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An estimated 80 % of container ships calling the US would be subject to the proposed USTR port fees. ambient _ pix / Shutterstock. com invest $ 20 billion in the US maritime sector over the next four years, including expanding its US-flag fleet and increasing capacity at key US ports.
However, AAPA’ s Davis and others say the scale of investment needed for US shipyards to compete with shipbuilders overseas will be prohibitive.
“ The American shipbuilding industry... needs major infusions of capital, workforce talent and innovation to begin competing with shipbuilders abroad,” Davis wrote.“ A fee on foreign vessels will simply not bring back American shipbuilding.”
“ It’ s a vision we’ d love to see of making‘ big, beautiful ships’ and so forth, but we don’ t have the capacity.”
The National Retail Federation( NRF), in a response last year to the Biden administration’ s investigation of China, said USTR would have to impose a fee of $ 5 million per port call to offset the estimated $ 50 billion cost of adding necessary US shipyard capacity.
ACL’ s Abbott said even if carriers were to stop ordering vessels from China, US yards would continue to be undercut by shipbuilders in other countries.
“ Chinese shipyards do indeed offer much cheaper prices than American shipyards today, but so do the
shipyards of virtually every other country around the globe,” Abbott wrote.“ None of this turmoil inflicted on American exporters and importers would help the American shipbuilding industry. It would only reshuffle the cards, with Korea, Japan and Taiwan grabbing the new vessel orders instead of China.”
Ordering a newbuild 3,600-TEU container ship from a shipyard in Korea would cost roughly $ 50 million at today’ s prices, compared with around $ 333 million from a US yard, according to BIMCO.
“ It’ s a vision we’ d love to see of making‘ big, beautiful ships’ and so forth, but we don’ t have the capacity to do it,” Friedmann said.“ And I think, eventually, [ Trump ] will have to back off.”
Friedmann further noted that the USTR could still adjust the fee proposal based on public comments and pressure from longshore unions, given that Trump has already shown a willingness to intervene in contract talks on behalf of longshore labor. At the time of writing, the International Longshoremen’ s Association( ILA) and International Longshore and Warehouse Union( ILWU) had yet to comment publicly on the proposal, despite widespread speculation that they would oppose the fees due to the potential impacts to dockworker employment.
“ A lot of companies are thinking this will never happen, [ that ] it’ ll just fall of its own weight,” Friedmann said.“ I think everybody in the trade community has got to convince the ILA and ILWU: regardless of what these other unions say, you need to protect your own jobs.”
email: michael. angell @ spglobal. com email: greg. knowler @ spglobal. com
14 Journal of Commerce | April 7, 2025 www. joc. com