Latest news with #China-built
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
China's maritime lead a security threat, say ‘Zero Point Four' authors
A significant decline in the number of U.S.-flagged vessels and the collapse of domestic shipbuilding have created vulnerabilities in national security, say two of the co-authors of 'Zero Point Four: How U.S. Leadership in Maritime Will Secure America's Future.' James Watson and Carleen Lyden Walker said the U.S. maritime industry is at a critical moment. U.S.-flagged ships have declined to a 0.4% (200 ships) of the estimated 55,000 oceangoing vessels serving the global supply chain. 'We have lost our [maritime] leadership as a nation and we can recapture that if we decide to recognize the incredible impact of maritime security on national security, economic, energy, and food, climate and workforce,' Walker told FreightWaves in an interview. Watson and Walker said the U.S. has become so dependent on foreign-manufactured ships that it has created vulnerability in supply chains and risks shortages in military maritime than 90% of the world's goods and energy travel by ship, and most people don't understand the U.S. dependency on the maritime industry, the authors said. 'The big part of why we wrote the book … is all the opportunities that actually do exist for investments by Americans into American ships, but also industries that involve the oceans, that involve what we call the fourth industrial revolution, the use of AI, the use of the developments in science and technology that ought to be opportunities for America to basically leapfrog China,' Watson said. Watson is a retired Rear Adm. in the U.S. Coast Guard and is currently an independent consultant providing business development services to maritime clients. Walker is co-founder and managing partner of the Maritime Accelerator for Resilience and co-founder and CEO of the North American Marine Environment Protection Association.'Zero Point Four' was published in March 2024. In addition to Watson and Walker, the book was co-authored by global supply chain specialist Jonathan Kempe; technology and sustainability economist Nishan Degnarain; enterprise resilience veteran Rich Mason; and Anuj Chopra, managing director of the MaritimESG Middle East Project Management LLC. While the trade war between China and the United States appears to be cooling off in recent weeks, the nation's push to revitalize the nation's shipbuilding industry is gaining momentum. In February, the White House proposed port fees for China-built, -owned and -operated ships docking at American ports. The fees aim to minimize China's maritime dominance and help kick-start U.S. shipbuilding. The initial proposal called for vessels operated by Chinese companies to pay a $1 million port call fees and ships built in China would have to pay a $1.5 million fee per port call. The proposal now calls for fees based on net tonnage and number of containers carried. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative also recently announced exemptions from the fees for ships carrying liquified natural gas. The USTR is accepting comments through July 7 from the maritime community on the impact of port fees associated with Chinese ships. New fees proposed by the USTR are set to take effect on Oct. 14. President Donald Trump also signed an executive order on April 9 that aims to boost the U.S. international maritime presence, which has been in decline for decades. On April 20, a bipartisan bill — the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security for America Act of 2025 (the SHIPS Act) — was introduced in Congress with the aim of expanding the U.S.-flag international fleet by 250 ships in 10 years, while enhancing U.S. competitiveness and making more investments in the maritime workforce.A predecessor bill, the SHIPS for America Act of 2024, garnered bipartisan support last year during the Biden administration. Walker said placing fees on Chinese-built ships might ultimately hurt American consumers instead of creating more domestic ship production in the U.S. 'Passing the cost of our deficiency on to the consumer, which is what will happen with these taxes, if you will, on Chinese-built ships, I don't know how viable that is,' Walker said. 'It's like tariffs: The ultimate payor is going to be the American consumer.' Walker said a more viable proposal could be a tariff hike on U.S.-flagged ships doing repair work in shipyards in China. The tariff could be an impetus for U.S. ships to be repaired in domestic shipyards. U.S. officials floated the idea of imposing a 200% duty for work carried out on many U.S.-flag ships at yards in 'countries of concern,' according to the SHIPS Act. 'I think that one of the possibilities is restricting U.S.-flagged Jones Act ships from doing ship repair in China, which they do, and that could be a first step,' Walker said. Of 80,000 U.S. port calls each year, only a very small percentage are currently by U.S.-registered ships. '[The U.S.] intentionally walked away from its shipbuilding capability in the 1980s … and to blame China for recognizing an opportunity and capitalizing on it, I think is the wrong cast,' Walker said. 'I would rather see us say, 'Well, look, China in the early 1990s is when they decided to become a shipbuilding nation.' In the last 35 years, they have become the dominant shipbuilding nation with about 60% of the order book. How they got there also needs to be recognized.' Watson said for various reasons — including cost and efficiency — many companies in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s decided to outsource shipbuilding to countries such as Japan and South Korea initially. 'I think what happened was they just said, 'Well, we can just sacrifice that industry and we can buy ships from Korea and Japan, because they're building fine ships over there, and use our open registries to help the world globalize even more and focus on military shipbuilding,' Watson said. 'Then the Cold War ended and we looked around and took our peace dividend, balanced the budget again, and realized we didn't have a commercial shipbuilding industry anymore. So we just stuck … with the plan to buy ships from Japan and Korea, and then I think China saw the opportunity.' Walker and Watson said maritime security not only impacts national security, it impacts energy security, environmental security, economic security and workforce development. 'We think we can lead the world, but we probably shouldn't basically give away our designs and our technology to the cheapest place in the world to build,' Watson said. 'I guess just going to my position on the USTR thing … some of the things that they're doing probably have a time and a place and maybe now is the time and the place to do it.' Watson said it's critical that the government produce programs to restore the maritime industry in the U.S. 'You've got to have a program that creates investment here,' Watson said. 'If you look at the CHIPS Act, for example, where you actually have an act of Congress instead of effectively an executive decision of an agency, then you can put in some provisions that are bankable. You can have companies invest in a legislative initiative with a lot more security that it won't flip in four years compared to an executive mandate, like a tariff or a penalty on Chinese shipping.' The ultimate goal the U.S. government should be looking for is bringing in more mariners and reinvigorating the country's industrial shipbuilding complex, Watson and Walker said. 'It's the ships that come first,' Watson said. 'Then that causes an interest in terminals and shipyards and everything else. So there's been a lot of talk about … 'We've got to be more involved in the Panama Canal, we've got to stop [China's] Belt and Road Initiative.' If we just had a robust marine industry, a ship-operating industry, if we had merchant mariners, if we had the lead on marine technology, we would naturally want to own the terminals and the ships and have stakeholdings in great shipyards to service our ships.' The post China's maritime lead a security threat, say 'Zero Point Four' authors appeared first on FreightWaves.
Mint
29-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Top Japan Shipper Sees Orders Recovering as Trade Tensions Ease
Japanese shipping giant, Nippon Yusen KK, is confident US tariffs won't hurt its business as much as initially expected, with bookings already recovering and set to stay strong over the next three months. The biggest shipper by market capitalization — which operates container and cruise lines, specialized carriers, and air freight — saw a robust recovery in container shipping orders following an easing in tensions between the US and some of its trading partners this month, said Chief Executive Officer Takaya Soga. That's after booking volumes had slumped by a third as US President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs in April. 'Even if things continue as they are now, there will probably not be another decline in bookings from tariffs this year,' he told Bloomberg News on Wednesday. Specifically with regard to shipping autos, which have faced a 25% US tariff since April 3, Soga said bookings 'have not dropped at all'. Separately, rival Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd. also said an expected decline in shipping volume had not materialized as of April and May. 'In a sense, it is a happy miscalculation,' Chief Executive Officer Takeshi Hashimoto told Bloomberg News earlier this week. A good order book would help Nippon Yusen focus on quickly expanding its shipping business through mergers and acquisitions, Soga said. Nippon Yusen became the world's largest operator of liquefied petroleum gas carriers last month after it acquired the non-crude oil tanker shipping business from ENEOS Ocean, a subsidiary of ENEOS Holdings Inc., for 76 billion yen . The company took over over 47 vessels, including LPG carriers and chemical tankers. Soga said acquiring part of ENEOS Ocean 'was a very good deal, and I'm currently looking into other similar opportunities.' He declined to name any potential targets. When asked about the US' planned port-entry fee targeting Chinese vessels, Soga said he sees the policy having limited impact on Nippon Yusen as only 8% of its fleet is China-built. He added his company has no plans to exclude Chinese shipyards from future shipbuilding orders. Earlier this week, Mitsui OSK said it is hard to buy Chinese vessels for the time being as the US ramps up scrutiny. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Business Times
27-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Japanese gas tanker giant Mitsui OSK sees difficulty buying Chinese vessels
[SINGAPORE] Mitsui OSK Lines, owner of the world's largest fleet of liquefied natural gas carriers, said it is hard to buy Chinese vessels for the time being as the US ramps up scrutiny of the Asian country's shipbuilding industry. 'It is difficult to purchase Chinese vessels under the current circumstances, because of the port entry fees' that the US is proposing for China-built ships calling at its ports, a spokesperson for the Japanese firm said. Earlier on Friday (May 23), the Nikkei reported Mitsui OSK was planning to shift new orders from China to South Korea. But the plans have not yet been finalised, the spokesperson told Bloomberg News. The Japanese firm is aiming to reduce risks, according to remarks made by president and chief executive officer Takeshi Hashimoto during an interview. 'We will wait and see about new business with the Chinese,' Hashimoto said in the report, which added that Mitsui OSK will not cancel any existing contracts with Chinese yards. Washington has issued a flurry of measures under President Donald Trump's administration aimed at curbing China's maritime dominance and reviving its own flagging shipbuilding industry. The moves have shaken up the global shipping market, prompting shipowners to rethink where they want their vessels to be built in the future. South Korean shipbuilders have sensed an opportunity. Last week, major shipbuilders HD Hyundai and Hanwha Ocean offered to help the US improve its shipbuilding capacity and restore its maritime dominance. South Korean builders have an 18 per cent share of ships under construction worldwide in deadweight tonnes terms, while the Japanese have 11 per cent, according to data from Clarksons Research. Mitsui OSK owns a fleet of 97 LNG vessels, according to a 2024 corporate presentation. It also maintains the world's second-largest merchant fleet at 873 vessels. Chinese shipyards make up two-thirds of the global orderbook. In January, state-run China State Shipbuilding was added to a US Department of Defense blacklist, which carries no specific penalties but discourages American firms from doing business with it. Other Chinese shipbuilders include privately-owned New Times Shipbuilding and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding. BLOOMBERG
Mint
23-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Japanese Gas Tanker Giant Sees Difficulty Buying Chinese Vessels
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, owner of the world's largest fleet of liquefied natural gas carriers, said it is hard to buy Chinese vessels for the time being as the US ramps up scrutiny of the Asian country's shipbuilding industry. 'It is difficult to purchase Chinese vessels under the current circumstances, because of the port entry fees' that the US is proposing for China-built ships calling at its ports, a spokesperson for the Japanese firm said. Earlier on Friday, the Nikkei reported Mitsui O.S.K. was planning to shift new orders from China to South Korea. But the plans have not yet been finalized, the spokesperson told Bloomberg News. The Japanese firm is aiming to reduce risks, according to remarks made by President and Chief Executive Officer Takeshi Hashimoto during an interview. 'We will wait and see about new business with the Chinese,' Hashimoto said in the report, which added that Mitsui O.S.K. will not cancel any existing contracts with Chinese yards. Washington has issued a flurry of measures under President Donald Trump's administration aimed at curbing China's maritime dominance and reviving its own flagging shipbuilding industry. The moves have shaken up the global shipping market, prompting shipowners to rethink where they want their vessels to be built in the future. South Korean shipbuilders have sensed an opportunity. Last week, major shipbuilders HD Hyundai Co. and Hanwha Ocean Co. offered to help the US improve its shipbuilding capacity and restore its maritime dominance. South Korean builders have an 18% share of ships under construction worldwide in deadweight tons terms, while the Japanese have 11%, according to data from Clarksons Research. Mitsui O.S.K. owns a fleet of 97 LNG vessels, according to a 2024 corporate presentation. It also maintains the world's second-largest merchant fleet at 873 vessels. Chinese shipyards make up two-thirds of the global orderbook. In January, state-run China State Shipbuilding Corp. was added to a US Department of Defense blacklist, which carries no specific penalties but discourages American firms from doing business with it. Other Chinese shipbuilders include privately-owned New Times Shipbuilding and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US trade representative holds second hearing on Chinese ship fees
United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will hold a second round of hearings Monday in Washington on port fees for China-built,- owned and -operated ships docking at American ports. The punitive fees are meant to blunt China's maritime dominance and help kick-start U.S. shipbuilding. Public comments ahead of the USTR's first hearing in April led to dramatic changes, notably from a scheme of blanket charges on all ships to fees based on net tonnage and number of containers carried. Expectations are that any changes by USTR this time will be less substantial in regard to container shipping. 'We might expect fewer revisions this time around – simply because the first proposal would be highly destructive to the maritime supply chain servicing the U.S., whereas the second proposal is more manageable from a container shipping perspective – although it still contains problematic elements … for example in relation to car carriers,' said Lars Jensen of consultant Vespucci Maritime in a LinkedIn post. American exporters of bulk commodities such as grain and soybeans say the fees will make their products less competitive in the global market. 'Individuals don't pay [directly] to build aircraft carriers; farmers don't want to pay to build ships,' said Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agricultural Transportation Coalition. 'If we are not competitive on price, buyers will find other markets.' Jensen said shippers should expect that ocean carriers will attempt to pass on resultant costs in the form of new surcharges. He added that U.S. companies still face higher costs due to the Trump administration's proposed new tariffs on containers, cranes, chassis and chassis parts. Any new changes could go into effect either in mid-October or in 180 days depending on whether USTR revises the implementation date. Find more articles by Stuart Chirls Beach sees record TEUs on trade war effect Hapag-Lloyd expects swift China ramp-up after bookings jump 50% Tariff two-step: After pause, China-US container traffic increases Maersk looks to fill up corridors in a flash (sale) The post US trade representative holds second hearing on Chinese ship fees appeared first on FreightWaves. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
