Japan, Korea would struggle to fill US demand for non-China shipbuilding, NYK Line exec says

Sudarshan Varadhan

Mon, Mar 24, 2025, 3:34 AM 1 min read

By Sudarshan Varadhan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. allies Japan and South Korea would conflict to rapidly ramp up shipbuilding to conscionable U.S. request for alternatives nether President Donald Trump's program to enforce larboard fees connected China-linked ships, a apical Japanese shipping enforcement said connected Monday.

The Trump medication is drafting an enforcement bid successful a bid to revive home shipbuilding and weaken China's grip connected the industry.

Japanese shipbuilding is moving adjacent afloat capacity, with small scope for enlargement until 2028, portion shipbuilders successful South Korea, arsenic good arsenic successful the U.S., look fiscal challenges, said Takaya Soga, CEO of Nippon Yusen (NYK), Japan's largest shipping line.

"The capableness of Japanese shipbuilding is astir afloat astatine the moment, until accidental 2028. So it is not truthful casual for them to summation the capacity," Soga told Reuters connected the sidelines of the Singapore Maritime Week conference.

Soga said enlargement by South Korean shipbuilders was besides not imminent, arsenic they had "suffered from a precise atrocious fiscal situation" for astir 2 decades.

U.S. shipbuilders request some concern and exertion to boost capacity, Soga said.

Trump's bid would found a Maritime Security Trust Fund arsenic a backing root and make shipbuilding incentives done taxation credits, grants and loans, according to a draught information sheet.

China, South Korea, and Japan relationship for 90% of planetary shipbuilding, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Chinese shipbuilders person built their marketplace stock to much than 50% of merchant vas cargo capacity, up from 5% successful 1999, winning stock from their Asian neighbours.

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Sharon Singleton)