Maritime on CrossGov.com

US Shipbuilding Push Rides on the NDAA: SHIPS Act Provisions, a $20 Billion Trust Fund and Korea's $150 Billion Pledge

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The US builds less than 1% of the world’s new commercial ships, the White House says in its Maritime Action Plan, published in February 2026. Most of what the plan proposes to change that needs Congress, and the bill now carrying it is the stalled fiscal 2027 defence authorisation act.

On 9 October the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department asked senators to sign a letter, led by Senators Todd Young and Mark Kelly and Representatives Trent Kelly and John Garamendi, urging congressional leaders to keep the SHIPS for America Act’s provisions in the final NDAA. The deadline to sign is 16 October.

USTR's Port Fees on Chinese Ships Are Still Set to Return November 10, Though Treasury Says the Truce Runs to January

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Office of the US Trade Representative’s fees on Chinese-built and Chinese-operated ships are suspended only until 11:59 pm on 9 November 2026. That date is set in a USTR notice published last November. On 23 September Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the wider US-China truce would run to 10 January 2027. USTR hasn’t published anything to match.

The two dates are now about two months apart. Shipping lines, importers and charterers are pricing voyages that will arrive after 9 November, and the only legal text in force says the fees come back the next morning.

CBO Prices the Navy's Battleship Programme at $275 Billion for 15 Ships, With the Lead Ship at $23 Billion

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

CBO estimates the Navy’s planned nuclear-powered battleships would cost about $275 billion in 2026 dollars for 15 ships bought between 2028 and 2056. Its report, published on 5 August, puts the lead ship at $23.4 billion and the rest at about $18 billion each.

The Navy’s own budget put the lead ship at $15.1 billion. That figure was for a conventionally powered ship, and the Navy has since chosen nuclear propulsion. The gap between the two numbers is the first thing Congress will have to settle before it pays for the ship.

Coast Guard Orders 11 Arctic Security Cutters for $6.8 Billion While GAO Puts the First Polar Security Cutter at 2033

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The US Coast Guard has now signed fixed-price contracts for 11 medium icebreakers, the Arctic Security Cutters, worth about $6.8 billion together. The first is due in 2028. Its heavy icebreaker, the Polar Security Cutter, was ordered in 2019 and GAO now expects the first one in 2033.

The two programmes run side by side at the same Gulf Coast shipbuilder, Bollinger. One was designed and built from scratch in the US and has slipped nine years. The other uses a Finnish-Canadian design, with four of the first six hulls built in Finland, and is meant to skip the learning curve.