A Mega Deal Between Chinese State-Owned Enterprises Underscores How Far Behind the U.S. is on Shipbuilding

Alliance for American Manufacturing ^ | Jan 09 2026 | Matthew McMullan

[daniel1212]

Our own commercial shipbuilding industry has a lot of catching up to do. We should pass the SHIPS for America Act to support it as soon as possible. Last month an eye-popping headline came out of the Chinese shipping and logistics industry: Cosco, a state-owned shipping conglomerate based in Shanghai, had struck a deal with another state-owned firm – China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) – for 87 new vessels across all segments of its fleet. Maritime Executive said the order includes “ultra-large container ships, ultra-large bulk carriers, ultra-large oil tankers, grain transport ships, multi-purpose heavy lift vessels, MR tankers, ro-ro ships, and small box ships.” The deal, all told, is worth roughly $7 billion.

It’s a huge transaction. And that huge sum and huge order, all done between state-owned enterprises, are all possible thanks to the support the Chinese government has dedicated to its domestic shipbuilding industry in recent decades. CSSC in 2024 built more commercial vessels by tonnage than the entire U.S. shipbuilding industry has built since World War II, and that was before it merged with its main Chinese rival, which was also a state-owned firm. Both benefitted from heavy government support outlined in five year industrial policy plans like Made in China 2025.

You can probably guess, based on that anecdote, just how large of a share China owns of the global shipbuilding industry and how tiny the United States’ is by comparison. China is responsible for more than half of global commercial shipbuilding production, while South Korea is responsible for nearly 29% and Japan 13%, and the rest of the world accounts for roughly less than 5%, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The U.S., meanwhile, is responsible for about a tenth of a percent.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Conspiracy; History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: china; iran; mightyfallen; navy; time2seekthelord

[dfwgator]

We were in a pretty sad state in 1938, but we sure caught up.

[Fai Mao]

And it isn’t as though some of the places we have US companies building ships have cheap labor. Cruise ships are built in Finland, Italy, and France.

[frank ballenger]

Odd story I remember from Newsweek. “George Steinbrenner, Welfare Recipient.”

Once the US was in bad shape from being behind in submarines and surface ships. Although George Steinbrenner, principal owner of the NY Yankees and other interests, had been nearing bankruptcy in his American Ship Building Company (AmShip) the US bailed him out with money. His Tampa shipbuilding complex was the only one large enough and efficient enough to supply the ships needed for US defense.