Posted on 09/13/2009 7:36:56 PM PDT by BP2
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> Fascinating article by Simon Parry in the Daily Mail this evening on the Ghost Fleet of Singapore — 100s of empty container ships sidelined by the recession. Excerpt:
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[1]
[2] Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession [3]
SIMON PARRY
The Mail, 13th September 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1212013/Revealed-The-ghost-fleet-recession.html
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I've read elsewhere that Singapore new ship production is down a whopping 95% from about a year ago, with little sign of improvement.
And when I look at how the Baltic Dry Good Index is CONTINUING to slip from the piddly bump this spring - and how it has been down for about a year now - I can't help but wonder how LOW long-term shelved goods must be here in the US.
Maybe it's just me, but I have a feeling the "economic recovery" is yet ... another Obama lie.
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Interesting. Thanks for posting.
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- big picture ping - With storage shelves low, cargo shipping containers backing up, and grain production taking many month to spin up, it would not take much of a “crisis” (swine flu, economic collapse, etc) to panic the masses and induce hoarding. Just FYI ... |
I’ve heard the unloading of ships at Long Beach is way down and rail cars are sitting in many sidings through out the US. Fed Ex and UPS are having light shipments too.
This recession is a long way from over and the little bounce in the stock market in recent weeks is a mirage. A lot of market guys are saying we may see a new low in 10/09 or 11/09 as the government so called stimulus is petering out. Obama has saddled us with 3+ trillion in new debt and hasn’t affected the recession much.
If you are buying now, I’d suggest canned beans and Spam, plus some warm clothes for a long winter.
On the bright side they aren’t burning bunker charlie and making see-oh-too...
What’s the big deal? Most of the vessels in that top photo are BOATs, hardly significant ocean going freighters or tankers. Put on your reading glasses, and compare. All floating steel vessels are not “cargo ships” any more than a Ford F-150 is a Freightliner.
The bottom photo, I have no idea what if anything the overlaid symbols mean, if it’s legit, photoshopped, or another catalog of a few big ships, some medium ships, and a bunch of coastal vessesl and mere boats (under 100’ loa.)
c-7
read post one, though
the baltic dry index is a record of how many tons of cargo are being moved at one time by ship
look how low it is
almost post 9/11 low with that serious drop
the only reason anything is moving is to replace old or broken items, not replace used items with new stuff I can afford because of my raise or savings
I recall last fall when there were problems related to payments of shippments because of all the bank fears, etc. Folks in Taiwan were afraid of sending a huge shippment to a U.S. company if that company suddenly did not have access to the bank credit. Or something like that. That, combined with a slump in consumer items will put a lot on hold.
There was another article where they were talking about the ship owners having to pay higher fuel charges and eating it. Although I imagine many figure it’s not worth it.
I’ve read a lot of articles talking about the slump in worldwide shipping traffic and the huge number of idle ships and don’t doubt it’s real but I gotta agree with Travis that the photo is a poor representation of what it proports to be.
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Sorry for the dupe posting. That said, “you know who” is a master at inducing panic. He's been trying (unsuccessfully) to induce that with his ObamaCare. If a crisis develops, with or without his doing, we will all expect him to not let that crisis go to waste. It does not take a clairvoyant to recognize that financial resources and foodstores are stretched thin. Reports of tainted food, or a disruption of the logistical infrastructure (infected areas), social unrest, etc., could push things to the brink in a short, based upon the reduced flow of cargo movement. IMO, events are lining up to be a repeat of the In the same way oil was manipulated to push gas prices through the roof last summer, consumable goods can be pushed into shortage levels - for the short-term financial gain of a group of profiteers, or the political gain of a sitting usurper. |
Trade with China : 2009
EXPORTS 35,662.6 IMPORTS 159,130.8 BAL -123,468.2
Trade with China : 2008
EXPORTS 69,732.8 IMPORTS 337,772.6 BAL -268,039.8
NOTE: All figures are in millions of U.S. dollars, and not seasonally adjusted unless otherwise specified.
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html#2009
What “recovery” there is, probably is a result of the gummit being gridlocked into doing nothing. Once Obama is gone from the political scene, normal people will feel it’s safe to party again.
I live in a small town but we do have a WalMart and a KMart, I am not much of a shopper but I do go in when I need something specific, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve left empty handed.
There are lots of things in the store but so many things are out of stock. I’m going to have to order what I need off the internet.
Don’t worry, the Chinese have a use for that Ghost Fleet. They’ll rent it as the sampan flotilla and invade Taiwan with it.
If that photo at top is their "smoking gun," then the article is crap. Not denying the baltic dry index etc. But using that picture to "prove" anything is a JOKE to anybody who has actually been around ships. It might fool some retarded idjit in Kansas who thinks a tractor is the same as a freight train, but that's about it.
The photo is a JOKE.
graph speak more than photo, white man!
I’m with you.
Heck, if you put all of the naval vessels currently in San Diego or Norfolk into one anchorage and took an aerial photo, it would put that joke photo to shame, and show that most of the vessels in that joke photo are no more than coastal tramps and boats under 100’.
That photo with that headline, it's a joke, admit it. Were you taken in? Did you really look at all those little dots between the real ships and think, "Golly, geee, wow, more ships than the US and British navies combined!"
Tell me you didn't fall for that.
Now, there might be a glut of shipping out there, I don't doubt it, but that lurid headline couples with that joke of a photo was meant to foool only ruuuubes from the sticks, who have never seen a ship.
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