$0.00, not counting fuel and handling: that is the cheapest quote right now if you want to ship a container from southern China to Europe. Back in the summer of 2007 the shipper would have charged $1,400. Half-empty freighters are justrnone sign of a worldwide collapse in manufacturing. In Germany December's machine-tool orders were 40% lower than a year earlier. Half of China's 9,000 or so toy exporters have gone bust. Taiwan's shipments of notebook computers fell by a third in the month of January. The number of cars being assembled in America was 60% below January 2008.rnThe destructive global power of the financial crisis became clear last year. The immensity of the manufacturing crisis is still sinking in, largely because it is seen in national terms-in-deed, often nationalistic ones. In fact manufacturing is also caught up in a global whirlwind.
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