While a US port fee targeting ships linked to China has made some vessel buyers hesitant, major shipping companies – including Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world’s largest – are opting to continue working with Chinese shipyards, saying their competitiveness cannot be easily matched in the short term.
Despite the United States’ determination to challenge China’s dominance in global shipbuilding, MSC senior vice-president Marie-Caroline Laurent told the Nor-Shipping Forum in Oslo this week that the port fee would not be a barrier to ordering more vessels from China, the shipping news outlet TradeWinds reported.
She said it was good to see the US trying to revive shipbuilding activity, but “we will need new vessels with the energy transition”.
“Those ships today are built to a large extent in China,” Laurent said. “They have the competence, they have the capability, and this is where today we will still continue building our vessels.”
The International Maritime Organisation wants the global shipping industry to achieve net-zero emissions in the next 25 years or so. In response, companies are increasingly investing in decarbonisation technologies – such as green fuels – leading to a notable rise in new ship orders in recent years.
Laurent said any revival of America’s shipbuilding sector would not happen overnight, and realising that ambition would require state subsidies and the retention of some strategic assets.
“So this is an interesting conversation to have, also with the US administration,” she said. “Whether that will change our overall strategy in terms of shipbuilding – probably not at this stage.”
