US COMMERCIAL Shipbuilding (Excluding Yacht Builders)

choi

Inti Pacheco and Costas Paris, US Lags Far Behind Rivals Like China In Building Oceangoing Containerships. Wall Street Journal, Mar 3, 2025, at page A
https://www.wsj.com/business/log ... -and-rusty-03fb214e

Note:
(a) The article is old news. The only news is that Trump's proposal to "impos[e] port fees on Chinese-built ships and requir[e] some US exports to move on US-built ships."
(b) container ship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_ship
( "(also called boxship or spelled containership)" )
(c) "Few major American shipyards remain and they now mostly build or repair vessels for the US Navy. Those that do produce new commercial ships mostly make small vessels for US companies operating on domestic routes"

The second sentence alludes to the result of
Merchant Marine Act of 1920
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920
("Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act is known as the Jones Act")
, without which (Jones Act) American shipbuilding would have been long gone. Any person who knows about planned economy or rule by edict knows that this thing (either of the former two) does not work. Jones Act is a terrific example.
(d) "Hanwha, a South Korean conglomerate that acquired the Philly Shipyard last year and operates shipyards in South Korea."
(i) events in chronological order:
(A) en.wikipedia.org for Daewoo 大宇: "It was founded [by by Kim Woo-choong 金宇中 in] 1967 as Daewoo Industrial and was declared bankrupt [in] 1999, with debts of about US$50 billion (equivalent to $94 billion in 2024). Prior to the 1997 Asian financial crisis [which did Daewoo in], Daewoo was the third largest conglomerate in South Korea, behind the Hyundai Group and Lucky-Goldstar (later became LG Corporation). * * * [Park Chung Hee (1917-1979), toward the end of his rule,] "forced Daewoo into shipbuilding. Kim was reluctant to enter this industry, but Daewoo soon earned a reputation for producing competitively priced ships and oil rigs."
(B) en.wikipedia.org for "Hanwha Ocean": "Hanwha Ocean Co, Ltd (formerly known as Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME; Hanja: 大宇造船海洋) is one of the 'Big Three' shipbuilders of South Korea, along with Hyundai and Samsung. * * * The South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection found ₩1.5 trillion (equivalent to ₩1.53 trillion or US$1.35 billion in 2017)[9] of accounting fraud in DSME's books" in 2016.
(C) Hanwha Group  韓火그룹
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanwha_Group
(1952- (from the beginning, it was a civilian company: Kim Chong-hee 金鍾喜 (1922–1981) founded it to produce industrial explosives; "Hanwha completed its take over of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), renaming it Hanwha Ocean in 2023.[6]")

South Korea's defense industry started in 1971 when it ASSEMBLED Colt M16 (m stands for model) rifle under license.
(ii) Hanwha hilly Shipyard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanwha_Philly_Shipyard
(formerly Philadelphia Shipyard Inc * * * The commercial yard began [2000- ; Number of employees: 253 (2019): en.wikipedia.org for Hanhwa Philly Shipyard] after the United States Navy had ended most of its operations at the site [US Navy (founded in 1775 as Continental Navy) started building ship there (in Philadelphia) in 1776)]"/ acquisition by Hanhwa was completed in December 2024 after US government's review)