Hah! and I thought you did not read the DailyMail.
Good artical. I can also remember back in the 80's when many ships were in the same location.
Also USA ships..hospital ships. The guys were 'infected'..sexual infection and never allowed to return to the USA. Vietnam war. Reason why?...no cure. However the world does not like to chat about 'sexual infection' of troops.
Colin!...hit me with a clip from 'Virgin Solders'. The bit with:-"A cold eh?, well I will give it one minute to sneeze".
Hi everyone, right now we have at least 50, possibly as many as 80 or 90 bulk ships anchored off the New South Wales coast, outside the port of Newcastle. Most of them sit out there for a couple of weeks waiting for a berth at the coal loaders. We can't load them fast enough for China. Some of course won't have charters so will be hanging around at anchor waiting for the call ready to move in. I think its the same situation off Mackay in Queensland, coal again, and probably similar at Cape York where they ship out bauxite for aluminium production in China. Around the North West coast of WA, at Karratha and Port Hedland, the bulkers queue up for iron ore, again , most goes to China. Soon it will be huge gas tankers both at Karratha and at Gladstone in Queensland.
Right now we have the strange situation of our Prime Minister, (with a full media crew in close attendance), parading on the world stage preaching the gospel of Climate Change prior to the big talkfest in Copenhagen in December. But last May, in our budget, he allocated millions/billions of borrowed dollars to double the capacity of the rail lines that bring the coal from the mines to the loaders.
Truth of the matter is you need coal to make steel, either as coke in the traditional method, or in the power stations to make electricity for the electric furnaces.
So there is a lot of shipping going on but its in raw materials not finished goods. Stu
Stu and I disagree on many issues. But we are still friends.
Stu is in favour of Australia being a whore to China, opening it's gates (legs) for China to plunder it's riches///raw minerals. Stu loves the ships 'waiting' all in line to remove the raw minerals. I do not.
China is a parasite and feeds on the Land of Plenty.
Occsaionally I wonder, "Is Australia a country, a colony or just a plurry big quarry?" And for sure, I'm not the first person to think about that. I think books have been written about it so there's nothing original in it.
I think Bobo you're getting worked up because we are flogging raw materials to the Chinks. Not so long ago the major plunderers of our wealth and toil were the Poms. They owned the cattle and sheep stations, the freezing works, and the shipping lines who carted the stuff to Europe. They also owned a lot of Australia's manufacturing capacity, and, due to the Commonwealth Preference Scheme, imports coming from Britain had a tariff preference over other countries, all shipped in those same shipping companies of course. Thats Port Line, Blue Star, P&O, NZSC, SSA, Federal, etc etc. The Vesty family owned Blue Star and also owned large rural properties in Australia, New Zealand and South America, as well as the meat processing plants in these countries. Over the years much of that commercial activity has moved to the Japs and Yanks, and I believe the largest cattle station in the Northern Territory is owned by the Sultan of Brunei. The Indians are also actively involved in buying our coal, and even some of our wineries. Nearly forgot, and this will please you Bobo, we flog a fair amount of uranium to the Frogs.
So Bobo, would you get as worked up if we flogged off our raw materials to the Europeans or North Americans, or is it just the Chinks you are worried about?
Yer right Bobo, I just love to see those big bulkers carry away our coal and iron ore, the revenue from that pays for our pensions, hospitals, universities, and infrastructure projects. It gives our kids and grandkids opportunities and helps pay off all the debts run up by our crazy governments. Stu
-- Edited by stuhogg on Wednesday 23rd of September 2009 05:44:16 AM
-- Edited by stuhogg on Wednesday 23rd of September 2009 11:13:51 AM
.
.
