Posted on 03/29/2011 9:01:17 AM PDT by NRG1973
Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. (9104.TO) said Monday its container ship is heading back to Japan, after Chinese authorities claimed high levels of radiation from the vessel. The container vessel called MOL Presence had stayed off the Chinese port of Xiamen after Chinese authorities detected a high level of radiation last Tuesday, though a specific figure wasn't available. According to a Mitsui spokeswoman, China again detected radiation worth 3.5 microsieverts per hour in the second test Saturday. Further details were not available. A chest X-ray typically exposes the patient to a radiation dose of around 100 microsieverts, according to the Radiological Society of North America. The vessel was on its way from the U.S. and Japan to China carrying furniture, clothing and machinery and other goods in its containers. Before arriving Japan, the ship was sailing about 124 kilometers off the coast in Fukushima where the heavily damaged nuclear power complex is located. The vessel is scheduled to arrive at Kobe port in western Japan on Wednesday.
Another article about the ship...
Japan shipper mulls future of vessel with “abnormal” radiation:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/29/us-japan-quake-mitsui-idUSTRE72S0P520110329
Hot Japanese boats?
Japan’s economy certainly doesn’t need any more hits. The crews will have to start hosing down the containers before entering Chinese ports.
Frankly, everyone is going to have to get used to levels of radiation slightly above normal background. To reject a shipment or a ship with the tiniest elevation is just stupid and calls into question real motivation for doing so.
This strikes me as political.
I shall elucidate my previous post. “This strikes me as quite political.” I’d say if the Japanese were to say to the PRC they won’t trade with Taiwan, then all of a sudden the lousey 3.5 microsieverts won’t be a problem.
The same issue has had the Chinese mainland, and Japan at odds since the 1970’s when the Japanese major players formed separate entities to trade with Taiwan to get around the Chinese embargo on Japanese products.
Example K-Line created PCL, or Phoenix Container Line of Liberian registry to ship freight containers into Taiwan so K-Line could deal with mainland China.
PCL is long gone today, but the Chinese still throw their weight around on the subject of Taiwan.
It might indeed be political but it is also definately economic. Many items that are assembled in China have raw materials/subassemblies that are made in Japan. If China is turning down raw materials from Japan because of radiation then they have an alterior motive for doing so.
In January, China was experiencing inflation and wanted to pass on higher prices to importers. In most cases the importers balked and Japan decided to "slow down" their production rate. They figured that the same amount of money chasing fewer goods would mean they could pass on higher prices to the importers. Now it looks like theearthquake/tsunami/nuclear crisis has given them another excuse to slow down their production rate. If I were a betting man I would bet that by early summer we will be paying significantly higher prices for fewer goods assembled in China...even though the earthquake/tsunami happened in Japan.
Usually when the US is involved we just play the patsy.
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