Posted on 03/02/2009 6:13:49 PM PST by calcowgirl
February imports fall 18.1% in L.A. and Long Beach. Other West Coast harbors see even worse declines.
The international trade business is foundering faster than ever seen before, with some U.S. seaports watching cargo traffic fall by more than a third.
It's gotten so bad that Los Angeles and Long Beach are slashing cargo rates to keep old customers and lure new business. Oakland's port has laid off 12% of its staff and canceled free tours for the public. The number of ships idled around the world is approaching three times the number that were out of work during the last big ocean trade collapse, in 2002.
"It's phenomenal how much things fell away even since December," said Paul Bingham, managing director of global trade and transportation for IHS Global Insight ... "Assuming the stimulus package works, you end the free fall in the second quarter, when you no longer see this accelerated decline," Bingham said. "If the stimulus does not work, I don't think we know where the bottom is."
... As severe as the shift has been in Los Angeles and Long Beach, where February imports fell 18.1% compared with the same month in 2008, it's worse in other places... Oakland is expected to be down 22% in February, compared with a year earlier, as U.S. consumers continue to rein in spending and as retailers cut factory orders to avoid building inventories that won't sell.
... The February downturn is expected to be 29% in Tacoma, Wash., and 39% in Seattle when those ports finish tallying container movements.
Unlike the West Coast ports, which deal almost exclusively in trade to and from Asia, East Coast ports have a more diversified mix ...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Darn, and the longshoreman union just negotiated $100,000.00 worker contract for 35 hour weeks and all the bene’s too.
An the retirement envy for the non-union worker...
What is a union to do...
“If the stimulus does not work, I don’t think we know where the bottom is.”
Very comforting.
Always one of the most reliable indicators. Readers of the JOC have been aware of this plummeting for months.
a whole lot of trains are also idle, rolling stock I mean
Who knows, maybe we'll ending up building our own stuff again.
Whatta concept.
Imagine that. Ship out all the jobs, and Americans stop buying stuff. Who would have guessed?
Q: What do you call a 18.1% decline in imports?
A: A Good start!
Aside from Union port jobs taking a hit, what’s the down side in reducing our trade imbalance with China? More dollars stay in the USA.
Hopefully, when a real President takes office, he will:
1) outlaw unions
2) enforce the border/H1B visas
3) place the ACLU/Sierra Club/EPA under RICO statutes
4) allow drilling for any and all oil; plus allow nuclear power plants to be built
5) lower taxes to a flat 20% for the entire US
6) re-invent manufacturing and ag businesses via #5
7) revamp Social Security and welfare to stop abuse and end entitlements for the healthy and sane
8) re-introduce a mandatory 75% reduction in all Federal, State and local governments, outside of law enforcement, border patrol and military, union contracts to be negotiated (see #1)
9) cite major media outlets for willful negligence and sedition, try them in anti-American, McCarthy-like courts
10) Appeal the Immigration Reform Act of 1965 and re-emphasize non-Muslim European immigration
“300,000 free homes - 8 x 10 x 40 - and nearly indestructible”
How does that translate into tornado activity?
Does this mean we’ll have to make our own products?
Tell them to keep all their junk.
Less government bail out money. You forget, they never funded any of the fed, state or local pensions.
Chef BRD is on food stamps
Lets just outlaw government unions because there are no checks and balances there. In private industry you can select to use the service or not.
I wonder ... how much money AIG (Already Its Gone) gave to these politicians to get elected.
lol.
exploding chairs must not be in high demand right now
The good news must be that we’re importing less Chinese crap into the country.
Now, I like your thinking. I kid you not, your points are a recipe for rejuvinating this country.
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