Maritime security Trump’s new headache: China sails ahead as US struggles to rebuild shipyards

China’s chokehold on the world’s rare earth elements and rare earth magnets is not Xi Jinping’s only leverage. The country’s hegemonic control over global shipping is an equally powerful lever — and US President Donald Trump has no solution to it.

For context, China manufactures 55 per cent of the world’s shipping vessels, up from 5 per cent in 1999, manufactures 95 per cent of the world’s shipping containers, and 70 per cent of port cranes, according to Market Watch.

In short, the United States is dependent on China for everything from all trade and transport.

Again, consider these facts: China builds 1,700 ships every year. The United States builds five.

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And Xi is using these leverages well. In exchange for low-hanging fruits, he forced Trump to concede on tariffs, the Russian war on Ukraine, and Taiwan. And Xi also forced Trump to reverse a measure specifically taken to target Chinese shipping: suspension of port fees and other maritime policies meant to tackle China’s shipbuilding hegemony.

Shipbuilding is America’s great vulnerability

It’s not just commercial shipping where the American decline in shipbuilding has put the country in a poor position. The fact is that US Navy is in a poor position.

As an old saying goes, an army marches on its stomach. And these stomachs are fed by a vast network of ships, aircraft, and supply depots.

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In an article for Defense News, Eyck Freymann and Harry Halem noted that logistics is the weakest in the American deterrence system in any conflict with China.

Some of the greatest America victories have come on the back of great logistics. In the World War II, when the United States, beat the Nazi Germany, there were 6.000 US-flagged merchant ships to supply allied forces. Now there are fewer than 200.

In the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command, the Navy’s logistics backbone, the personnel shortage is such that it is decommissioning ships it cannot crew, according to Freymann and Halem.

The situation in the Ready Reserve Force, the US surge fleet for emergencies, appears to be even worse as the average age of a ship is over 40.