Labor Dept launches multimillion-dollar shipbuilding training plan as US races to close China gap

FIRST ON FOX: The Labor Department is distributing nearly $14 million to U.S. institutions as part of a new initiative to train American workers to enter the shipbuilding industry, aligning with President Donald Trump's push to revamp U.S. shipbuilding. 

The U.S. shipbuilding industry has lagged in comparison to near-peer adversaries like China, but the Labor Department's new effort seeks to close that gap by creating a program that supports "cutting-edge training programs" crafted in conjunction with U.S. allies to learn shipbuilding trades, according to the Labor Department. 

A total of $8 million in funding will go toward Delaware County Community College, which will partner with Hanwa Philly Shipyard and South Korea, and $5.8 million will go toward the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, which will partner with Finland and Bollinger Shipyards, to offer advanced shipbuilding skill training to U.S. workers. 

Likewise, the initiative aims to establish a specialized, internationally recognized trade curriculum in an attempt to increase apprenticeship programs in the U.S.

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"Restoring America's maritime dominance can't be accomplished without skilled American workers," Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a Tuesday statement to Fox News Digital. "In line with President Trump's executive orders, these projects will help train our next generation of shipbuilders and ensure the skills critical to revitalizing our shipbuilding industry are developed here at home."

The U.S. is massively behind near-peer competitors like China when it comes to shipbuilding, as well as allies like South Korea and Japan. 

China is responsible for more than 50% of global shipbuilding, while South Korea is responsible for nearly 29% and Japan 13%, while the rest of the world accounts for roughly 4.4%, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Overall, the U.S. is responsible for just 0.1% of global shipbuilding.

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"The erosion of U.S. and allied shipbuilding capabilities poses an urgent threat to military readiness, reduces economic opportunities, and contributes to China's global power-projection ambitions," the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a March report.

Meanwhile, Finnish firms design roughly 80% of icebreakers globally, and Finnish shipyards build more than 60% of icebreakers, according to the Wilson Center. 

Trump told lawmakers in March that he would "resurrect" both commercial and military shipbuilding, and signed an executive order in April seeking to reinvigorate the U.S. shipbuilding sector.

That executive order called for assessments of how the government could enhance financial support through the Defense Production Act, the Department of Defense Office of Strategic Capital, a new Maritime Security Trust Fund, investment from shipbuilders from allied countries, and other grant programs.

It also ordered agencies to craft a maritime action plan, and instructed the U.S. trade representative to create a list of recommendations to tackle China's "anticompetitive actions within the shipbuilding industry."