American Shipbuilding Could Get a Boost This Year

Concerns over a languishing crucial industry could spur congressional action to do something about it.

Is 2025 the year the United States get a shipbuilding resurgence to float again?

It may be. Egged on by Covid-19 supply chain snarls, the emergence of China as a powerful naval rival, and a petition to the United States Trade Representative that drew attention to a languishing maritime manufacturing sector, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in 2024 grew increasingly interested in helping rebuild the country's capacity to make and maintain large oceangoing vessels. This kind of industry is important not only to commerce but to building and maintaining a navy. And America's, which was once robust, has atrophied since the federal government withdrew support for commercial shipbuilding in the 1980s. American shipbuilding priorities shifted, and production is now largely dominated by defense spending.

So we make naval vessels, but that's become a problem too. There's obvious overlap between the commercial and naval sectors - things like resiliencies, know-how, and a ready-and-able workforce - and as the former has declined the production of warships has suffered. Our national lack of capacity in making boats is the fundamental issue here.

But righting this ship (pun intended) is easier said than done.

"One of the hardest things to do in this country is recreate a heavy industry," a retired U.S. Coast Guard rear admiral consulting in this space told the Wall Street Journal over the holidays. Still, successive administrations have called attention to it. Trump, late in his first term, called for a surge in naval shipbuilding. The Biden administration has encouraged allies like South Korea and Japan to invest in American maritime industries. As mentioned, the United Steelworkers union spearheaded a petition that called on the Biden administration's USTR to investigate whether the policies and support that China has lavished on its now enormous commercial shipbuilding industry has beggared the United States' (a summary report is expected before President-elect Trump takes office).

And now there's bipartisan legislation on Capitol Hill to do something about the shipbuilding problem. Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Todd Young (R-IN) and Reps. John Garamendi (D-CA) and Trent Kelly (R-MS) have introduced the SHIPS Act, which, as described by the Journal, "calls for resources and White House-level involvement comparable to policies on energy, semiconductors and aviation." Trump's pick for secretary of the Navy hasn't weighed in, but his pick for national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), was involved in writing early drafts of the bill. That provides hope that support could come from the incoming administration, too.

We hope so. The SHIPS Act has the Alliance for American Manufacturing's endorsement. We'll be watching closely to see if this focus on shipbuilding produces any legislative action.