International Shipping and Advice

[aenea]

Hi Folks,

I’m looking for people who have experience shipping (especially sensitive electronic parts) overseas.

I’ve shipped before, and ran a shipping department for several years at a small company I used to work at. We did ship occasionally to other countries (via UPS), and I’ve shipped a few times overseas for eBay.

I’ve been contacted for an interview with a small firm that makes semiconductors. They have some large clients and their business is growing and they need someone in shipping experienced in overseas shipping requirements. I would VERY much like to be considered for the job and need to know if I stand a chance here.
Are there any special things I would need to know to ship sensitive electronics overseas, besides the usual customs forms? Is there anything I should know going in? Is there someplace you’d recommend that I look at or read carefully, besides FedEx or UPS?

Any comments or advice appreciated.
[sub]well, I prolly wouldn’t appreciate mean comments, but YKWIM[/sub]

[Shayna]

Hi aenea. I’m not sure what other information you might need besides what you’ve already outlined, but I found this article and thought it might be of interest to you…

“The U.S. is facing an imminent threat to national security as a result of the changing composition of the semiconductor industry and foreign government actions which have capitalized on those alterations,” the report said.

<snip>

In a bid to cut costs, more and more chipmakers are moving operations overseas. For example, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) bypassed Central Texas for a new multibillion-dollar chipmaking plant in Signapore. However, that project now is on hold.

It’s from last June, but it might prove to be interesting research to find out what the results were of Senator Lieberman’s request for a “plan of action” from the Pentagon, and how this issue is perceived by the company you’ll be interviewing with (what their longterm goals are, with regard to maintaining a U.S. base of operations, etc.). It could at least provide for some interesting questions to bring to the interview, to show that you’re aware of the international climate regarding semiconductor manufacturing and R&D.

Sorry I can’t help with anything more specific.

Good luck! You’ll have to let us know how it goes.

[Shayna]

More stuff I found…

Analysts Predict Mild 2005 Recession for Semiconductors March 15, 2004

Ooo, there’s an International Conference on Electronics Packaging and 18th Microelectronics Show in Tokyo next month, and a Taiwan Semiconductor Fair in June – maybe they’d let you go to one of those! (Seriously, though, you can probably gather a lot of information about their industry from the home pages of either of those sites. There’s some cool info if you hunt around there, on things like packaging (which, if you’re going to be in shipping, will be a concern for you) and trade & government stuff.)

[aenea]

That was most kind of you to look up all of that information.

You certainly Googled more useful info than I was able to find.