"Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession"

The Link

This is a very cool story both for its images and for its implications on the true state of our economic affairs globally.

His appearance, in a peaked cap and uniform, seems rather odd; an officer without a crew. But there is something slightly odder about the vast distance between my jolly boat and his lofty position, which I can't immediately put my finger on.

Then I have it - his 750ft-long merchant vessel is standing absurdly high in the water. The low waves don't even bother the lowest mark on its Plimsoll line. It's the same with all the ships parked here, and there are a lot of them. Close to 500. An armada of freighters with no cargo, no crew, and without a destination between them.

500 ships just siting and waiting, for something, or anything to haul.

Here, on a sleepy stretch of shoreline at the far end of Asia, is surely the biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history. Their numbers are equivalent to the entire British and American navies combined; their tonnage is far greater. Container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers - all should be steaming fully laden between China, Britain, Europe and the US, stocking camera shops, PC Worlds and Argos depots ahead of the retail pandemonium of 2009. But their water has been stolen.

Really a rather impressive physical monument to the massive decline in consumption, which is of course a direct response to the economic waste alnd we now inhabit.

It is so far off the beaten track that nobody ever really comes close, which is why these ships are here. The world's ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world's economies.

So they have been quietly retired to this equatorial backwater, to be maintained only by a handful of bored sailors. The skeleton crews are left alone to fend off the ever-present threats of piracy and collisions in the congested waters as the hulls gather rust and seaweed at what should be their busiest time of year.

That's right, just keep eating that Micky-Ds and drinking your Buds, everything is A-Okay!

Or, alternatively you could read this article, see some really cool pics and learn a bit about what is really going down.

Enjoy.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fe0178a48295.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5f2673d2a2a0.jpg[/atsimg]

Personally I was really taken by this post in the response section of the article:

What so many of us fail to understand, is that continual economic growth (capitalism) is a linear, and totally unsustainable model. We have been so unconscious in our consumption of our planet's resources, using military, the IMF, and the World Bank to maintain third world nations as slave labour pools to fuel our ever growing need for more, more more of the latest, the greatest, the newest, the best, the biggest, the smallest ... Consumerism is the bedrock of capitalism - the grease (the lie) that keeps the weels turning. STOP CONSUMING!

More ships, with their huge environmental footprints, NEED to be retired, as do our old ways of thinking. Let us stop feeding the beast. It bites -no, it DEVOURS - the hand that feeds it.

MASSIVE change is required NOW - by everyone of us. STOP FEEDING THE BEAST!

Let us all get to work building a sustainable future. There is plenty of work for everybody.

Our governments MUST be made to pay attention - NOW!

- Joanna, Toronto, Canada, 13/9/2009 21:40

Really rather well said. Yes we are currently in an economic down turn of major proportions, but it is an inevitable situation as the system of production and consumption we subscribe to is so highly flawed and unsustainable in even the short term.

Well said Joanna!

S&F for the first post.

I disagree with the comment in the second post. The US, and the world, has not had free-market capitalism in a very long time. On the order of centuries. The downfall of the modern economy is not due to free-markets, but rather to government interventionism and fiat currencies, in my opinion.

Originally posted by kreinhard
S&F for the first post.

I disagree with the comment in the second post. The US, and the world, has not had free-market capitalism in a very long time. On the order of centuries. The downfall of the modern economy is not due to free-markets, but rather to government interventionism and fiat currencies, in my opinion.

Ah, but you disregard the key point. The Earth provides us with a limited supply of both resources and sinks. 'free-market capitalism' or not, we are headed straight into a head on collision with the limits of the planet.

i refer to this as, "peak everything"


constant growth is impossible, period.

S+F

OK i still dont quite get what those ships are doing..are they full of merchandise waitng at port? Waiting becuase consumers buying have remarkebly slowed down?

reply to post by Animal


"The Earth provides us with a limited supply of both resources and sinks."

I disagree, I feel the earth does not have limited resources for us, I think we limit ourselves by abusing her resources, but that's just what I think.

That's a lot of ships, they could all just pull their ships together out into the middle of the ocean and start a floating self sustaining city

Awesome thread, animal.

Gratitude.

As much as I love cool stuff, I have to admit that I'm as much of a problem as the traders, the brokers, the bankers, the slavers..

reply to post by ziggy1706


They are waiting.......empty. There is lesser demand so the ships sit idle off the coast where they can be loaded up with product. Somebody else had a thread on the massive drop off in container shipping here on ATS. It was hitting pretty hard by Feb/Mar if I remember correctly.

The world is going to have to get use to lesser consumption of pretty much everything. We already have too much capacity in factories, transportation, goods, ect. It's not like anyone is going to be building car factories soon....except for India and China.

Personally, I think it was a long time comming and will be good for everyone in the long run. Things should be bought and produced more locally. It astounds me that cheap little plastic toys for example, are made in China and not locally. The cost of shipping must be more than the actual cost to produce them!

reply to post by Animal


Awesome article that really speak volumes about the continuing dire economic situation the world is in as a whole.

There has been a concerted effort to create propaganda that things are turning around, but anyone who knows someone laid off and their job hunting trials will tell you the economy is in the dumps still, and it will only get worse as people run out of money.

Massive retail failures after this years holidays shopping freeze and consistent foreclosures as good people miss payments bc they no longer have decent jobs.

The ghost fleet is only a small portion of the story. There at thousands of cargo vessels listed for sale and that includes new builds. Nothing is moving either via commerce or on the trading block. I have noticed the same vessels listed on the S&P for well over a year now with new listings daily.

A broker that I am in contact with stated; they were only able to stay in business due to brokerage and that their vessels were currently idle. Personally, I have been working on getting a reefer general cargo or reefer container in the 120meter - 160meter range for humanitarian aid work. All though could use one around the 100meter range also. However, the owners are still over pricing the vessels in hopes to recoup some of their losses via selling a portion of their fleet.

Even Hong Kong looks like a parking lot for cargo vessels, many of which are fully loaded with empty containers for storage. Makes me wonder what Maersk Line will do with EMMA MÆRSK the world's largest container vessel, measuring 397 meters long, 56 meters wide and able to carry 11,000 TEU. She also consumes 6,275 liters of fuel an hour! And we are told that things are getting better....yeah right

Originally posted by pavil
reply to post by ziggy1706

 

They are waiting.......empty. There is lesser demand so the ships sit idle off the coast where they can be loaded up with product. Somebody else had a thread on the massive drop off in container shipping here on ATS. It was hitting pretty hard by Feb/Mar if I remember correctly.

The world is going to have to get use to lesser consumption of pretty much everything. We already have too much capacity in factories, transportation, goods, ect. It's not like anyone is going to be building car factories soon....except for India and China.

Personally, I think it was a long time comming and will be good for everyone in the long run. Things should be bought and produced more locally. It astounds me that cheap little plastic toys for example, are made in China and not locally. The cost of shipping must be more than the actual cost to produce them!

The Chinese have already visited Indiana to look for sites to build TWO auto assembly plants!

reply to post by calcoastseeker

The Chinese have already visited Indiana to look for sites to build TWO auto assembly plants!

Even the Chinese are looking for cheap labor! It is only those living in the farming communities that do not have money. China is not exactly the way it is depicted in the news.

i saw this today on a financial blog,,,,,

boy does that pic tell a story or what

and yet msm tells us things are improving,,, the stock market is up.,,,,yeah right

do they think we're stupid or what???

i look forward to a year from now when we can watch all the youtube clips of those telling us today that it's over, we're improving and then the schiff, paul rebuffs of it ain't started yet,,, and how stupid they'll look

even greenspan says on russia today there is more hurt to come

which i find ironic,,,, he goes overseas spewing advice and such as if he's credible,, when he was so much a part of the cause, and our current crisis

shouldn't he be hiding in shame???

A picture most certainly says a 1000 words and the truth most certainly hurts.
Great post!
I read this article earlier today. These are the posts I'm here to see --> cold hard truth.

I love the article. I've heard about this situation now for a year. A friend who worked at the IMF and now works for New Zealand sent pictures over of the ship congestion as well and raised a red flag nearly 2 years ago.

On the second point -- the comments about capitalism and consumerism. I don't want to get political, but in the end, that's really what those comments reflect - a left-leaning view of society. The poster didn't say it, but it implies that consumerism needs to be controlled somehow, perhaps through a Socialistic or communistic institution.

Consuming - wanting more - is a natural state of humanity. Various influences attempt to temper this desire -- religion, philosophy, imposed political and judicial rules, available wealth etc. -- but the need for more is ingrained in humanity. Even in a "pure" communist system, there is a natural free market process that springs up, whether sanctioned by the government (as in China) or through a black market. Much of the Western world has embraced a concept of free market instead of dictatorial economic controls.

I don't disagree with the idea that Western consumers -- particularly America -- went on a buying binge that was clearly unsustainable. And instead of the American consumer, it's the American government doing so. And the impact of this may very well mean a fundamental change in America for the worse -- at the very least, its status loss as the world leader.

But to imply that capitalism is evil and doomed to failure is as myopic as those who flatly declare we have avoided a depression. It's just wrong -- a reactionary and left-leaning view of the world.

Look, this isn't the first credit crisis in recorded history. Every major power experienced one or more of these throughout recorded time. The world went on, it did not end. Political systems changed, yes. The makeup of countries changed. Through all this though, the desire for people to accumulate -- capitalism -- has prevailed, has always been there.

reply to post by Animal


pretty darn cool story.
s/f for something fresh and interesting!

Already discussed here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

This is an amazing story, imagine cruising through this phantom shipyard in a little wooden fishing boat, surrounded by massive steel tankers.

This is a true indicator of the health of the world's economy. It's plain to see, in these pictures, that it isn't just the US that's suffering. The world's economy is in real trouble.

PS. we can have two instances of the same topic as long as one is "breaking news" and the other isn't

The other one isn't on the breaking news sub. There are now actually 3 threads of this. all with the same title.