I don’t see why we cannot build as cheaply Western European countries, or Japan. Modern yards with more robotic welding should help to close the gap.
How many shipyards do we need? How many ships do they need to build per year? What would it take to have a competitive ship building industrial base? I don’t know, but someone could figure that out.
It long past time that we face the fact that China is a dangerous enemy hell bent on World domination. We should not allow Chinese owned, designed, built, financed, or insured ships to enter US waters. That would reduce Chinese cost advantages.
Ships built in countries with no significant enforced labor or environmental standards, should be subject to a tax if they want to enter US waters.
Chinese shipyards are essentially government owned and run on government money. Most countries subsidize their shipyards with national healthcare and numerous other subsidies.
Yes, it would take billions of dollars government equity investment, loans, and grants to essentially build a néw shipbuilding industrial base. Is it worth it? I think so, because I do not see how the US can be a prosperous country capable of defending itself without a productive reasonably competitive shipbuilding industrial base at appropriate scale.
Comparing ship building to building airplanes is a poor analogy. There are only two airline manufactures that the major airlines look to when purchasing airplanes. Boeing and Airbus. The summed up reasons being airplanes are hard to build, need highly skilled employees, and have a high barrier of entry.
Vessels on the other hand can realistically be built by any joker with a welder and steel and have a low level of entry. As seen by the number of vessels coming out of India and China.
Three legs support the US shipping industry, take away one of those legs and the rest will soon follow.
They want to remove building requirements. They are telling you it will create more jobs. When that dosent work they will want to remove cabotage laws that wont work either. Finely manning will be the blame and we are all with out jobs.
How will having cheaper vessels make more work? Short sea shipping is not practical in a world where we want things the next day. There is only so much grain and coal is dying, explain to me how cheaper tugs will make more work. Offshore! We have too many vessels as it is.
Bad comparison. Yes, “vessels” aren’t difficult to build. But neither are aircraft. Specialized commercial jetliners used by major airlines – that’s a different story. But it’s the same for specialized vessels like wind turbine installation vessels or LNG carriers. Not just any joker with a welder and steel can build those.
As for US-build, it in no way follows that removing that requirement will then lead to the removal of other requirements. Airlines aren’t subject to U.S.-built, but do we hear any clamoring for an end to airline cabotage? I suspect that if US-built went away that there would be less talk about scrapping the Jones Act and its other requirements as the law would be perceived as less onerous.
And yes, short sea shipping is practical. It happens in Europe. Why not here? No, highways wouldn’t suddenly be turned into ghost towns and trucking coming to a screeching halt, but the status quo can be improved upon.
US-built is a horrendous bargain. Output of 2-3 oceangoing ships per year (zero scheduled for delivery next year) in exchange for a diminished fleet of vessels that have to last 40+ years owing to fearsome replacement costs. It’s madness.
YES!
I haven’t heard it lately, but it has happened. The idea was to use foreign registered aircraft with foreign crews earning a lot less than USA standard wages.
Why would it already exist here given a policy regime so unfriendly to its existence? Allowing far cheaper foreign-builds would absolutely have an impact on the viability of SSS, as numerous studies have concluded. We can debate the magnitude of the impact, but it wouldn’t be zero.
Has a bill ever been introduced? A hearing held? Surely the standard has to be higher than some person somewhere calling for this at some point in the past.
If it were economically viable, it would. Even container barge runs have failed, because there isn’t the economic demand for it. Without customers it doesn’t matter if you have a more affordable ship. BTW, the difference in cost of a US vessel compared to a foreign vessel is negligible on a per-container-moved basis.
Most of that barrier is purely financial. China builds aircraft, they are building a competitor for the 737 and have a market that will use hundreds if not thousands of them.Like China, India has a very competent aerospace industry that supplies Boeing and Airbus. All it takes is government financial support to build the infrastructure and purchase machinery.
The only airline problem with airliner construction seems to be the low cost and minimally skilled labor filling the Boeing assembly lines in Charleston.
Thank you for a long awaited chuckle , Bumfuckistan is a worthy statement… Nailed it. Son and daughter in-law just went on a delayed honeymoon trip to Disney… Did not fly with Bumfuckistan Airlines, Was still concerned, but did alright. I haven’t flown since I retired in 2003. No need to.
I place I flew for in Hawaii got their certificate yanked when it was discovered to be foreign-owned on the down-low
I have exactly the same issue with Bumfuckistan Airlines flying over my house as I do with their tugboat division hauling a barge full of gasoline past my house.
