Why America Needs South Korea to Rebuild Its Shipbuilding Industry — Inside the $150 Billion MASGA Bet
AI generated image The United States operates the most powerful navy in the world. Yet when it comes to building commercial ships, the country that dominates global military power has become a remarkably small player. That contradiction is becoming increasingly difficult for Washington to ignore. In January 2025, the Office of the United States Trade Representative noted that the United States ranked only 19th globally in commercial shipbuilding and built fewer than five commercial ships per year, while China was building more than 1,700. The contrast with America's past is striking. In 1975, the United States ranked first and was building more than 70 commercial ships annually. Today, rebuilding shipbuilding capacity is no longer simply an industrial-policy objective. It has become an economic-security and national-security issue. And that helps explain why South Korea — home to one of the world's most sophisticated shipbuilding ecosystems — has suddenly become central to Am...