By Paul Berger

U.S. lawmakers are launching the biggest push in decades to revitalize American shipbuilding.

A bipartisan group of legislators reintroduced a bill Wednesday to stimulate demand for hundreds of U.S.-built ships and to boost America's ranks of shipbuilders and sailors.

The Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security for America Act includes tax incentives for shipyard improvements, the establishment of a Maritime Security Trust Fund to pay for investments and a target to more than triple the number of U.S.-built vessels in international trades.

Resurrecting American shipbuilding won't be easy. Each year, U.S. shipyards produce a handful of large commercial ships, compared with hundreds of vessels that are pumped out of Chinese shipyards.

China has rapidly grown its shipbuilding sector over the past two decades and recently surpassed South Korea as the world's largest builder of commercial ships. China's order book last year of 3,419 commercial ships represented more than 62% of global production, according to BRS Shipbrokers.

The SHIPS for America Act provides a rare moment of bipartisan unity in Washington.

"This bill's pretty popular right now and has broad industry support and bipartisan support in the House and Senate," said Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona who is among the co-sponsors of the bill. The other sponsors are Sen. Todd Young (R., Ind.), Rep. John Garamendi (D., Calif.) and Rep. Trent Kelly (R., Miss.).

Democratic and Republican administrations have identified America's weak shipbuilding industry and a shortage of U.S.-flagged commercial vessels as an economic and national security threat at a time of China's maritime dominance.

The Biden and Trump administrations have both taken actions to weaken China's maritime industry. Trump in April signed an executive order that dovetails with many aspects of the legislation.

"This is two different administrations now saying the exact same thing," said Matt Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America. "This is a serious, comprehensive, strategic, thoughtful laying out of what, if we're serious about this, we really need to revitalize our maritime industrial base."

Shipping industry officials say U.S. ships take three times as long to build and cost at least three times more than foreign-built ships. They say a U.S. shipbuilding revival will require significant investments in yards and in training for a new generation of shipbuilders as well as generous subsidies to make American ships attractive compared with heavily-subsidized foreign yards.

It will come at considerable cost. "Nobody is making money in shipbuilding," said Francois Cadiou, a managing director of BRS Shipbrokers' Paris operations.

President Trump in a speech to Congress in March said the U.S. had fallen behind other nations in shipbuilding, but "we're going to make them very fast, very soon."

His administration has created a new maritime directorate in the National Security Council tasked with stimulating domestic maritime industries while countering China's rise.

The president's executive order directs administration officials to create financial incentives for domestic shipbuilding and to find ways to expand the fleet of U.S.-flagged ships that can be called upon in wartime to transport military cargoes. Sen. Kelly said the SHIPS for America Act effectively provides the authority and the funding for many of the administration's maritime goals and more.

The bill would establish a 25% investment tax credit for shipyard investments and create a trust fund that would invest in the domestic maritime industry. It would also set a goal of adding 250 U.S.-built vessels over 10 years to the current fleet of about 80 U.S.-flagged ships in international commerce.

That would mean more orders for companies like Hanwha Philly Shipyard, one of just a handful of U.S. yards currently capable of making large international commercial vessels.

Asian shipyards routinely build ships capable of carrying the equivalent of 16,000 containers, with some yards building ships capable of carrying more than 20,000 boxes. Philly Shipyard is currently working on an order for three ships each capable of carrying 3,600 boxes.

The struggling yard was recently bought by Hanwha, a South Korean conglomerate. David Kim, the yard's new chief executive, said the company plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in facilities and to introduce automation and efficiency practices used in Hanwha's South Korean yards.

Kim said the new U.S. policies and funding should create the consistent demand for ships that shipbuilders need to make such investments.

Write to Paul Berger at paul.berger@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 30, 2025 14:29 ET (18:29 GMT)

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