Grabow: US-built container ships cost five times more than international builds
Colin Grabow · How an obscure, 100-year old law is disrupting U.S. energy · Apr 18, 2024 · at 8:49
Cato Institute fellow Colin Grabow explains the historical escalation of the shipbuilding cost premium in the United States relative to foreign shipbuilders.
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“By the 19 thirties, it was up to a 50% premium for U.S. Built ships. By the 19 fifties, a U.S. Built ship was double the cost of one built abroad. By the 19 nineties, it was triple the cost of one built abroad, and today, a U.S. Built container ship is somewhere around five times more expensive than one built abroad, while a tanker, which Maybe for interest to your audience with the energy angle tankers about four times more expensive than one built abroad.”
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More from Colin Grabow
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“If you look at The data, something like only two percent of freight in the United States is transported by ships. You add in barges, that's like another four percent. So we're well under 10% for water transport in the U.S.”
Grabow: East Coast refineries import more foreign oil than domestic oil
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“A few years ago, the Wall Street Journal estimated that to build an LNG tanker in the United States would cost around seven hundred million dollars, whereas at that time you could buy one for, I think, less than two hundred million in South Korea.”