Orderbooks in the Americas are at historic lows as activity at the US and Brazil, the region’s two largest shipbuilding nations, has dipped to record lows.

As of 1 November, 11 shipyards within South America’s largest country are working on 22 units for the offshore sector, according to Clarksons’ latest World Shipyard Monitor. That is the lowest level since the Clarksons data started tracking Brazil for a country that was once the world's second largest shipbuilding market.

Half of those vessels are platform supply vessels being built next year by Allianca, Arpoador Engenharia, Sao Miguel Shipyard and Wilson Sons Shipyard.

The rest are pairs of diving support ships being constructed at Belov Engenharia, anchor handling tug supply vessels at Estaleiro Navship, drillships at Estaleiro Jurong Aracruz, and three crude tankers between EISA-Estaleiro and Estaleiro Maua.

Brazil’s small roster is rounded off by a utility vessel under construction at Inace Shipyard and a general cargoship being put together at Estaleiro Vitoria.

The US has seen its orderbook slump to just 18 merchant vessels, the lowest level since at least 1996, when the Clarksons data starts.

The list includes three passenger ferries being manufactured at Eastern SB and a fourth at Vigor Ketchikan.

Numerous shipyards

Keppel AmFELS is working on two boxships while Gulf Island Fabrication, SwiftShips and General Dynamics each toil away respectively on pairs of maritime support vessels (MSV), PSVs and ro-ros.

Gulf Coast Shipyard, Gulf Craft and Bollinger Shipyards will each deliver a PSV, while C&C Marine and North America separately tackle a dredger and an AHTS.

By comparison, China, South Korea and Japan together will manufacture 80% of the 2,998 ships being built worldwide over the next few years.

These nations have much larger shipbuilding industries because they are heavily subsidised by their governments, Shipbuilders Council of America president Matthew Paxton said.

“These countries are investing and financing their shipyard industries because they consider it to be an issue of national sovereignty,” he said in testimony given to the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation in March 2019.

“These are examples of direct and indirect government support that distort the international shipbuilding market and render moot any discussion of US shipyards competing internationally.”

'Extreme misrepresentation'

Asian shipbuilding dwarfs US activity, but he said yards in China, South Korea and Japan have no profit margins because the governments unfairly exploit them to benefit their economies.

“It is therefore an extreme misrepresentation to compare the blatant manipulation of foreign shipyards to the market stability provided by the Jones Act,” Paxton said in his March testimony.

Clarksons says Canada is the only other nation in the Americas producing a ship at the moment — an MSV at Davie Shipbuilding.

By comparison, China will manufacture 1,319 ships for almost every maritime sector while South Korea will push out 449 until the end of 2023 and Japan will make 618 up to the close of 2022.