Posted on 01/11/2016 12:07:50 PM PST by Gritty
The continued collapse of The Baltic Dry Index remains ignored by most - besides we still have Netflix, right? But, as Dollar Vigilante's Jeff Berwick details, it appears the worldwide 'real' economy has ground to a halt!!
Last week, I received news from a contact who is friends with one of the biggest billionaire shipping families in the world. He told me they had no ships at sea right now, because operating them meant running at a loss.
This weekend, reports are circulating saying much the same thing: The North Atlantic has little or no cargo ships traveling in its waters. Instead, they are anchored. Unmoving. Empty.
You can see one such report here. According to it,
Commerce between Europe and North America has literally come to a halt. For the first time in known history, not one cargo ship is in-transit in the North Atlantic between Europe and North America. All of them (hundreds) are either anchored offshore or in-port. NOTHING is moving.
This has never happened before. It is a horrific economic sign; proof that commerce is literally stopped.
We checked VesselFinder.com and it appears to show no ships in transit anywhere in the world. We aren't experts on shipping, however, so if you have a better site or source to track this apparent phenomenon, please let us know.
We also checked MarineTraffic.com, and it seemed to show the same thing. Not a ship in transit...
If true, this would be catastrophic for world trade. Even if it's not true, shipping is still nearly dead in the water according to other indices. The Baltic Dry Index, an assessment of the price of moving major raw materials by sea, was already at record all-time lows a month ago... and in the last month it has dropped even more, especially in the last week. Today BDIY hit 415...
Factories aren't buying and retailers aren't stocking. The ratio of inventory to sales in the US is an indicator of this. The last time that ratio was this high was during the "great recession" in 2008...
...(Edit) *snip*
This is another stupid false claim from Zero Hedge.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/index/eta/all/port:87/portname:LOS%20ANGELES/per_page:50
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/index/eta/all/port:137/portname:NEW%20YORK/per_page:50
Nothing moving, what a joke.
Well, there’s that, at least.................
What is this world coming to, when you can no longer trust Zero Hedge and “Tyler Durden” to be truthful? ;-)
:-D
I think the Muslims are choosing for the rest of us to die.
After that, there won't be any problem with conserving resources and saving the environment - because anybody who opens their SJW yap about it will suddenly find themselves short a head...
Surely not. I heard theirs was a religion of Peace.
No wait, that was last year. Nevermind.
As though not operating would mean no loss.
He looked just like hillary’s son if she was straight and black.
wrong thread!
Did you ever post to a thread and then at the last second somehow the thread changes?
Well, that is what happened to me.
Sorry!
Next people will be saying Alex Jones is a kook!
I just closed on my home, cash. Furniture & new items are shipping to me in 2 to 5 business days. Nothing carried in stock retail. Would hate to be a retailer!
Those are some handy websites, thank you!!!
I hope things are moving. I bought something on Amazon and it is coming from China. Must be a slow boat!
The author does not understand how to use the online ship trackers that he relies on. If ships in transit are selected, then hundreds of vessels are evident and can be individually identified. In addition, the websites of major US ports show many cargo ship arrivals and departures on an ongoing basis. That said, the fall in the Baltic Dry Index signals more pain for the shipping industry.
IN the interest of preserving the sanctity, righteousness and holiness of Free Republic, this thread should be locked and the Zero Hedge reporter should get an earful of jeers.
Most of those items are actually flown in.
My business buys from China a couple of times a year. If it is less than 10 pounds they pretty much always fly it in. If it is larger, it comes by boat about half of the time.
Here is how it goes - if I have a customer that wants 200 caps I have to decide whether to produce them in house or have them produced in China.
If I have to produce them in house the least expensive blank cap I can purchase is $1.25 each. A typical 8,000 stitch logo takes 10 minutes to produce. I could run them on all three machines and produce 18 an hour. With labor running $12 an hour (with matching taxes) there is $.6667 labor per cap with about $.25 worth of thread and backing per cap - my total cost $2.17 per cap and I charge about $4.00 each.
I can have them produced in China (same quality cap) for $1.30 each. Where they used to take 4 to 6 weeks to produce and deliver, they are now down to 2 to 4 weeks, which is pretty close to my production time. If I want to make the same total profit on the deal, I can sell the China caps for $3.13 each.
Note on the China deal that I have virtually zero labor cost. I can make just as much money having things produced in China with much less overhead cost to my businesses.
For now we are still producing +90% in house, but if the government keeps making employees more and more expensive, I will be shifting to overseas production. If I don’t my competition will and will put me out of business.
It's not for lack of trying. I killed two of the d****d things in the house (SE PA) on Saturday.
“Today, January 11, not a single outdoor mating pair of stink bugs has been found in the entire 11 county area of southwestern Pennsylvania! “
That’s because the bastids are now INDOORS.
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