D'ya think that port down in Lazaro Cardenas will help?
Why? We get all kinds of stuff that we want, and we send them a bunch of paper, which eventually ends up back here too.
>>That doesn't seem like an indication of a healthy domestic economy to me.
How many containers of COSCO crap destined for Wally World does it take to offset the sale of one 777 to a foreign carrier? Noting that said export doesn't involve any steel containers leaving the U.S.
Nor to me. I've always considered self-sufficiency integral to survival.
Really, it indicates that US exports are denser than imports, or that our exports are shipped in different kinds of containers.
For example, Grain is shipped in bulk. Software CDs aren't normally shipped in ISO containers either.
In the last 3 years, the US economy GREW by the economy of China. Consider that quietly.
You are correct, assuming that the MSM is actually giving us correct info (and when do they not do that when trying to run down our powerful economy).
Who cares, and why does it matter?
Sell them to Mexico for housing.
Actually, it is, despite the purple prose and meaningless statistics.
I read most of the comments and I'll just make a general point. There is no doubt that we manufacture less, including capital goods, than we used to. I've spent some time around port facilities since I was kid. Twenty years ago the business was largely export based. Today it is largely import based.
You're assuming that the containers are of equal value. ;^)
Who has decreed that the only commodity of value that a nation can export must be shipped in a big box on a cargo ship?
FYI - Have you seen this article yet?
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 THE NEW WORLD DISORDER Trans-Texas Corridor paved with campaign contributions? San Antonio construction company, capital consortium from Spain stand to gain Posted: July 12, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi The contractors building the Trans-Texas Corridor a massive statewide transportation network critics claim is an important part of the controversial proposed integration of the U.S. and Mexico have made large contributions to the campaigns of Texas politicians, including Republican Gov. Rick Perry. As WND has reported, opposition is mounting to the little-publicized efforts by the Bush administration, aided by corporate and political elites of the U.S., Mexico and Canada, including the Council on Foreign Relations, to push North America into a European Union-style merger. Critics of the Trans-Texas Corridor see the massive project ironically funded by Spain as part of this movement to integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
Terri Hall, director of a taxpayers' group called the San Antonio Toll Party, told WND, "there is not a single politician in our entire Bexar County delegation that has not taken money form H. B. Zachry, Jr." Zachry Construction Corporation, headquartered in San Antonio, has entered into a limited partnership with Cintra, a capital consortium based in Spain to undertake the TTC construction. "Zachry owns San Antonio," Hall told WND, "and he has spread his money inside and outside Bexar County [where San Antonio is the county seat] to make sure he drives the highway lobby." The San Antonio Toll Party is grass roots movement and political action committee opposed to the Trans-Texas Corridor. Although WND could not confirm Hall's charge that every local politician has accepted money from Zachry, she and others are naming quite a few names. "The politicians in Austin are listening to the highway lobby rather that the citizens who put them in office," Hall told WND, adding, "you will not understand the politics of the TTC until you track down Zachry who has a long and distinguished money trail to offices of our state politicians." The non-partisan Institute on Money in State Politics provides data that support Hall's contention. Analyzing 39 records of campaign contributions made by H.B. Zachry, Jr., the Institute concludes Zachry contributed $112,112 in campaign contributions 92.2 percent to Republican candidates. The largest of these contributions went to Gov. Perry, two contributions totaling $35,000. Perry is currently running for re-election against Democratic challenger Chris Bell, a former congressman from Houston, and two independent candidates. When WND contacted Perry's campaign organization for comment on campaign contributions by Zachry and other contractors who stand to benefit from TTC construction, Perry's campaign spokesman Robert Black said: "Gov. Perry got lots of campaign contributions from contractors who got nothing in the TTC bidding. If a contributor was giving money to Gov. Perry for any other reason than that Gov. Perry's policies are best for Texas," Black emphasized, "then they should keep their money." Another group opposing TTC construction, Campaigns for People, a 501(c)(3) organization in Austin, argues that between Jan. 1, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2004, the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT, awarded over $14.3 billion in contracts to build and maintain roads in the state. More than 40 percent of this total over $6 billion went to the "Top 10" TxDOT contractors, who gave $1.1 million in political contributions. In 2003, House Bill 3588 in the Texas Legislature amended the Texas Transportation code to give the state the broad, new powers needed to build the Trans-Texas Corridor. According to Campaigns for People, top contractors who sought to benefit from the TTC construction contributed heavily to the campaign to pass House Bill 3588:
The TxDOT Top 10 and TTC Bidders gave generously to legislators who ultimately had a say over the content and passage of HB3588. These interests made over $2.7 million in campaign contributions from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2004. These special interests steered more than half of this money to elected officials who either held statewide leadership positions in 2003 or who sat on key House or Senate Transportation committees. Simply stated, according to Campaigns for People, contractors who sought to benefit when TTC was built contributed to the political campaigns to achieve their objective.
It's to be built with extremely limited public oversight. Except for the corridor east and roughly parallel to Interstate 35 (TTC-35), it's a road system most Texans can hardly imagine will ever be built. But road builders and toll bond financers from around the world are lining up to participate. These interests contributed $166,000 to amend Texas' Constitution and more than $2.7 million in Texas' last two elections to turn the nation's largest toll road project into a reality. Black resists any insinuation of collusion. "The TxDOT contracts were awarded on an open bid process," Perrys campaign spokesman told WND. "These TTC opposition groups are typically 'conspiracy theorists' who think we're giving Texas land away to Spain. The State of Texas will still own TTC highways, even if Cintra has the right to lease them and collect tolls." WND could find no reference on the websites of either the San Antonio Toll Party or Campaigns for People that TTC highways were going to be ceded to Spain. Today, there are some 50,000 miles of interstate highway in the U.S., yet TxDOT has proposed building 4,000 miles of Trans-Texas Corridor superhighways in Texas over the next 50 years. The TTC project at full development will involve the removal of as much as 584,000 acres of productive Texas farm and ranchland from the tax rolls permanently, while displacing upwards of 1 million people from their current residences. "We may not need to build all 4,000 miles," Black asserted. "But the population of Texas is going to double in the next 40 years and our Texas interstates are already strained. The days of building a 50-year old Eisenhower interstate system are over. TTC is a new model for America." A close reading of the 4,000-page Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS, posted on the Trans-Texas Corridor website reveals on page 3 the NAFTA purpose of the TTC-35 project, which generally runs parallel to Interstate-35. Under the subtitle "enhance economic vitality," the EIS notes that "approximately 75 percent of America's commerce with Mexico travels through Texas. Increased access and mobility within the study area would improve the movement of people, goods, and services and potentially lead to new employment and business opportunities." This, contend critics, makes clear that the TTC-35 project is not "just a highway needed for anticipated Texas growth," but rather a NAFTA-inspired highway, intended to grow Texas by vastly increasing NAFTA commerce with Mexico. The 11 separate corridors planned will permanently cut across some 1,200 Texas roads, with crossover unlikely for much of the nearly quarter-mile-wide corridor planned to be built. Dozens of small towns in Texas will be virtually obliterated in the path of the advancing Trans-Texas Corridor behemoth. While supporters, like Perry's administration, call it a necessity, critics says the TTC appears to be the test case for future development of a NAFTA superhighway that would extend north through Oklahoma City, Kansas City and Duluth into Canada, largely parallel to I-35. "I dont know if the TTC is going to extend to Oklahoma," Black commented. "I can only speak for Texas." Nor does Black have any insight into the plans of investment bankers and international capital funds that are unlikely to allow a four-football-fields-wide highway just end at the Texas border, without first approaching Oklahoma, and the other states on the anticipated I-35 path north, to consider accepting their capital to extend the road. Posted on TxDOTs Trans-Texas Corridor website are contracts signed by TxDOT that indicate Cintra has paid over $1 billion for the right to negotiate a final construction contract with the state. Cintra Concessions de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A. of Spain plans to recover through tolls an investment that is estimated to exceed $180 billion for the full 50-year build-out of the TTC 4,000-mile network. Cintra won the contract with TxDOT as a result of a competitive bid, said Black. "Cintra promised the State of Texas the best bang for the buck. Besides, they threw in to the deal over $1 billion that the State of Texas could use however we want to." WND can find no description of the competitive bid process on the Trans-Texas Corridor website, nor any identification of the losing bidders. Last month, the Cintra-Zachry limited partnership stepped in to provide the $1.3 billion TxDOT needed to complete a toll segment of TX-130. In return, Cintra-Zachry obtained the concession to operate the toll segment of TX-130 for over 50 years. Even though large segments of the Cintra-Zachry contracts have been archived on TxDOT websites, TxDOT has withheld key sections have from the public. TxDOT argues that revealing all details of the TTC transaction would compromise the release of information proprietary to Cintra-Zachry.
Related offer:
Previous stories:
More evidence Mexican trucks coming to U.S.
Docs reveal plan for Mexican trucks in U.S.
Kansas City customs port considered Mexican soil?
Tancredo confronts 'super-state' effort
Bush sneaking North American super-state without oversight?
Previous column:
Coming soon to U.S.: Mexican customs office
|
That's interesting since our economy expands the most when our current account deficit is growing. When our economy contracts the current account deficit shrinks.
The last time we had a trade surplus was more than 30 years ago during a recession. This is much ado about nothing.
Source link: China Ocean Shipping Company
The Planned Destruction of America
Red Chinese Army Controls America's Largest
West Coast Container Port, Long Beach, California
From Tim White <phantom469366@yahoo.com>
http://educate-yourself.org/tw/coscocontrolslongbeachshipyards17sep04.shtml
Septe,ber 17, 2004COSCO [China Ocean Shipping Company] has, since the signing of an EXECUTIVE ORDER by President Benedict Bill Klinton in January of 1998, has taken over and totally controls the former U.S. Naval Port Facilities at Long Beach, California. This port is the largest container port on the West coast of North America and is a major conduit through with our technology is being transferred to China.
What most people DON'T KNOW is the fact that COSCO is 100% owned by the PLA-the People's Liberation Army of Red China [the Red Chinese Army] . COSCO has other facilities up and down both the West and East coasts of the U.S. and the Gulf Coast along with the newest port facility that they have at Freeport,The Bahamas,which is the largest container port in the World.
COSCO is intimately linked with the WAMPOA-HUTCHINSON GROUP of Hong Kong which is 100% owned by Li Kai Sheng,of the very powerful LI family of China [top Illuminati bloodline in China], Kai Sheng is a very close associate of Chinese President Zhao Zemin.
The WAMPOA-HUTCHINSON GROUP controls the PANAMA CANAL and is linked to the PLA like a Siamese Twin.This is a main reason WHY OUR COUNTRY is in such deep peril-at the hands of our TRAITOROUS Politicians, Democrat or Republican notwithstanding.
Tim White, Viet Nam Vet/Concern Citizen
COSCO Long Beach's Maiden Voyage Celebrated
COSCO Long Beach, one of COSCO's new series of 8000-TEU vessels, successfully concluded her maiden voyage to the Port of Long Beach on 25 August 2004.The maiden voyage ceremony hosted by COSCO Americas Inc for the arrival of COSCO Long Beach was attended by over 150 guests including COSCO's key clients, Long Beach city officials, Harbor Commissioners, Port Authority executives, terminal operators, members of Association of American Port Authorities (AAPA) and representatives of major liner carriers.
Heading a COSCO Container Lines (COSCON) delegation, Capt. Xu Lirong, Managing Director of COSCON delivered a speech at the maiden voyage ceremony, highlighting COSCON's dedicated efforts to improve its liner service and to accommodate the needs of a surging China-US trade.
Gao Weijie, Chairman of COSCO Americas Inc announced a congratulatory message on behalf of Capt. Wei Jiafu, President & CEO of COSCO Group. In a speech at the dinner party, Chairman Gao briefed the guests about the concept of "two transformations" in COSCO Group's strategies. He also urged the industry to continue cooperation and to better serve the growing international trade.
Zhang Liyong, President of COSCO Americas Inc presided over the dinner party. He thanked COSCO Los Angeles, Pacific Maritime Services (PMS) and the Port of Long Beach for their joint efforts of organizing the celebrating events. Congratulatory words and good wishes were expressed at the dinner by Mayor O'Neil of Long Beach, COSCO's clients as well as representatives from PMS and AAPA.
Built by Hyundai Heavy Industries, COSCO Long Beach is a time-chartered modern container vessel from German owner E.R. Schiffahrt. The deployment of COSCO Long Beach in COSCON's SEA service marks another step that COSCO has taken towards the transformation from owning ships into controlling ships. It also helps to increase COSCO's capacity on transpacific trade and to improve the quality of COSCO's liner service.
Updated Time: 2004/08/27
Capt.Wei Attended International Forum on the Common
Development of China's Economy&the World
Economy(09/10)
COSCO Long Beach's Maiden Voyage Celebrated(08/27)
Capt. Wei Met With Dr. Roland Williams(08/24)
COSCO And JCIF Renew Cooperation Agreement(08/24)
COSCO Signs Strategic Cooperation Agreement with
TCL(08/23)
COSCO Hosts Luncheon For Bahamian PM(08/22)
Capt. Wei Met With Bahamian Prime Minister(08/17)
China's first LNG shipbuilding contract signed in
Beijing(08/13)
Zhang Fusheng Visits M.V. Song Shan(08/09)
Capt. Wei Met With HSBC Chairman(08/07)
Thus undermining the inference drawn in the headline.
The US trade deficit worsened significantly between 2002 and 2004.
-ccm
China is supposedly hurting for steel and yet doesn't want these steel boxes back?
Oceanic traffic in cargo containers seems one way. Circa 1988 (and probably still true now) the air cargo traffic was essentially one way from Japan to our New England States. Logan airport in particular. The NE tuna fisherman were able to very nice rates for air shipping tuna to Japan. Cargo planes were mostly returning empty to Japan/Asia. Sea urchins were also shipped to Japan. Japs love raw sea urchin sushi. It's not bad, I've eaten it too.