Cost Estimating & Financial Analysis Semester Project

Topic Statement: The United States is a major player in global import/export industry. As a project/product manager or cost estimator, you are responsible for identifying the price of materials (either raw materials, finished goods or something in between) and take into account the multiple forces that impact the accuracy of your forecast. These forces could be economic/market, environmental, transportation, safety, exchange rates, technology, regulatory, etc. both at home and abroad. Although challenging, you must recognize and account for these forces to ensure your estimates remain accurate.

Assignment:

A. Select a raw material (The raw material is Aluminum)

B. Describe the full array of different products that include your selected raw material (10pts)

C. Is the raw material imported and/or exported from the United States?

1) Provide a detailed summary of facts.

· Where the material is mined/sourced, exported, imported (where imported from) (10pts)

· Provide at least 5-year history of annual import/export figures (volume/tons & Dollars) (5pts)

2) Any restrictions (trade regulations, other regulations such as environmental, tariffs, etc.) that impede the free flow of the material? (10pts)

3) Provide a detailed summary of the typical supply chain (from mine/harvest to the finished good on the market, including various transport modes used) (10pts)

D. Research, obtain the historical pricing over the past twenty years; present your data in charts/graphs; including current day market pricing (10pts)

· Provide an analysis and explanation for why prices fluctuated over the 20-year period; provide details of key events/forces/dates that caused prices to move (10pts)

· Provide a 5-year future forecast (10 pts)

· Describe, in detail, at least 5 different forces and how they will impact the pricing & availability of your selected raw material over your 5-year forecast (20pts)

· Describe the level of confidence you have in your forecasted estimates and explain why (5pts)

Rubric:

A. Scoring of paper will correspond to the point-weighting above, which totals 100pts

B. Requirements:

1) Failure to meet the requirements below results in 10pt reduction, each.

a. Must exceed 2,000 words

b. Paper must be at least 3-pages of written text

i. Page count does not include cover page, lists and does not include tables/figures or citations which should be placed at the end of the report

ii. Use proper figure/table titles

iii. Include a “List of Figures” and “List of Tables” after “Table of Contents”

c. Single-spaced, 12pt Times New Roman

d. Must accurately cite a minimum of 10 different sources (place numbered citations at end of report, after all figures/tables)

2) Unlike all other assignments, submit this project in MS Word format

3) All figures and charts must be properly labeled and placed at the end of the paper, before citations