The Trump administration has introduced a comprehensive maritime action plan to revive U.S. commercial shipbuilding, citing China’s dominance in global ship production and America’s heavy reliance on foreign-built vessels. The initiative aims to strengthen economic security, expand the U.S.-flag fleet, and support naval industrial capacity through commercial sector revitalization.

Why Is the U.S. Launching a Maritime Industrial Action Plan?

The Trump administration has unveiled a sweeping maritime industry initiative aimed at reviving U.S. commercial shipbuilding, expanding the U.S.-flagged fleet, and strengthening domestic maritime supply chains.
Senior administration officials, speaking during a press call, warned that nearly 99% of U.S. international maritime trade is carried on ships that are foreign-built, foreign-owned, and foreign-flagged. They described this dependence as a structural vulnerability to national and economic security amid intensifying global competition.

Roughly half of U.S. trade volume moves by sea. The overwhelming reliance on foreign maritime infrastructure, officials argue, limits strategic autonomy in times of geopolitical tension.

China’s Structural Advantage in Global Shipbuilding

According to U.S. officials and defense assessments, China now produces more than half of global commercial ship tonnage. By comparison, American shipyards account for only a marginal share of global production — a gap that has widened over decades as U.S. commercial shipbuilding declined.
Data from the Office of Naval Intelligence indicates that Chinese shipbuilding capacity exceeds that of the United States by more than 200 times.

Analysts attribute this divergence to sustained state investment by Beijing, including automated shipyards integrating advanced robotics and artificial intelligence to scale output.
This scale differential has both commercial and military implications.

Commercial Decline and Naval Cost Inflation

Administration officials linked the erosion of commercial shipbuilding capacity to rising costs in naval ship construction. Historically, several U.S. shipyards operated under a dual-use model, producing both commercial vessels and Navy ships.

Today, naval shipbuilding is concentrated in a limited number of facilities:
• Newport News Shipbuilding (a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries)
• General Dynamics Electric Boat

These companies are responsible for building U.S. nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines. Surface combatants such as destroyers are constructed at only a few additional yards.
As commercial yards closed or downsized over the past decades, the domestic supplier base, skilled workforce, and naval engineering ecosystem contracted in parallel. Officials argue this consolidation has increased dependence on limited supplier networks, contributing to cost overruns and production delays.

“Costs of building U.S. Navy warships have risen significantly faster than inflation,” one senior official stated, attributing part of the increase to the shrinking adjacent commercial industrial base.

The Maritime Action Plan: Core Objectives

The maritime initiative, established through an April executive order by President Donald Trump, represents what officials describe as the first comprehensive federal effort in decades to restore commercial shipbuilding capacity.

The plan’s primary objectives include:
• Expanding U.S.-flagged commercial fleets
• Modernizing shipyard infrastructure
• Rebuilding domestic maritime supply chains
• Increasing commercial ship orders to achieve economies of scale

Officials believe revitalizing commercial shipbuilding will create spillover benefits for naval programs by broadening supplier networks and workforce capacity.
The strategy assumes that increased commercial demand can reduce per-unit costs across the broader maritime industrial base.

Strategic Context: Energy and Rare Earth Competition

The maritime initiative coincides with broader industrial strategy measures, including a reported $12 billion plan targeting rare earth element production to reduce reliance on China.
Both policies reflect a wider industrial decoupling strategy designed to mitigate exposure to strategic competitors in critical sectors — maritime transport, defense production, and mineral supply chains.
Global shipping risks in the Persian Gulf and near Iran have further highlighted the importance of resilient maritime infrastructure.

Structural Challenges Facing the U.S.

Rebuilding shipbuilding capacity is a long-term endeavor.

Following World War II, the United States operated dozens of major commercial shipyards. Today, only a limited number retain the capability to build large ocean-going vessels.

Challenges include:
• Skilled labor shortages
• Aging infrastructure
• High domestic production costs
• Regulatory compliance burdens

Re-establishing competitiveness against heavily subsidized and vertically integrated Chinese shipyards will require sustained capital investment and industrial coordination.


The U.S. Navy continues to face delays in submarine production and supply chain bottlenecks affecting key defense programs. Officials argue that unless the broader industrial ecosystem is expanded, naval modernization timelines may remain constrained.
The administration’s thesis is that commercial revitalization strengthens military capacity indirectly — by expanding the supplier base and increasing manufacturing throughput.
Whether commercial demand alone can generate sufficient economies of scale remains a central open question.

The maritime action plan reflects a shift in U.S. policy toward industrial capacity as a national security priority.
China’s dominance in shipbuilding has moved beyond commercial competition into strategic concern. The administration’s response seeks to reconnect commercial ship production with naval power projection through industrial base expansion.

Reversing decades of decline will require sustained funding, workforce development, and infrastructure modernization.
The gap is measurable.
Closing it will be generational.

Written by Ethan Blake
Independent researcher, fintech consultant, and market analyst.
February 18, 2026

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