[driftdiver]

ahhhh soo sad, this also means the factories in China won’t be as busy

[Redbob]

Funny: this doesn’t at all mention the revival of U.S. manufacturing, sometimes known as “on-sourcing.”

[Bean Counter]

Lots of jobs tied up in moving every one of those containers no matter what they hold. They have to be moved off the ships onto trucks or trains, and those are sent all over the country.

As container traffic drops off unemployment creeps up. And retailers all over the Country are placing orders for Christmas stock right now, so it can be shipped in time for the Holidays...

[null and void]

[Last Dakotan]

Stories like this just point to how completely one-sided Asian trade with the US is.

[B-Cause]

“Demand hasn’t improved much, while capacity and fuel costs have jumped at a much faster pace.”

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The Port of Rotterdam is considered to be Europe's busiest port. A local fellow by the name of Fred Vloo shoots and posts videos of vessel traffic there 2 - 3 times per week. Fred has been doing it for several years and has accumulated a substantial library of Rotterdam vessel traffic. By clicking below you can see an example of one of his recent videos. Notice the size of the loads on the containers ships. Most of them are not near to being full loads.

Click Here

The link below will take you to several other videos that Fred has posted on line. I make it a point to check these videos every week and have noticed a significant reduction in container loads in and out of Rotterdam.

Click Here

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[poobear]

The only thing I’ll be buying for “back to school” is a full tank of gas. No money for anything else.