Shipping

mewbie_2

SingleSue wrote: »

I suppose one indicator is that my old job is still open to me to take up at anytime I want, if things were really down the tubes, then I expect the story would be completely different.

If there are lots of people out of work in Felixstowe - port layoffs / hauliers closing / Woolworths shut down - how come this job is being kept open for you?

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

Shipping seems to have picked up on the back of Chinese activity, this is often a good leading indicator, it collapsed 90%+ last year.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=avfqhRWZVKOs&refer=uk

Probably an indicator that credit conditions are easing a little - much trade is financed with credit. That tallies with other things that seem to show some easing in credit markets.

My suspicion is that trade will continue to increase but that rising interest rates will keep putting the brakes on a full economic recovery (rising market rates rather than base rates necessarily). Most predictions disagree with me BTW - consensus is that US recession will be over by Q4 2009 or Q1 2010 latest AIUI.

pickles110564

mewbie wrote: »

I'm guessing not a lot of iron ore and gold gets shipped to China via Felixstowe. Th only volume increasing is Pickles hysterical green shoots.

Scrap metal is being shipped out of Felixstowe to China at the moment.

SingleSue

mewbie wrote: »

If there are lots of people out of work in Felixstowe - port layoffs / hauliers closing / Woolworths shut down - how come this job is being kept open for you?

Different trades...my old company is not a haulier, forwarder or part of the port company and very few from the retail sector make the change over to shipping late on in life.

Also, my old company have been prudent in the good times enough to allow for no redundancies up until the present time and hopefully into the future. They also diversified from just doing imports and exports into cross trades and transhipments...so picking up the increased shipping between far eastern countries etc.

As for me, well I am going to have to try to do this without blowing my own trumpet (I hate boasters) but I work hard, give it my all and am eager to learn new department workings etc and as a result of that, I have a wide range of skills within shipping which means I can be fitted into just about anywhere in the company rather than just my old department. Put plainly, I am not just an import bod but can do forwarding, exports, cross trades, transhipments, manifests, accounts,transport and even IT systems development. I am also one who doesn't mind starting at the bottom of the tree...no airs and graces here!

A fair amount of the department or section leaders there now, are ones I have trained in the past when I was the manager and they were the new recruits (in a different company).

So in essence, it may not be my actual old job available but there is one available for when I want it/can do it.

mewbie_2

SingleSue wrote: »

Different trades...

Thanks Sue, an intelligent and believeable answer. I sometimes make the mistake of thinking everyone from Felixstowe is full of !!!!!!.

dopester

SingleSue wrote: »

So in essence, it may not be my actual old job available but there is one available for when I want it/can do it.

You're on benefits aren't you?

I accept you possess all these skills, knowledge and abilities to bring added value to a company, so can you explain why haven't you taken a job available to you?

Not meaning to pry, and perhaps you have good reasons. You may be a carer for someone unwell for all I know, in which case I'd understand.

SingleSue

That is exactly the reason Dopester....I have two disabled children which makes holding down a full time job impossible, even if I could get a child minding service to look after them in the school holidays.

Unfortunately, due to their history (mainly my middle son), so far, every child minder that has been approached has pretty much run to the hills! Some have been polite about it and some have not.

It has been a running battle for some time, I even approached social services to see if they could help but they got exactly the same response and could come up with no-one willing to take on the child minding during school holidays. Another problem is that even if child care could be sourced, the amount of appointments, therapy and general calls to the schools is such that there would be weeks when I would be unable to actually go into work, making me not such a reliable employee at the moment.

I even got told by a joint education authority and NHS service that I was being selfish by still trying to gain employment instead of concentrating on the needs of my middle son and a new programme he had been put on when I, on being informed that I would have to drive him on 20 mile round trip 3-4 times a week (during school time) to this programme, asked what about if I got a job and that I was actively seeking employment.

Edit - I would love to go back to my old job so the want is there, it's the able to which is the problem. That is why for a very long time, I have been applying for term based employment with the same amount of success Max (on the other thread) has had. Zilch, nada, niet.......first lot of feedback was that I really needed to show experience in working with children, so I volunteered for a year at a special needs playgroup, then that my qualifications needed to be brought up to date, I am now reaching the end of an ECDL, have taken a counselling qualification, retook my English and maths exams to make them current and to prove I hadn't forgotten how to add 2 + 2.

Still nothing.

So now I am doing a degree and fitting it around the children although studying and trying to do assignments in the wee hours of the morning is 'fun' to say the least!

reduceditem

pickles110564 wrote: »

Scrap metal is being shipped out of Felixstowe to China at the moment.

Conclusive proof that the governments new scrappage sheme for the car industry is working already! :rotfl:


Seriously, though. I'm not sure that the shipping of scrap metal anywhere can be taken as a positive indicator regarding the global recession.

bo_drinker

pickles110564 wrote: »

Scrap metal is being shipped out of Felixstowe to China at the moment.

They couldn't get enough pre Olympics hence the price of scrap here went through the roof and nose dived after the games. So they must be upping manufacturing again, more tat for us then??

FungusFighter

pickles110564 wrote: »

Mewbie, I think you will find that I only mentioned that volume was starting to rise again only a few weeks back.
Also at the moment overtime is back across every shift and every different skill set.

Won't last mate:D

Winter of discontent on the waay:D:D