post a 3.5% y-o-y gain in output and a 3.1% y-o-y increase in use. Going forward,, Ukraine's metals sector will see modest growth over our forecast period to the end of 2018, with a handful of new projects to increase production growth. Production will not return to pre-crisis highs, however, due to global overcapacity and steel prices not making substantive gains over 2013 - they have, however, since improved. There are no major expansions on the cards, and no major players in either the aluminium or steel industries have announced substantial investment plans.

The Ecuadorian Government made several changes in terms of laws and regulations at the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014. The COMEX (External Commerce Committee, in Spanish), created the 116 Resolution, which regulates the imports of over 293 tariff subheadings through local quality controls and certificates from the Norms Institute (INEN in Spanish). Also, in November 2013 the General Regulation of the Organic Communication Law was launched and determined different parameters for companies...

This report elaborates Austria's power market structure and provides historical and forecast numbers for generation, capacity and consumption up to 2030. Detailed analysis of the Austrian power market's regulatory structure, import and export trends, competitive landscape and power projects at various stages of the supply chain is provided. The report also gives a snapshot of the power sector in Austria on broad parameters of macroeconomics, supply security, generation infrastructure, transmission infrastructure, degree of competition, regulatory scenario and future potential.

Vietnam's insurance sector is expansive and dynamic, and slowly continues to develop into a more sophisticated market. Slow economic growth and a harsh competitive environment have plagued the sector in the last few years; however, new innovation generated by multinational companies has had a positive effect on demand for insurance. In addition, considering Vietnam's changing demographic structure, we certainly have a favourable outlook for premium growth in the years to come.

This report presents worldwide IPTV subscriber market forecast, as well as recent quarter review of regional markets and market share by vendor. This report finds that the global IPTV subscriber base totaled around 102.7 million in the second quarter of 2014, up 27% year-on-year. Asia Pacific has become the largest IPTV subscriber market in the world, boasting 50.49 million subscribers, which are equivalent to 49.2% of the global IPTV population. In Latin America and Southeast Asia, although IPTV services are only in the introduction stage, the fast deployment of domestic fiber networks in both regions has continued to see continued subscriber growth. The global IPTV subscriber market have seen over 100 million subscribers by the end of first half of 2014 and is estimated to have climbed to approximately 113 million by the end of 2014.

Problems to import finished products and inputs caused severe scarcity in 2014. These product shortages limited sales and affected value growth in direct selling. Most of the players had to reduce their offer because they could not stock all of the items. Indeed, catalogues reduced the number of pages and showed a lower number of products and special promotions.

Taewoong Medical Co.,Ltd. (Taewoong Medical) is a medical device company. The company develops and manufactures stents and other medical devices. Its products include gastrointestinal stent, taewoong niti-S tracheobronchial stent and urology stent. Taewoong Medical offers gastrointestinal stents such as taewoong niti-S esophageal stents, taewoong niti-S biliary stents, taewoong niti-S pyloric and duodenal stents, and taewoong niti-S enteral colonic stents. The company partners with GI Supply, Instrumed Surgical and HOLT Medical. It markets its products through a network of distributors in domestic and international healthcare markets. Taewoong Medical is headquartered in Gimpo, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.

Imaging devices? retail volume sales are expected to decline by 2% in 2014, largely affected by low digital camcorder category response. A secondary factor was the fact that the economic environment was not as prosperous in either the regional or international markets. Despite active product launches and marketing initiatives by manufacturers and retailers, a relatively flat performance was recorded with slow purchasing rates.

Rotterdam relies heavily on the activities of its seaport, Europe's key transportation hub. Unfortunately, even the record performance of Rotterdam port did not provide enough jobs, as over 2007-2012 the city faced decreasing household income and growing unemployment. However, Rotterdam developed an agenda to revive its economic growth, with plans to further expand its seaport, reduce its carbon emissions, and boost the city's attractiveness by renovating neglected neighbourhoods.

While Austrians are generally fond of travelling abroad for holidays, towards the end of the review period increasing numbers of Austrian people displayed a strong preference for travelling within their own country. While travel to destinations abroad is generally planned months in advance and often includes trips in excess of two weeks in duration, domestic destinations are more popular for shorter leisure holidays of up to seven days. Many Austrians have discovered that domestic travel is a more favourable option for short trips as there is no need to prepare for the trip several months in advance as it is possible to decide upon a 3-day or 4-day domestic trip reasonably spontaneously.

The high prices to buy real estate in Colombia, mainly houses and apartments, is affecting the purchasing decisions of Colombians who instead are opting to redesign their homes, and even banks are granting credits for renovations. This situation benefited home and garden specialist retailers which continued with a positive performance, and in 2014, current value sales grew by 8%, marginally higher than the review period CAGR of 7%. The competition intensified with players constantly renewing...

Homeshopping continued to underperform compared with internet retailing and direct selling in Argentina in 2014. For consumers internet retailing is more practical than homeshopping, due to the possibility of comparing the prices and models of many products. In the case of direct selling, sellers can explain the pros and cons of the products.

GlobalData has released its new PharmaPoint Drug Evaluation report, "MGN1703 (Colorectal Cancer) - Forecast and Market Analysis to 2023". Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of mortality among cancer patients in the world and is the third most diagnosed cancer globally, and thus represents a huge burden on healthcare systems. This report focuses on the current treatment landscape, unmet needs, current pipeline, and commercial opportunities in the colorectal cancer market, with coverage of multiple settings of the disease including neoadjuvant/adjuvant, first-, second-, third-line KRAS wild-type and mutation-positive, and fourth-line metastatic. In terms of targeted treatments, the metastatic CRC treatment landscape is mature, including the branded treatments Avastin (bevacizumab), Erbitux (cetuximab), and Vectibix (panitumumab), treatments that have extended the survival of metastatic patients compared to chemotherapy-only regimens. However, high unmet needs remain for the extension of survival of metastatic patients, and particularly those with KRAS mutation-positive disease, for whom the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors Erbitux and Vectibix are not recommended.

The Future of the Hot Drinks Market in South Africa to 2018 is the result of Canadean's extensive market research. The report presents detailed analysis on the Hot Drinks consumption trends in South Africa, historic and forecast Hot Drinks consumption volumes and values at market and category level, brand share and distribution channel data. This report brings together Canadean Intelligence's research, modeling and analysis expertise in order to develop uniquely detailed market data. This allows domestic and foreign companies to identify the market dynamics to account for Hot Drinks sales overall and to know which categories and segments are showing growth in the coming years.

This report is the result of Timetric's extensive market research covering the industrial construction industry in Germany. It contains detailed historic and forecast market value data for the industrial construction industry, including a breakdown of the data by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition). 'Industrial Construction in Germany to 2018: Market Forecast' provides a top-level overview and detailed insight into the operating environment of the industrial construction industry in Germany. It is an essential tool for companies active across the German construction value chain and for new players considering to enter the market.

Cigarettes faced the gloomiest year compared to the review period, with cigarettes volume sales dropping by 22% in 2013. Due to the radical change in retail triggered by the comprehensive legislations compounded with the ever-increasing taxes on cigarettes, the category was only able to reach an overall size of 9.7 billion sticks in 2013, a considerable drop from the 12.4 billion sticks sold in 2012.

Latvia's freight industry is inconveniently poised to feel the effects of the deterioration in trade relations between the EU and the Russian Federation. While on aggregate sanctions put in place by the West have not significantly affected the EU's growth outlook, they have hit Latvia hard. Russia is one of Latvia's largest trading partners, accounting for 10% of total exports, and both the visible goods and services trade is suffering as a direct result.

Egypt is re-establishing its position as the standout growth market for consumer companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and we believe this is a good time for food and drink companies to actively pursue expansion in Egypt, be it organically or via acquisitions. The pace of real GDP growth will pick up markedly over the coming years, helped by greater political stability and low base effects.

Cigars remained a tiny niche at the end of the review period in Serbia, partly due to a lack of tradition for these products. These products have a very limited consumer base and there is little interest in cigar smoking among most consumers. Interest in cigars is also limited by the high price of these products and low average income levels in Serbia. However, widening distribution supported sales growth towards the end of the review period, with the consumer base for cigars slowly expanding.

Over the review period, the competition within health and beauty retailers, in particular in chemists and parapharmacies intensified, and also faced additional pressures like the increasing presence of generic medicines, and the changes to the mandatory health plan that obliges to improve access to more medicines, as well as legislation aimed to regulate selling prices, have contributed to narrowing margins of chemists, more than of parapharmacies, as the former have an offer more concentrated on medicines. However, most players have adopted a strategy of widening the offer with more beauty and personal care products, stationery, and other services, and to create stronger networks by making alliances between small players that allow them to obtain more advantageous prices, as they improve their negotiating power.