Nation's shipbuilders ride crest of global success
US efforts to bolster capacity unlikely to faze well-established industry in China
The United States' plan to boost its shipbuilding capacity and impose fees on Chinese vessels is unlikely to have a major impact on the booming industry in China, experts and analysts said.
In his national address last month, US President Donald Trump vowed to set up a new office of shipbuilding in the White House to "resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding".
Trump said the US is going to make ships "very fast, very soon", which will have "a huge impact" to further enhance national security.
In a separate move, the US Trade Representative on Feb 21 proposed charging substantial fees on Chinese-built vessels entering US ports under a union-supported plan to spur US shipbuilding.
Under the proposal, vessels owned by Chinese maritime transport operators would pay a port entrance fee of up to $1 million each time, and other operators using Chinese-built ships could be charged as much as $1.5 million.
However, industry experts and insiders said the US government's latest attempts to restore its shipbuilding prowess are unlikely to shake China's current position as the world's largest commercial shipbuilder.
"The trend of China's shipbuilding industry holding the title as the world's largest shipbuilder is irreversible, and I see little challenge to China retaining the position," said Hu Keyi, chief of corporate technology with Jiangnan Shipyard, a unit of China State Shipbuilding Corp, the world's largest shipbuilder.
Yi Guowei, deputy manager of large cruise ship project of CSSC's Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co, said, "the US used to be the world's greatest shipbuilding power, but the shipbuilding industry requires a complete industrial chain, which took China decades to develop to reach its current scale".
In a March 23 Washington Post report, maritime experts were quoted as saying it is unrealistic to expect the US shipbuilding industry to revive overnight, and it will require decades of ongoing support from the US government. There are currently not enough US-made ships to replace China-built ones in the market, so to impose hefty port entrance fees on Chinese ships will only increase freight costs and disrupt global supply chains, the report added.
