At a meeting in Denmark last week, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro had an unusual proposal for Vincent Clerc, CEO of AP Moller-Maersk and one of the world’s most prestigious shipowners: Del Toro recommended that Clerc buy American-made ships to join Maersk’s all-foreign-built fleet.
The call is in line with Del Toro’s attempt to enlist allies’ help to “restore the health of the (American) broader ecosystem of sea power.” Del Toro has called on Korean shipbuilders to acquire or open shipyards in the U.S. market in the hope of fixing over-budget and behind-schedule naval shipbuilding programs. A demand signal from a major private shipowner could spark business interest in modernizing American shipyards, he said.
“Some of the world’s most technologically advanced shipbuilders have already answered our call to invest in integrated commercial and military shipbuilding facilities in the United States. The next step in our maritime governance strategy is now to encourage the world’s leading commercial shipping companies to signal their demand for new ships from American shipyards,” said Secretary Del Toro.
While the move is significant for national defense, it would be unusual for Maersk, and Clerc has not commented publicly on Del Toro’s proposal. The minister’s office said the Maersk team would continue talks during a visit to the U.S. in the coming weeks.
U.S.-built container ships are typically used on domestic or partially domestic routes where they are needed, and all are smaller than 4,000 TEU. Maersk Line owns more than 330 celled container ships and charters another 380 ships in sizes up to 24,000 TEU. The company has a U.S.-flagged division, but that business unit operates foreign-built ships, like other participants in the U.S. Maritime Security Program (MSP).
Del Toro is working with the U.S. Department of Energy, the Maritime Administration and Congress to look for ways to make American shipbuilding more financially attractive to foreign owners. The secretary’s office highlighted the Department of Energy’s clean energy financing program under Title 17, which provides low-interest loans for U.S.-built dual-fuel commercial vessels.
“Our calculation is that we will bring significant profits to the Navy by bringing a larger share of the newbuilding order books of the world’s largest shipping companies to American shores in the coming years,” Del Toro said in a statement.
