Title XI
Vol. XI, Art. 26

While you were watching “Dancing With the Stars” ...
While you were watching “American Idol” ...
While you were watching “Super Bowl XLI” ...
While you were watching “March Madness” ...
While you are watching the NBA Playoffs and the Stanley Cup Playoffs ...

• Horizon Lines, Inc. took delivery of the first of five new container ships from Hyundai Mipo Shipyard in South Korea.

• Hamburg’s Peter Offen ordered six new container ships from Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea.

• Hamburg Sud named the third in a series of six new container ships ordered from Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. at its Okpo Shipyard in South Korea.

• In addition to ten recently ordered container ships, Seaspan Corporation ordered four more container ships from China’s Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding Co. Ltd.

• COSCO Group, China’s leading shipping and logistics provider, contracted with four different Chinese Shipyards to build 66 ships, including a significant number of container ships.

• Germany’s Peter Doehle ordered eight container ships from South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries Co.

• Seaspan ordered eight container ships from Hyundai Heavy Industries Co.

• Two German companies ordered 12 container ships from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co.

The South Korean and Chinese governments, of course, fully subsidize their shipbuilding industries. The U.S. government, however, subsidizes only those shipyards that build warships. Brilliant.

Title XI, you say? When the U.S. Maritime Administrator was asked to comment on the feasibility of funding Title XI purchases, he dutifully said, “... at this time, the Administration does not request funding for Title XI because it believes this program is a form of corporate subsidy, and that shipowners and shipyards should rely on their own creditworthiness to obtain financing ...”

Just last week though, the “Administration” gave an additional $ 100 billion to armament manufacturers who produce destructive weapons for the slaughter in Iraq. It’s O.K. to kill people but it isn’t O.K. to employ them in revitalized U.S. shipyards building profitable container ships.