Hacker News Reader

Comment by wrsh07 | Hacker News Reader

The US has an incredibly strange relationship with shipbuilding.

Zvi and the Cato institute both have lengthy pieces about why the Jones act is bad [1] [2], and whether or not you believe that has entrenched our shipbuilders, the US essentially manufactures no ships compared to South Korea and China.

This naval news post says there are $5 billion in modernization costs for the shipyard needed for this project so it seems like we're still years away from a started (much less completed) project.

[1] Nov 2024 https://thezvi.substack.com/p/repeal-the-jones-act-of-1920

[2] June 2018 https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/jones-act-...

View on HN

>"Zvi and the Cato institute both have lengthy pieces about why the Jones act is bad [1] [2], and whether or not you believe that has entrenched our shipbuilders, the US essentially manufactures no ships compared to South Korea and China."

One issue is that Naval ships are very different from commercial vessels, and at least in the USA, almost no shipyards have shared facilities and staff between the two products since WWII. Interestingly, most other countries do not build most of their naval tonnage (destroyers and frigates) to the same standards that the USA does (European countries are notable for using commercial hulls standards for these ships).

On a related note, the Odd Lots podcast had a (relatively) recent Jones Act debate episode, which is worth a listen if you're interested in the subject.

> at least in the USA, almost no shipyards have shared facilities and staff between the two products

Do other countries do it differently?

I don’t know of other countries which produce both types of vessel in the same shipyard, though I expect that some must.

> European countries are notable for using commercial hulls standards for these ships

Is that a problem? Why would navy ships need a different hull construction?

It is worth noting that the US and Korea have already been very engaged in trying to work together on ship building, mostly for the US, which we seem to have gotten quite slow and costly at.

From the same source as this article, American HHI working with Korean HD HHI. No real action yet but both companies want to be working together. https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2025/10/hii-hosts-hd-hh...

5mil = "we're gonna buy five mobile truck cranes, they'll be here in February"

A million bucks doesn't go as far as it used to.

Did I misread?

> Hanwha has reportedly invested an additional $5 billion dollars into modernization and preparation

Seems like a typical trump Big Announcement. No details, doesn't really fit with the actual state of the world, and no clear path to even getting these things built. I'll be surprised if >0 get built in Philadelphia in the next decade.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com