EUROPEANS HAVE STOPPED IMPORTING FROM CHINA
By Michelle Wiese Bockmann and Alaric Nightingale, from Bloomberg
Slumping shipping costs show exports to Europe from China are “falling off a cliff” as the euro-region crisis chokes off consumer spending, according to RS Platou Markets AS, a unit of Norway’s biggest shipbroking group.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows how the cost of hauling goods to Europe from China is falling faster than rates for deliveries to the U.S. The price for shipments to Europe is down 39 percent to $511 per twenty-foot box since Aug. 31, according to figures from Clarkson Securities Ltd., a unit of the world’s largest shipbroker. That’s more than double the 18 percent slide in the cost to the U.S. West Coast, measured in 40-foot units.
“European imports from China will be much, much lower going forward,” said Rahul Kapoor, a Singapore-based analyst at Platou Markets. “If you see falling freight rates, that would imply that European demand is falling off a cliff.”
Dr. Pinna says:
The Europeans are tightening their belts. They are not buying consumer goods in order to pay off their debts. This means deflation and economic depression.
Depression means a fall in tax revenues. You cannot run a government without money. No taxes? Arrivederci Roma!
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Filed Under: Economy • News Briefs
