Posted on October 2, 2025
The U.S. Shipbuilding Base has Withered Since the 80s; Latest CPA Report Examines What’s Needed to Bring it Back
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today released a new report by its economics team highlighting the causes and possible solutions to America’s shrinking commercial shipping industry. Titled “How to Solve America’s Shipbuilding Crisis,” the report shows how the U.S. shipbuilding supply chain—vital to national defense, advanced manufacturing and shipping, transportation and energy infrastructure—is under acute threat from the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) state-funded maritime industry. This crisis is of significant geopolitical significance, and must be addressed.
Decades of decline, owing to failed free-market policies, has transformed the United States from the world’s leading shipbuilder in 1975 to its 19th largest today. Meanwhile, China has spent the last two-and-a-half-decades methodically expanding its maritime dominance through industrial policies, massive subsidies, and strategic investments – Beijing now accounts for over 50% of the global shipbuilding market, up from around 5% back in 2000. The U.S. now produces fewer than five large commercial vessels (large oceangoing vessels over 1,000 gross tons) per year, while China builds over 1,700 annually.
Report author and CPA senior economist Mihir Torsekar says, “Shipbuilding must be a cornerstone of U.S. industrial policy. Every one shipbuilding job supports almost five additional jobs elsewhere in the economy. It’s time to correct the misguided policies of the past that surrendered our global leadership of this critical industry to China. The recommendations made in this report will be critical to reversing this trend.”
In this week’s new episode of the ‘American Maritime Podcast,’ Torsekar sat down with the team to discuss the new report, and how tariffs, trade policy, and industrial strategy can reshape the future of U.S. shipbuilding. For those interested in U.S. shipyards, maritime policy, tariffs, and national security, the conversation offers timely insights into one of America’s most strategic industries. From the impact of steel tariffs on U.S. shipyards to the threat of China’s state-subsidized shipbuilding dominance, the podcast breaks down what’s at stake for America’s maritime industry and how President Trump’s trade agenda is connected to the Jones Act.
CPA’s report shares how geopolitical stakes of this imbalance are high for several reasons. A high percentage of military cargo is transported by sea. Rapid environmental changes have unlocked strategic new regional shipping routes, with the Arctic region becoming a critical supplier of key minerals necessary for advanced technological development and new energy products.
Also, China’s shipbuilding strategy has successfully led to global port dominance for them. China’s famous military-civil fusion strategy integrates commercial and military shipbuilding, and as a result, China is the world’s top commercial shipbuilder and the world’s largest and fastest growing naval power.
KEY POINTS
- The U.S. shipbuilding base has withered since the 1980s.
- China’s rise was fueled by massive subsidies and American offshoring.
- China dominates global port infrastructure and equipment and maintains supply chain control.
- Consolidation gave China unmatched scale. No one comes close.
- The U.S. needs a comprehensive response.
CPA proposes the following solutions: strengthening and enforcing the Jones Act, which sends a strong demand signal for domestic shipbuilding; establishing a shipbuilding industrial fund and tax incentives; investing in domestic shipyards and technology; imposing strategic fees and import restrictions on Chinese maritime assets; expanding U.S.-flagged fleets via cargo preference laws; and coordinating with allies against unfair practices, while enhancing Arctic capabilities.
“CPA’s industry-leading economics team has once again put together a timely economic report highlighting how U.S. trade policy has ignored for decades the erosion of our shipbuilding industry – which underpins U.S. national security and industrial resilience – and given dangerous rise to our strongest geopolitical adversary,” said Jon Toomey, President of the Coalition for a Prosperous America. “The erosion of America’s shipbuilding industry began in the 1980s, driven by free-market economic policies that withdrew critical government support. And when the administration terminated federal shipbuilding subsidies, that decision caused the U.S. commercial shipbuilding market to collapse virtually overnight, leaving U.S. shipyards unable to compete with their foreign competitors, most concerningly, the People’s Republic of China.”
Lastly, CPA’s report identifies the most urgent economic and national security vulnerabilities in the shipbuilding supply chain and recommends targeted remedies, that if taken together, the measures will protect U.S. shipbuilding, counter predatory Chinese practices, and secure one of the most essential industries for America’s industrial, transportation, and national security future.
America once sustained a vibrant regional shipyard network serving both Navy and commercial fleets, and it is long past time to restore that proven capacity. CPA’s reporting concludes that the United States must counter unfair competition and rebuild domestic capacity, begin to regain its shipbuilding prowess, and in the process create thousands of skilled-labor jobs, ensuring that America shapes the future of the world’s oceans.
