The USA was once the greatest shipbuilding nation in the world, but things have changed.

American-built and flagged vessels have been shrinking in both number and percentage of the worldwide fleet

The Context

There is a tremendous opportunity in the United States right now. We have thousands of vessels that move people and goods on our waterways that need to be replaced due to old age. The build of new vessels provides not only shipyard jobs (everything from welders to engine manufacturers to electricians), but then helps to promote stevedoring, port and mariner jobs.

The United States of America has been a maritime nation since its inception. Geographically, the nation has the longest coastlines, navigable rivers and lakes, and most developed port network in the world. Water dictated the nation’s pattern of development and we relied on our water thoroughfares to move the majority of our population and commerce before the advent of the east-west railroads and the interstate highway system.

As one of the largest trading nations in the world, we will always need robust military and commercial fleets of vessels to protect our coastlines, our worldwide national security interests and finally our domestic cargos and our international commerce. Therefore, we need a vibrant ship building industry to build vessels to and support our national agendas.

The Dilemma

The age-old adage that the nation that controls the seaways controls the world still holds true.

But we face a dilemma today. The United States was once the greatest shipbuilding nation in the world, but American-built and flagged vessels have been shrinking in both number and percentage of the worldwide fleet, as the table below shows. (Note that Jones Act compliant, or U.S. built, vessels are just over half of the 169 vessels in 2016.)

American-Flagged Private Ocean-Going Vessels

In addition, our Jones Act fleets have literally thousands of vessels that are well past their useful life and need to be replaced.  Today there are 8,735 U.S. flagged motorized vessels, 75% of which are reaching the end of their useful life (as the chart below illustrates). These vessels must be replaced in series with new modern tonnage. Further, we have a host of new marine assets that need to be produced in order to provide redundancy, resiliency and add capacity to our transportation infrastructure needs.

What can we do?

Is there enough capacity in the system to get the job done? Yes, the manpower and skill sets exist and there are over 40 active commercial regional and smaller repair yards that can do the job. We advocate to simply adapt modern means and methods, based on Ford Motor Company’s mass manufacturing strategies, that are now employed in Germany and the Netherlands. Series models instead of one-offs isn’t a new idea. Americans developed and perfected series mass vessel production in WWII, when we built more than 2,700 Liberty ships in three years.

Although producing more than 6,000 replacement vessels may seem daunting, we did it once before, and can do it again.  Resuming shipbuilding will provide jobs, stimulate our economy and help to move the goods and people required to keep the country moving forward. We have the need, we have the skilled labor, and we have the yards.

Can we Americans do the job? In fact, when faced with a challenge, Americans are at their best, using our collective abilities, imaginations, ingenuity, and sense of purpose to get the job done.

We have long had a history of being AmeriCANs.  We can do anything we put our minds to. Let’s get going!