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Canada’s Davie Shipbuilding, today announced its intention to acquire shipbuilding assets in Galveston and Port Arthur, Texas, from Gulf Copper & Manufacturing Corporation. The transaction is still subject to financial, legal, and regulatory closing conditions, as well as land lease negotiations with the Galveston Wharves Board of Trustees, but, when these complete, Davie expects to finalize the acquisition in summer 2025.

Once the transaction is complete and contracts are secured, Davie plans to invest $1 billion to upgrade and expand capacity in Galveston and Port Arthur. It says the project could generate approximately 4,000 American jobs—around 2,000 directly at Gulf Copper and 2,000 more throughout the supply chain.

To ensure the rapid closure of the transaction, Davie is working closely with organizations and stakeholders in Galveston and Port Arthur, as well as the State of Texas. The deal has also received strong support in Washington, D.C.

James Davies, president and CEO of Davie, said: “We share a vision with Gulf Copper to make Texas a world-class hub for American icebreaker and complex ship production,” said president and CEO James Davies. “Texas is ready to lead a new Golden Age of American shipbuilding—backed by our commitment to delivering ships on time, on budget, and in service of national security priorities.”

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It’s no secret that America’s shipbuilding workforce is in crisis. The nation is struggling to retain a sufficient workforce to meet existing requirements. It’s also no secret that China is outpacing the United States in shipbuilding at a rate of six to 1.8 combatant ships and a staggering 200 to one in commercial ships. President Donald Trump’s April 9, 2025, executive order, “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance,” calls for a Maritime Action Plan directing the secretaries of state, defense, labor, transportation, education, and homeland security to deliver recommendations to address workforce challenges. Put simply: The United States needs people to build ships and effectively compete with China. This rare moment of bipartisan agreement on the need to restore America’s maritime dominance lays the groundwork to focus on practical skills, tap into patriotic and underserved labor pools, modernize hiring practices, and expand shipbuilding beyond traditional hubs.

One of us (Schmiegel) is a senior executive at Orion Talent, a company that specializes in talent acquisition support for maritime industrial base suppliers, who therefore has a commercial interest in this outcome. However, the role also offers direct, practical insight into the challenges faced by both employers and prospective employees within the maritime industrial base. This perspective is shared here to provide additional context to the story depicted by data alone.

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President Trump’s vast tax and spending bill has secured funds the U.S. Coast Guard has been searching for since the early 2010s. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” appropriates close to $9 billion for the expansion of the Coast Guard’s Arctic icebreaker fleet. 

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Can the American military maintain deterrence in East Asia without fixing its shipbuilding? The U.S. Navy’s fleet is rusting and shrinking, while China’s grows. Last week, new data showed Chinese shipbuilding again accelerating relative to American, with 54 percent of global output, up from 35 percent a decade ago. “All of our programs are a mess,” said Secretary of the Navy John Phelan before the Senate. Chinese military planners may conclude it is time to risk their fleet against America’s. Without strong shipbuilding, the Pentagon may hesitate to commit a fleet it cannot regenerate.

Into this tense moment steps a new generation of political and industrial leaders. Tech and finance executives now leading in the Pentagon are laying siege to underperforming shipbuilding programs. From industry, a new Silicon Valley-backed company seems to charge into the breach of maritime defense tech every day. But most of these companies offer software rather than steel.

Traditional shipbuilders seem skeptical of new entrants who promise to transform the industry. None of them has yet built a ship. This sentiment echoes the feelings of the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer two years ago, at the height of the artillery ammo crunch in Ukraine: “The tech bros aren’t helping us.” Traditional ammo factories fed Ukrainian shell hunger, as Cold War shipyards, not new entrant tech companies, generate the U.S. fleet.

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On the way to its initial Arctic deployment U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Storis (WAGB 21) has transited through the Panama Canal. The polar class 3-equivalent vessel departed from the Bollinger Shipyards in Pascagoula, Mississippi on June 3, 2025. 

The vessel arrived near the canal’s northern entrance on June 11. After an 18-hour hold outside Limon Bay near the Gatun locks, Storis proceeded through the first set of Panama Canal locks on its route to the Pacific. The transit took around 8 hours and the vessel exited the canal through the Miraflores locks late on June 12.

U.S. military ships have been entitled to “expeditious passage through the Canal at all times” since handing-over operation of the canal to Panama in 1999. In recent months there have been ongoing tensions with the Trump Administration over control of the key waterway.

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The Navy has well-documented issues with building warships. Less discussed, but equally important, are issues with repairing the ships it already has, which jeopardizes its ability to meet its own goal of sustaining a across all platforms. As the Navy focuses on preparing for a great power conflict potentially, the Navy needs to improve not just its peacetime ship repair capability but also expand its capacity to account for wartime repair requirements. While the issues facing the U.S. shipbuilding industry are complex, and it will take time to expand shipbuilding capacity for large combatants, the U.S. shipbuilding sector does have a robust capacity to build smaller vessels that can improve the U.S. Navy’s repair capabilities. In fact, there are 125 private U.S. shipyards that are capable of building small vessels needed for repair and salvage. The United States needs to prepare now for battle damage repair by investing in repair ships, and learning lessons from recent emergent repairs and the last major war it fought at sea.

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President Donald Trump has nominated Capt. Stephen Carmel to serve as the next administrator of the U.S. Maritime Administration (Marad). If confirmed, Carmel would fill a position that has been vacant since Rear Adm. (Ret.) Ann C. Phillips resigned in January. A previous nominee, Navy Capt. (Re.) Brent Sadler, has since had his nomination withdrawn.

Carmel currently serves as president of U.S. Marine Management LLC, a Norfolk, Va.-based maritime company that operates U.S.-flagged vessels and supports federal contracts. A former captain in the U.S. merchant marine, Carmel brings decades of industry experience to the nomination.

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The Department of Homeland Security has approved full production of the first U.S. Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (PSC). The Service also received approval for low-rate initial production of the Waterways Commerce Cutter (WCC).

The long-delayed project entails the replacement of the Polar Star, the sole remaining U.S. heavy icebreaker.  It facilitates the ability of shipbuilder Bollinger to ramp up hiring, allowing it to deliver the ship as quickly as possible. 

The PSC is the first heavy polar icebreaker to be built in the U.S. in nearly five decades. The Coast Guard is the sole federal agency responsible for icebreaking. Accordingly, the Service must replace, modernize, and grow its fleet of icebreakers to assure U.S. access and sovereignty in the polar regions. The U.S. Coast Guard is committed to working with the Administration and Congress to fulfill the President’s direction on icebreaker acquisition.

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Canada is facing interesting times, to say the least. The relationship with the United States is facing tensions over trade, tariffs, border security, and defence spending. The source of the tension appears to be American concerns over Canadian “free-riding” on defence and trade, and Canada posing a threat to American security. However hyperbolic some of the grievances, Canada is poised to act. Its defence spending is set to increase to meet the NATO target of 2% of GDP; the newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney, made that commitment in his electoral platform – a commitment that all major parties running supported in their own campaign plans. The Parliamentary Budget Officer assessed the program of work outlined in Our North, Strong and Free (ONSAF) and confirmed it will bring Canada to 1.76% of GDP by 2029-30. This assessment does not include the additional cost of the planned Canadian Patrol Submarine Project which will likely bring Canada to the 2% target.  For the border, the RCMP and the CBSA are implementing a series of measures on border security. The RCMP is using Blackhawk helicopters and drones to patrol the Canadian-American border in British Columbia, joint investigations are underway on opioids trafficking, and Canada has named a fentanyl Czar to coordinate the efforts to counter the drug.

The issue of defence spending has long been a difficult political issue, domestically. In terms of public priorities, some polling suggests that people are most concerned about the rising cost of living, the Canada-U.S. relationship, health care, and a range of other affordability issues with the threats from Russia and China ranking eleventh out of thirteen issues. Some public opinion polling shows that when asked an open-ended question about what concerns them most, Canadians identify defence spending as the third-least most important issue.  The Canadian public is not as engaged on the issue of defence as other issues that impact them more directly, and the Government of Canada has not meaningfully engaged the public on either the importance of national defence to Canada’s place in the world or the trade-offs required to surge defence spending.  Eugene Lang wrote an article in the Globe & Mail in July 2024 that discusses the need for Canada to explain to citizens the effort and trade-offs that will be required in order to reach defence spending levels that meet 2% of GDP. Lang points out that Canadians are capable of hearing hard truths, as they did during the COVID-19 pandemic, even if the Government is hesitant to do so on defence.

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At a Capitol Hill press conference yesterday, Senator Mark Kelly (D.-Ariz), Senator Todd Young (R.-Ind.), Representative Trent Kelly (R.-Miss-01), Representative John Garamendi (D.-Calif-08), and industry leaders announced the reintroduction of the SHIPS for America Act, landmark legislation to revitalize the United States shipbuilding and commercial maritime industries

One thing that emerged from the Capitol Hill event is that the measure has overwhelming industry support. In addition to the lawmakers, the press conference featured remarks from key supporters, including Matt Paxton, President of the Shipbuilders Council of America; Chief Mate Elizabeth Livi of the Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots; and Michael Fossum, Superintendent of the Texas A&M Maritime Academy.

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In the Beaufort Sea, which lies north of Alaska, Yukon and the Northwest Territories, there’s a wedge of ocean that has been in question for two centuries. As the border between Canada and America reaches the coastline, the two countries disagree as to which direction that boundary line proceeds into the tides. Canada says it should follow the 141st meridian west, extending the border between Alaska and Yukon. The U.S. asserts the line should instead be equidistant from the two nations.

Despite their differences, Canada and the U.S. have been able to resolve a wide range of practical issues, from the pursuit of oil and gas to commercial fishing in the region. The boundary disagreement hasn’t prevented the two countries from developing a seamless defence relationship to protect the region: the two coast guards operate on such a close basis, it’s hard to tell there even is a border. All of this is based on shared values and interests that have made the boundary issue seem almost irrelevant. But this may be about to change.

The re-election of Donald Trump has turned this relationship on its head — and is threatening to undermine it entirely. While Trump has not specifically mentioned the Beaufort Sea dispute, it is hard to see how the cooperation between nations can withstand what he has said.

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"On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump announced a plan for new tariffs,” shipping association BIMCO noted in a statement issued yesterday. “According to the announcement, US import tariffs will increase nearly 25% on the goods impacted. When accounting for goods so far exempted from the increases, overall US import tariffs will increase by 15-20%.

"We expect that the tariff increases will hurt US businesses and consumers the most as they will see cost increases on nearly 80% of imports. Countries affected by the tariff increases will naturally also feel the effect on the portion of their export destined to the US.

"Key US trading partners such as China, South Korea, Japan and the European Union have vowed to retaliate, further increasing the cost of global trade. Again, US businesses appear likely to suffer more than businesses and consumers in the countries that may retaliate.

"In the US, the tariffs are likely to lead to increased inflation and lower economic growth. Considering the importance of the US economy, this could in turn slow down global economic growth.

"In March, the OECD estimated the impact of a possible 10% increase on non-commodity imports by the US and a 10% increase by all other countries on non-commodity imports from the US. The OECD estimated that this could cause global output to fall by 0.3% by the third year and increase global inflation by 0.4 percentage points per annum on average during the first three years. World trade volumes were estimated to decline by close to 2%.

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Xenos Marine, a Matt Fish and Teichman Group affiliated company, christened its newly acquired TX-10,000 a one of a kind, heavy-lift engineering marvel after a mandatory five-year drydock maintenance on March 23 at Gulf Copper Shipyard.

Xenos Principals Kevin Teichman and Matt Fish welcomed invited guests followed by a blessing from Father Clint Ressler of St. Mary of the Miraculous Medal Catholic Church of Texas City.  

The vessel, TX-10,000, originally built by Versabar and later sold to TCM, a Teichman Group affiliate, in 2020, was acquired by Xenos Marine in December 2024. Xenos Marine, a joint venture between Matt Fish and the Teichman Family, renamed the vessel to reflect its new ownership.

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Marking a major milestone in the Coast Guard’s heavy polar icebreaker program, Bollinger Shipyards has been awarded a $951.6 million contract modification that advances the Polar Security Cutter program to the detail design and construction phase.

“Securing this contract modification has truly been a herculean effort and underscores the incredible trust the U.S. Government has placed in Bollinger to build and deliver the first heavy polar icebreaker in half a century,” said Ben Bordelon, president and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards. “We wouldn’t be in the solid position we’re in today without the leadership and the tireless efforts of the entire team at Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding. Their hard work and dedication have successfully put the PSC program on a strong path forward after a rocky start under the previous, foreign-owned builder. We now look forward to receiving the green light to begin full production.”

“I am also grateful for the leadership of President Trump and his Administration in recognizing the urgent need for American-made icebreakers,” Bordelon added. “Because of his foresight and commitment to rebuilding America’s shipbuilding capabilities, this historic project is now moving forward.”

Bordelon also acknowledged Mississippi’s leadership for championing the PSC Program and state as a dominant force in shipbuilding.

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HII’s (NYSE: HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division in Pascagoula, Miss.., has successfully launched future USS Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), the third Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to be built at the shipyard.

DDG 129 is named for former U.S. Sen. Jeremiah Denton Jr., a Vietnam War veteran who was awarded the Navy Cross for his heroism as a prisoner of war. Following his Navy career, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, representing his home state of Alabama, in 1980.,

Shipbuilders transferred DDG 129 from land to the company’s dry dock using translation railcars to support the ship during the move. Once in the dry dock, the ship was floated and moved by tugboats to a pier at the shipyard.

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