Rebuilding commercial shipbuilding key for future
I vividly recall the awe I felt more than 45 years ago on stepping into the cavernous shell of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker under construction at the Newport News shipyard.
My experience as a teenager scaling ladders in my family’s tobacco barns did little to prepare me for work on the scaffolding that soared a couple of hundred feet above me in a dry dock just off the James River.
I spent my first months at the shipyard installing insulation on that tanker, one of the last to be built during America’s heyday as a commercial shipbuilder.
The demise of the commercial shipbuilding industry cost tens of thousands of jobs and jeopardized national security. But now, a coalition led by my union, the United Steelworkers (USW), is fighting to rebuild the domestic shipbuilding capacity essential to our collective prosperity and safety.
On March 12, the USW filed a petition with the U.S. Trade Representative seeking an investigation into China’s predatory grip on commercial shipbuilding markets and stranglehold on global logistics networks.
China’s discriminatory policies and massive state support for shipbuilding not only kill competition but leave us dependent on Chinese shipping.
America once boasted about 30 major shipyards that employed 180,000 workers and had orders for upwards of 70 commercial vessels a year. These oceangoing cargo freighters, container ships and tankers not only carried America’s industrial goods to the world but represented emergency sealift capacity — a critical component of defense preparedness — for the U.S. military.
I arrived at Newport News fresh out of high school in the late 1970s as the shipyard built three LNG tankers for the El Paso Natural Gas Co. and a pair of ultra large crude carriers (ULCCs) for the U.S. Trust Co. News stories described the ULCCs — the U.S.T. Atlantic and U.S.T. Pacific — as the biggest ships ever built in the Western Hemisphere.
But Newport News began focusing exclusively on military contracts after the launch of the U.S.T. Pacific in 1979. Today, about 12,000 workers at the shipyard — represented by USW Local 8888 — make aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines for the Navy.
Across the country, other shipyards also scaled back, focused on military projects or closed, leaving fewer than 10 facilities today that jointly produce only a handful of commercial vessels annually. In 2022, the U.S. had just five commercial ships under construction, compared to 1,794 in China, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.
As a result, we increasingly rely on Chinese ships to carry our goods to market and to deliver products to our ports in return.
But because China has the power to cut off access at any time to ships it builds and operates, it’s essential that America regain shipbuilding capacity and produce a domestic fleet for trade and military preparedness.
Reviving the industry would bring back jobs in shipyards and strengthen essential supply chains. Ships contain vast quantities of aluminum, cable, coatings, glass, steel and numerous other products made by skilled union workers, all of whom stand ready to supply shipbuilding needs.
Just as important, revitalization of the domestic shipbuilding industry complements other historic initiatives already underway to forge manufacturing might, create good-paying jobs and ensure the nation never again runs short of goods as happened during the pandemic.
President Joe Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, for example, ramps up production of the semiconductors needed for automobiles, appliances and many other goods. And his Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act not only unleashes $1.2 trillion for upgrades to transportation, communications and energy systems but prioritizes the use of U.S-made materials and components in these taxpayer-funded projects.
Commercial shipbuilding represents the next phase of America’s resurgence. After decades of neglecting this vital industry, it’s time to right the ship.