US efforts to revive its shipbuilding industry will achieve little traction despite the USTR’s proposal to impose a levy on Chinese built ships as well as remissions for operators using US built ships. There are currently only 63 US-flagged containerships, accounting for just 0.9% of the global fleet of 6,874 ships currently. Only 25 of the US flagged ships were built in the US primarily to serve the Jones Act trades, while the rest of the 38 ships were built outside of the US. Maersk, CMA CGM
The USTR has proposed punitive levies for ships calling at US ports on Chinese shipping companies as well as other companies operating Chinese built ships of up to $1.5m per vessel call at US ports, with an additional charge of up to $1m per call for companies with ships on order at Chinese shipyards. The proposed trade action would hit COSCO especially hard, while Taiwanese and Korean carriers would benefit from the move as only a small proportion of their fleet are Chinese built, allowing for