US shipbuilding needs rescuing: U-M programs offer a life preserver

As the White House looks to shore up U.S. shipbuilding, the University of Michigan is leading efforts to train the needed workforce and develop a state-wide maritime strategy with one of the nation’s few departments dedicated to naval architecture and marine engineering.

The Trump administration recently announced a new White House Office of Shipbuilding that aims to reinvigorate America’s commercial and military shipbuilding industry. The new office complements similar efforts from Congress, which introduced the bipartisan Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security for America Act (a.k.a. the SHIPS for America Act) last session in late 2024. The bill is expected to be reintroduced in the latest session.

To meet the nation’s new shipbuilding goals, U.S. shipyards will need more hands on deck.

“Shipping manufacturers and the associated industry will need to hire at least 100,000 people over the next 10 years, according to conservative estimates,” said Jonathan Page, a professor of engineering practice in naval architecture and marine engineering. “We are one of only ten American institutions accredited to offer naval architecture and marine engineering degrees, so it’s on us to step-up and make sure the country has the engineers it needs to rebuild its fleet.”

U-M has played a pivotal role in shipbuilding research and workforce development since its department of naval architecture and marine engineering was established by Congress more than 140 years ago. As the nation’s only R1 naval architecture department with programs that span undergraduate to Ph.D., it has graduated more than 1,800 students over the past 34 years, including more than 800 doctoral students.

Associate professor Thomas McKenney and his students toured the Mark W. Barker while it was laid up for the winter at the Nicholson Dock in River Rogue, Mich. The ship transports bulk iron ore, stone and salt between U.S. ports on the Great Lakes, so it was required to be built and registered in the U.S. and crewed by U.S. sailors. Photo credit: Marcin Szczepanski, Michigan Engineering.

Four of the Navy’s last five chief naval architects are counted among the ranks of U-M naval architecture alumni. Its cadre of over 20 active and emeritus faculty have helped design nearly every U.S. Navy ship over the last twenty years and some of the world’s largest cruise ships. The department’s unique Marine Hydrodynamics Lab helped develop the cost-saving bulbous bow, which makes nearly every large, ocean-going ship 25% more fuel efficient.

Today, U-M is doing its part by expanding collaborations to share expertise and learn from other nations. An educational partnership with South Korea, which ranks second in global shipbuilding behind China, will establish a specialized exchange program for students, professors and engineers from U-M, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Seoul National University to learn from one another.

An aerial view of Interlake Steamship’s Mark W. Barker, the first commercial vessel to be built on the Great Lakes in more than 40 years. Photo credit: Marcin Szczepanski, Michigan Engineering.

The U.S. government’s urgency to bolster the nation’s shipbuilding comes from a desire to match leading and emerging maritime nations such as China. Today, the U.S. owns fewer than 300 ocean-going, shipping vessels while China owns over 5,000, according to the United Nations Trade and Development Data Hub. China produces half of all the world’s new merchant ship tonnage. American shipyards produce less than 1% of the world’s ships. Most of those ships are relatively small domestic shipping vessels built to satisfy the Jones Act, which requires that all goods move between U.S. ports on American-made ships.

“I think it is critical to have U.S.-owned, crewed and built vessels as a matter of long-term strength to our economic and military security,” said Brendan O’ Connor, the COO of Interlake Maritime Services, a maritime shipping company that operates in the Great Lakes. The company recently launched the first commercial vessel to be built on the Great Lakes in more than 40 years—the M/V Mark W. Barker. But O’ Connor mentioned that American ships can have higher price tags.