Investors may have questioned whether the frantic pace of the Beijing Olympics could proceed a slowdown in China’s economy, but at least one leading figure believes that such claims are wide of the mark.

In fact, speaking in today’s Financial Times, Jing Ulrich, China Equities at JP Morgan, reckons that the amount of money ploughed into China’s infrastructure to ensure that the Greatest Show on Earth runs smoothly, could even act as a catalyst for greater growth in the country.

“China’s economy is indeed slowing, but the timing is largely coincidental,” Ulrich says. “Buoyant domestic demand and an infrastructure boom suggest that the slowdown will be less severe than Olympics pessimists predict.”

China has already proved many doubters wrong by hosting one of the smoothest run and entertaining Olympics in modern times, now it looks as though the surprises might just keep coming.

The Times here in London greeted its readers (the majority of whom would have picked up the newspaper to read on their daily commute) with the rather cheerful news that 300,000 jobs were under threat as the economic slowdown in the US, and across Europe takes hold.

Hardly what you’re looking for on a Monday morning in one of the coldest August’s we here at Procurement Leaders can remember, but a rather sombre reflection of the difficult times procurement finds itself operating in.

The BCC also became the first major body to stick its neck out and predict that Britain would fall into a recession – again, hardly what you want to hear after a relaxing weekend.

The question here, of course, is whether those job cuts the harbingers of doom at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) predict, will effect procurement.

Our sense is that procurement, possibly more than any other business area, should get off fairly lightly as companies place greater emphasis on cost cutting and supply chain efficiencies.

Whether we’re right, and whether this trend is reflected across the rest of Europe, only time will tell.

The latest drop in oil prices – which could soon be negated by the ongoing violence in the Caucasus – may have handed those in procurement some much-needed respite but, here in the UK, producer prices are still causing a considerable headache.

According to figures published today, manufacturing input costs fell in July, helped in no small part  by oil's slide, but producer prices rose 0.4 per cent in the last month.

This rise, which means that factory gate prices are now over 30 per cent higher than they were a year ago, comes as figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the price of goods rose a further  0.8 percent to 10.8 per cent in the year to July. 

So, while oil prices fall, cost increases look set to continue as a top concern – and for procurement operations that stopped hoping for the best and began preparing for the worst a long time ago, the latest news will come as no surprise. 

When the cost of oil was circling around the $150 a barrel mark, it’s little surprise that CPO’s who hadn’t adopted a hedging strategy were sweating nervously.

Now, after oil fell below the $120 a barrel mark in Tuesday trading, the same procurement organisations will have a warm glow of satisfaction – the soaking palms and sleepless nights will have been transferred to those that jumped in to secure long-term pricing deals when the market was at its peak.

At the present time, most companies – particularly those in the aviation industry – are unlikely to be adversely effected if prices stay at their current level. Volatility, however, is still very much a watchword in the oil markets, and if the cost of crude continues to fall then there could be more casualties on oil’s battlefield as the year draws to a close.

Speaking of airlines in the US aviation industry, Brian Nelson, equity analyst at Morningstar told Reuters earlier this week that: “Given some of the hedging mechanisms they are using, they are going to be subject to significant losses on those portfolios. We've never seen such volatility on oil prices.

"They're going to see significant losses if crude oil continues to fall."

It’s a scenario that looked unlikely just a matter of weeks ago, but merely serves to illustrate procurement’s increasingly precarious position.

Is consolidation the best way for companies to survive the global economic slowdown? For the aviation industry the answer, most definitely, appears to be a resounding yes.

Just this week the UK’s flagship airline, British Airways, announced that it was in talks over a proposed merger with Spanish carrier Iberia.

Using Air France’s 2004 tie-in with Dutch airline KLM as its model, BA, and its Spanish counterpart, will doubtless be hoping that the “together we’re stronger” approach will bring rewards.

After chatting to a leading aviation analyst earlier this week, however, Procurement Leaders has some words of warning.

According to Peter Morris, analyst at aviation consultancy Ascend, consolidation is no panacea to the immense problems facing some of the world’s largest carriers.

“It depends if you’re joining up dinosaurs or race horses,” he said. “Join two dinosaurs together and all you end up with is a larger lumbering organisation. Get two race horses and you could easily produce a thoroughbred.”

So there you go – BA be warned, hurdles undoubtedly await.

In a move that will surely bring a smile to the face of Al Gore, the U.S. Army has announced that it’s launching a fresh push in the Middle East, although to the relief of most, the latest move isn’t aiming to capture any land – this time it’s designed to lower the force’s carbon “bootprint”.

Tad Davis, deputy assistant secretary for environment, safety and occupational health in the U.S., said that the eventual goal is to lower Army emissions by 30% by 2015.

"What I'm interested in doing is finding out what the greenhouse gas emissions, this carbon bootprint, are for the Army in two to three years at the latest," Davis told Reuters. "We want to emit less and do that, hand in hand with reducing energy consumption from fossil fuels."

Of course, lowering emissions does have huge advantages for a force that is currently stretched to almost unprecedented levels.

The Army’s long supply chain during the first five years of the Iraq conflict put the US Army’s many convoys – most carrying large quantities of fuel – in extreme peril. Davis now argues that cutting the amount of fuel required on the front line, a massive challenge for forces relying heavily on fleets of armoured vehicles, can cut both emissions and, more crucially, casualties.

"There's emerging technology that is providing lighter-weight armour, so I think at some point ... you're going to see more hybrid vehicles in the tactical military fleet," he said.

That day could yet be a long way off (like the US army’s withdrawal from both Iraq and Afghanistan), but Davis appears intent on ensuring that this latest initiative is more than just hot air.

Could this week’s downturn in oil prices be a portent of things to come? Over on Spendmatters, Jason Busch certainly thinks so – and believes that oil may soon fall below the $125-a-barrel threshold needed to make “global sourcing decisions that much more palatable and profitable.”

This week’s fall in the price of oil has given every procurement organisation  some much-needed breathing space and, with oil dropping beneath that magic $125 figure during Friday trading (who would have thought we would be celebrating that this time last year), many CPO’s will have enjoyed this weekend just that little bit more.

“For all those who were talking about $200 per barrel oil, bite your tongue,” Busch says.

In this still uncertain climate, no-one is likely to be willing to predict how long they’ll stay silent for.

It’s no longer just cool to be ethical, it has become a necessity.

Or so says Dr Jem Bendell, who noted that once favourite brand of the stars - Dolce & Gabanna - was hardly a presence at this year’s Oscars.

Dr Bendell suggested that D&G had fallen from grace with the A-list because of alleged unethical supply chain issues. For example, last December, an Italian TV documentary 'Slaves of Luxury' had detailed cases of illegal Chinese immigrant labour in Italy allegedly making accessories for a number of brands, including D&G.

But perhaps the best example of the popularity of ethical fashion is the return of designer Katherine Hamnett to the fashion scene. Hamnett left the scene four years ago after she found it hard to push sustainable fashion. But today, as shoppers become more aware of ethical fashion, designers such as Hamnett are having the last laugh.

So supply chain directors, take note – as consumers grow more ethical, so must you.

Today Procurement Leaders reported that some of the UK’s largest companies were set to sting their suppliers by announcing extended payment terms.

The plans - another unwelcome by-product of the credit crunch - are another indication that cash is fast becoming king and appears to represent a hammer blow to suppliers that are already feeling the pinch.

The little guy, however, doesn’t appear to be taking the news lying down, as Alliance Boots has found to its cost.

Last year, the chemist chain wrote to suppliers telling them that invoices would be paid up to 75 days from the end of the invoice month – a dramatic increase on the previous, somewhat more reasonable, timescale of 30 days.

The company also announced plans to charge a 2.5 per cent “settlement fee” – effectively a charge for paying the bill, whilst claiming that its procurement strategies were “in line with other groups of similar size and scale.”

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) claimed that the company’s new policy, in reality, extended payment terms to 105 days, and have prompted one supplier to take action.

"Making small businesses wait 105 days for payment and charging them for the privilege of doing so is nothing short of outrageous," the FSB said, and training business MTa International appears to agree.

The company, which unlike the corporate giant it’s taking on has just two employees, has threatened to withdraw its services unless Alliance Boots re-thinks its policy, which last week it did.

But whilst MTa celebrate other suppliers are still facing up to a stark, and rather unpleasant reality - the big boys, meanwhile, appear intent on sticking the boot in.    

It’s not often you’ll find the ‘s’ word on these pages, but a recent blog over on Modern Materials Handling caught my eye after successfully pulling off the unlikely feat of including ‘sex’ and ‘green supply chain’ in the same sentence.

Using a line from John Clark, the marketing manager for Dematic, Bob Trebilcock told readers that “the green supply chain is a lot like high school sex……….everyone is talking about it, but not a lot of companies are doing it.”

Materials Handling claims that they’re still seeing precious little evidence of green initiatives graduating from the boardroom to the metaphorical shop floor, and Clark’s conclusion (once the schoolboy guffawing at the back has finished) will strike a chord with many CPO’s who are being asked to implement sustainable procurement practices without the required resources, guidance and financial support. Problems that often leave them fumbling in the dark.