We began the week with a look into Russian-crewed ships being linked to reported drone activity in Europe. Now, we will issue an update on plans to revive America’s shipbuilding industry and a recent anchor handler acquisition by a Singapore shipowner.
Good things come to those who wait, we are often told. We have now been waiting for more than eight months for the American government to publish its roadmap to revitalise American shipbuilding.
Readers may recall that on April 9, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance.” It began with a powerful statement of purpose:
“The commercial shipbuilding capacity and maritime workforce of the United States has been weakened by decades of government neglect, leading to the decline of a once strong industrial base while simultaneously empowering our adversaries and eroding United States national security.
"Both our allies and our strategic competitors produce ships for a fraction of the cost needed in the United States. Recent data show that the United States constructs less than one per cent of commercial ships globally, while the People’s Republic of China is responsible for producing approximately half…”
Within 210 days of the date of the order, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA), in coordination with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Transportation, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the United States Trade Representative, and the heads of whatever executive departments and agencies the APNSA deems appropriate, were supposed to submit a maritime action plan to the President.
I wrote a piece expressing my (surprise) scepticism that shipbuilding can be resuscitated in the land of the free in the short or medium term.
I had expected that the report might be forthcoming in the time frame stated in the executive order. It’s not like a shipbuilding action plan would be as contentious as the Epstein files or other documents lost in the bureaucracy of Washington.
Guess what? Eight months on, no report has been published. The 2025 orderbook for newbuildings shows that China still accounts for 75 percent of orders, with South Korea at 19 percent, and the U.S. at 0.2 percent, despite levies on Chinese built and owned vessels calling at American ports.
Korean shipbuilder Hanwha has set about investing in its Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia, which received its first order for a partially US built LNG carrier from Hanwha’s own shipping division in July, and a second a month later, again “in-house”. Hanwha Shipping also ordered 10 medium-range tankers at Philly Shipyard (full update here).
The fact that the flagship American yard is dependent on its own parent company for orders suggests that this is not a situation where genuine, independent third-party buyers trust American yards to build quality ships. The fact that Norwegian conglomerate Aker struggled for 17 years to make Philly viable before selling to the Koreans for US$100 million in 2024 suggests that the problems are deep-seated.
Until we see ExxonMobil or Chevron ordering Jones Act tankers from American yards, I reserve the right to be sceptical on the revival of American shipbuilding. As per CNBC, there is already one Jones Act LNG carrier… which was built in France.
Meanwhile, in October, President Donald Trump signed an agreement with Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb to build and buy up to 11 new icebreakers in partnership with Finland’s storied shipbuilding industry. The first four will be built in Finland, in a great win for Baltic shipbuilding, while the remaining seven may be built in America.
However, given the weakness of the American shipbuilding base, I somehow suspect that like the shipbuilding action plan, the contracts for these seven ships may be lost behind the Oval Office couch.
“We’re buying the finest icebreakers in the world,” Trump said during the signing ceremony. “And Finland is known for making them.”
Enough said.
One company that has been investing, investing and investing in offshore is Britoil, the privately held Singapore shipowner that has been controlled by X-Press Feeders container line owner Tim Hartnoll and his family since 2021, when they bought Britoil from its founder David Hill.
Starting in 2023 with the acquisition of Vroon Offshore Services and its fleet of 29 vessels from the consortium of banks, which controlled the troubled Dutch shipping conglomerate, Britoil has embarked on a campaign of rapid fleet expansion, buying abandoned anchor handlers from Chinese shipyards (here), buying vessels from Bourbon in the ICBC auction process, and ordering six of its own 80-ton bollard pull newbuild anchor handling tugs at Jiangsu Zhenjiang Shipyard in China.
In its most recent report, Seabrokers advised that Britoil has also acquired the Israeli-flagged anchor handling tug supply vessel Liberty I and has renamed the 80 tonner as Britoil Confidence, reflagging the DP2 ship to Luxembourg.
Originally known as Bourbon Liberty 241, the vessel was built to the GPA 254 design in 2011, but sold by Bourbon to Israeli owners Interglobal Shipping 3001 in 2023. The ship is now en route to Congo.
Following on from the acquisition of the laid-up Liberty 200 class sister anchor handler Bourbon Phet in October, Britoil has completed a trio of Liberty-class vessels in the most recent ICBC auction of offshore ships from the Bourbon fleet. Britoil paid US$9.54 million last month for Bourbon Gomen, another 80-tonner with DP2 built in 2012, which requires docking and which will take the capex into double digits.
Two more 80-tonners from the Bourbon fleet will be offered by ICBC in the final auctions of the year, as the state-owned leasing company sells the 19th and 20th ships in its disposal campaign. Bourbon Liberty 318 and Bourbon Nilgan (both built in 2013) will be offered on 29th and 30th of December on the online Chinese auction platform shipbid.net.
Let’s see if Britoil can keep up the capex and make it five. The reserve price is US$7 million each, well below the Gomen pricing. If the younger ships sell for less, Britoil may look foolish, but if they sell for US$10 million apiece, then the company’s strategy will be vindicated.
ICBC has raised US$137.68 million from the 18 auctions to date. January 2026 will see some serious cash splashed when two Bourbon Evolution 800 class subsea vessels are auctioned, and two large 2012 built PX105 design 1,000-square-metre clear deck space DP2 platform supply vessels.
Potentially, those four vessels could generate over US$100 million as they are all high specification and in service.
On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... nine ladies dancing. But if ICBC achieves these reserve prices and finds bidders, like Britoil, willing to pay a premium for middle aged tonnage, then the nine ladies dancing will be in Beijing, dancing for joy.
Background Reading
The first six days of the 2025 Twelve Days of Christmas are here, here, here, and here.