China Containerized Freight Index Collapses to Worst Level Ever

[marmar]

China Containerized Freight Index Collapses to Worst Level Ever
by Wolf Richter • October 25, 2015


A week ago, we pointed out how China’s dropping exports and plunging imports – the “inevitable fallout from China’s unsustainable and poorly executed credit splurge,” according to Thomson Reuters – had collided with long-term bets by the shipping industry that has been counting on majestic endless growth.

The industry has been adding capacity in quantum leaps, where “the scramble to order so-called ultra-large container vessels had turned into a stampede,” as the Journal of Commerce put it. So we said, Pummeled by Lousy Global Demand and Rampant Overcapacity, China Containerized Freight Index Collapses to Worst Level Ever.

And now, the China Containerized Freight Index (CCFI) has dropped to an even worse level.

Unlike a lot of official data emerging from China, the index, which is operated by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange and sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Communications, is raw, unvarnished, not seasonally adjusted, or otherwise beautified. It’s volatile and a reflection of reality, as measured by how much it costs, based on contractual and spot market rates, to ship containers from China to 14 major destinations around the world. ................(more)

http://wolfstreet.com/2015/10/25/china-containerized-freight-index-ccfi-shanghai-scfi-drop-to-new-lows/

[Human101948]

1. Sell your Walmart stock immediately!

The world’s biggest retailer, U.S.-based Wal-Mart was responsible for $27 billion in U.S. imports from China in 2006 and 11% of the growth of the total U.S. trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2006. Wal-Mart’s trade deficit with China alone eliminated nearly 200,000 U.S. jobs in this period.

http://www.epi.org/publication/ib235/

Happy Fourth of July! If your celebration involves any American-made goods from Walmart ... well, you might want to double and triple check that. Truth in Advertising caught Walmart saying on its website that some imported products were U.S.-made. This is kind of a problem in the middle of Walmart's big push to claim it's supporting American manufacturing.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/02/1398393/-Walmart-gets-caught-claiming-Chinese-imports-were-made-in-the-USA