Professional ships are set to become the next hot button in the US-China trade war as a result of Washington’s accusations that Chinese shipbuilders use non-market strategies to increase market share.
After its Section 301 investigation revealed that China’s practices in shipbuilding, maritime, and logistics have all undermined fair competition, the US Trade Representative ( USTR ) has called for responsive actions.  ,
The USTR released its conclusions on January 16 with the announcement that China would top the country’s manufacturing business for the 15th consecutive month in 2024.  ,
According to the MIIT, 55.7 % of the global manufacturing implementation volume in 2024 came from China, which means that over half of the ships shipped globally last year were built there. China’s shipbuilding industry’s new orders accounted for 74.1 % of global volume and orders on hand accounted for 63.1 %.
The MIIT said China completed 48.18 million tons of shipping orders last year, up 13.8 % from 2023. Newly received orders totaled 113.05 million tons, marking a substantial 58.8 % rise year-on-year, while the order backlog reached 208.72 million tons, a 49.7 % jump.
China placed first among 14 of the 18 global popular deliver types, including multi-purpose vessels, auto carriers, and container ships, in terms of new orders, according to the report.
Data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed that the country exported 5, 804 ships in 2024, a 25.1 % increase from 2023. The total export value surged to$ 43.38 billion, up 57.3 % year-on-year.
China’s new shipbuilding orders for green power vessels represented 78.5 % of the global market last year, compared with 31.5 % in 2021, according to state-run China Central TV.  ,
” China now is capable of building nearly all advanced types of ships, from 24, 000-TEU-level vessels to liquified natural gas ( LNG ) carriers and cruise ships”, Zheng Ping, chief analyst at industry portal Chineseport.cn, told the Global Times. TEU refers to” twenty-foot similar product”, a system of cargo power used for freight.
” From steel and aluminum products, renewable panels, to fresh strength vehicles and ships, the US has accused China of having’ unjust’ competition, fully exposing the absurdity of its concept of ‘ fairness'”, Bao Nan, a columnist at the Beijing Daily, writes in an article.  ,
Bao claims that China has spent four years expanding its shipping business and significantly increasing its investments in 2008, when the country’s shipping market was hit by the global financial crisis. He claims that the US is only to chastise itself for allowing its industrialists to fail successively since the 1980s.  ,
Socialist market economy
On April 17 last month, the USTR initiated a Section 301 analysis of China’s works, laws, and practices targeting the sea, logistics and manufacturing sectors for supremacy. On January 16, the USTR said in its statement that China’s targeting of the sea, transportation, and manufacturing industries for hegemony:
- consumes foreign firms, robs market-oriented businesses and their workers of business opportunities, and lessens competitors,
- creates relationships on China and increased threat, and reduces supply chain resilience,
- is ridiculous because of China’s incredible control over these sectors and its economic actors,
- serves a broader purpose to develop all of China’s instruments of national power through China’s Military-Civil Fusion (MCF ) plan.
” Today, the US ranks 19th in the world in commercial shipbuilding, and we build less than five ships each year, while the People’s Republic of China ( PRC ) is building more than 1, 700 ships”, said USTR Ambassador Katherine Tai. ” In 1975, the United States ranked number another, and we were building more than 70 ships a time”.
” Beijing’s targeted dominance of these areas affects fair, market-oriented competition, boosts economic security threats and is the greatest barrier to revival of US companies, as well as the communities that rely on them”, she said. These findings under Section 301″ set the stage for urgent action to invest in America and strengthen our supply chains.”
According to the USTR report, the Chinese Communist Party has significant influence over state-owned and state-invested companies in the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding industries to promote the nation’s” socialist market economy.”
Prior to this, the European Union had already pointed out in its report that China’s” social market economy” is the root cause of the country’s non-market practices.  ,
On April 10, 2024, the EU’s , report on state-induced distortions in China’s economy said the Chinese government’s financial support and economic planning system has distorted many industrial sectors, including metals, chemicals, telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, railways, environmental goods, new energy vehicles and shipbuilding.  ,
Trump’s views
In an article published last May, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, claimed that China’s shipbuilding empire is the most recent climax of the growing rifts between Washington and Beijing.  ,
According to the statement, China’s shipbuilding prowess are also a matter of national security because numerous well-known Chinese shipyards, including the People’s Liberation Army Navy ( PLN), produce ships for both commercial clients and the People’s Liberation Army.  ,
According to the most recent findings, the USTR will reportedly provide new reasons to escalate the Sino-US trade war for the newly elected US president, who will be sworn in on January 20.
Trump stated earlier this month in an interview that if it is unable to increase its production capacity in the short run, the US may outsource the production of its ships.  ,
” We used to construct a ship every day. We don’t build ships anymore. We want to get that started. And maybe we’ll use allies, also, in terms of building ships”, he said. ” China’s building, from what I’m hearing, every four days, they’re knocking out a ship. We’re sitting back and watching, and we’ve suffered tremendously”.
” The Biden administration’s Section 301 investigation against China targeting the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors seriously violates World Trade Organization ( WTO ) rules and is purely protectionism”, Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on January 17. ” China lacks factual justification and economic commonsense,” the Biden administration claims.
He claimed that numerous US studies demonstrate that the US shipbuilding sector lost its competitive edge many years ago as a result of over-protection. He claimed that China’s growing relevant industries are a result of tech innovation and market competition from other companies, as well as from China’s extensive domestic market and fully-fledged industrial manufacturing system.  ,
The China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry ( CANSI) stated in a statement that the Biden administration “irresponsibly initiated the Section 301 investigation into China’s maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding industries and drew erroneous conclusions based on the flawed investigation. It was full of lies and distortions, and it allegedly lied about the progress of China’s shipbuilding industry with malicious smears.
” Based on some false accusations, the Office of USTR insisted on launching a unilateral investigation, and made irresponsible and unprofessional wrong conclusions”, it said. Such a move” will significantly impede the global shipping and logistics system, global trade order, and the global maritime industry’s ability to transition toward green.”
Chinese shipbuilders are contributing to the global green economy, according to the CANSI because they produce a lot of green equipment for ships at reasonable prices.  ,
Yong Jian contributes to the Asia Times. He is a Chinese journalist who specializes in Chinese technology, economy and politics.  ,