Nation's shipbuilders ride crest of global success

U.S. efforts to bolster capacity unlikely to faze well-established industry in China

Adora Magic City, China's first domestically built cruise ship undocks in Shanghai in June 2023. (Photo provided to China Daily)

The United States' plan to boost its shipbuilding capacity and impose fees on Chinese vessels is unlikely to have a major impact on the booming industry in China, experts and analysts said.

In his national address last month, U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to set up a new office of shipbuilding in the White House to "resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding".

Trump said the U.S. is going to make ships "very fast, very soon", which will have "a huge impact" to further enhance national security.

In a separate move, the U.S. Trade Representative on Feb 21 proposed charging substantial fees on Chinese-built vessels entering U.S. ports under a union-supported plan to spur U.S. shipbuilding.

Under the proposal, vessels owned by Chinese maritime transport operators would pay a port entrance fee of up to $1 million each time, and other operators using Chinese-built ships could be charged as much as $1.5 million.

However, industry experts and insiders said the U.S. government's latest attempts to restore its shipbuilding prowess are unlikely to shake China's current position as the world's largest commercial shipbuilder.

"The trend of China's shipbuilding industry holding the title as the world's largest shipbuilder is irreversible, and I see little challenge to China retaining the position," said Hu Keyi, chief of corporate technology with Jiangnan Shipyard, a unit of China State Shipbuilding Corp, the world's largest shipbuilder.

Yi Guowei, deputy manager of large cruise ship project of CSSC's Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co, said, "the U.S. used to be the world's greatest shipbuilding power, but the shipbuilding industry requires a complete industrial chain, which took China decades to develop to reach its current scale".

In a March 23 Washington Post report, maritime experts were quoted as saying it is unrealistic to expect the U.S. shipbuilding industry to revive overnight, and it will require decades of ongoing support from the U.S. government. There are currently not enough U.S.-made ships to replace China-built ones in the market, so to impose hefty port entrance fees on Chinese ships will only increase freight costs and disrupt global supply chains, the report added.