China Built 1,000 Ships Last Year. The U.S. Built 8. Kelly Barner Published Aug 21, 2025 + Follow In April, President

In April, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance. It aims to address the nation’s dependence on foreign manufacturers of commercial and military ships. To make this possible, we are going to have to restore conditions and levels of investment that haven’t been seen since the 1970s. That was the last time the U.S. had anything approaching global maritime dominance. The U.S. needs warships as well as containerships and bulk ships, and it needs them pronto. We don’t have the workforce required to mount the kind of resurgence the government is looking for, and costs are...