The U.S. shipping industry has dwindled over past decades while China’s has drastically grown, putting the United States at an economic and military disadvantage, according to experts at a roundtable discussion held in Washington on July 9.
The roundtable, titled “Reinvigorating the U.S.-Flag Fleet and Shipbuilding Industry,” was attended by maritime industry leaders and the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.
During the discussion, the committee’s chairman, Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), outlined the shipbuilding industry’s challenges since the industry mobilized during World War II.
The United States, he said, produced more than 5,000 ships during the war to deliver Allied troops and supplies to the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. By the 1950s, the U.S.-flagged, privately owned merchant fleet accounted for half of the world’s cargo shipping capacity.
“The maritime industry, both domestically and internationally, has changed dramatically since that time,” Mr. Webster said. “The closure and consolidation of shipyards across the country has left us only a handful of domestic facilities capable of producing large ocean-going vessels, while China has grown their shipbuilding capacity exponentially.”
Today, U.S. ships account for less than 1 percent of the tonnage transported, and as the number of U.S. vessels shrinks, so does the number of qualified U.S. mariners needed to crew them.
An April report by the Maritime Administration said the United States did not have enough trained mariners to adequately crew the nation’s ships during a full-scale national emergency.
At the same time, China largely has subsidized its shipping industry and has thousands of large ships in its fleet and tens of thousands of mariners coming out of training school each year, according to Brian Schoeneman, political and legislative director at the Seafarers International Union of North America.
Careers and Cargo
The discussion centered on how to reinvigorate the U.S. flag fleet and the shipbuilding industry.Although the experts did not settle on any solutions, several ideas were floated, such as growing the Coast Guard, expanding maritime education, and letting high school students know about opportunities and careers with the Merchant Marines.
Brent Sadler, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, suggested creating maritime prosperity zones to encourage businesses to invest in shipbuilding.
The United States could offer a tax incentive for moving cargo on a U.S. flagship, USA Maritime’s Christian Johnsen said.
Retired Rear Adm. James A. Watson IV said Americans need to understand who delivers their products.
“The American people think their cargo—the stuff they’re buying from China—comes in on a U.S. ship,” he said. “They think 30 [percent to] 40 percent of the ships in the world are U.S., and that’s absolutely wrong. We need to correct that.”
Several people suggested that lawmakers put more funding into the industry.
“We’re not a priority. Maritime has not been a priority for this country in a long time,” Mr. Schoeneman said.
“We have shippers in this country who are shipping millions of metric tons of cargo. They have no idea what ship it is going on, what crew is on the ship, what flag—they don’t care. They just need to make sure that the thing gets there. ... We have to be able to demonstrate to them that they need to care about what country that ship is from, where it was built, who crews it, and it is as important to them as getting it there on time.”
