March 12，20024
The United Steelworkers union on Tuesday asked President Joe Biden to open a trade investigation into alleged Chinese unfair economic practices in the shipbuilding and maritime logistics sectors.
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Over the past two decades, China has gone from producing roughly 12 per cent of global commercial ships by tonnage to more than 50 per cent in 2023, according to Clarksons Research, a maritime consultancy.
The push comes after Congress provided $52bn to help rebuild the US domestic chip industry and as Biden has shown a willingness to pursue industrial policy through legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/04/19/ch ... mpetition/
With around 80 percent of global trade carried by sea
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From 2010 to 2018, Chinese state-owned financial institutions granted domestic shipbuilders cheap loans amounting to at least $127 billion.
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In shipbuilding, China’s sanctions-proofing strategy rests on two pillars. The first has to do with self-sufficiency. Chinese firms produce around 55 percent of global steel output, ensuring that domestic shipyards never run out of the commodity. And China’s reach spans across the entire supply chain for shipping gadgetry. Chinese businesses manufacture 96 percent of the world’s dry cargo shipping containers, and a single Chinese firm, ZPMC, claims that it supplies 70 percent of the world’s cargo cranes.
The second pillar of China’s sanctions-proofing efforts is to keep foreigners out of shipbuilding. Beijing’s plans in the field date back to 2001, when the Communist Party leadership restricted foreign investments in the sector. Today, foreign-owned firms manufacture only about 5 percent of Chinese-made ships, shielding the sector from unfriendly interference. In 2006, Beijing also made shipbuilding one of the seven sectors where state-owned firms are required to retain a dominant position over private competitors—even Chinese ones. As a result, state-owned firms manufacture around two-thirds of Chinese-built ships, giving party leadership tight control over shipyard activity.
