The announcement by Colonna’s Shipyard in Norfolk that it will spend more than $79 million on a fourth dry dock should give a needed boost to efforts to strengthen and modernize the struggling American shipbuilding industry.
The news comes after increasing pressure in Washington this year to do something about the disturbingly slow pace of building and repairing ships, particularly Navy warships. Members of Congress representing the commonwealth have called for more “transparency” in the Navy’s approach to building ships. President Donald Trump has made beefing up domestic shipbuilding a priority.
Although there is a great deal wrong with the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill that Republicans pushed through Congress during the summer, it does provide billions of dollars for the flagging shipbuilding industry. Unfortunately, the budgeting process in Congress is slow and unpredictable, and a government shutdown only makes things worse.
Whatever happens in Washington, Colonna’s has a solid role to play in efforts to shore up the nation’s shipbuilding. Founded in 1875, Colonna’s is the oldest continuously operated family-owned shipyard in the United States. It’s an important part of the shipbuilding and repair industry that is one of the mainstays of the Hampton Roads economy.
And, although Colonna’s does not build ships for the U.S. Navy as such, it plays important roles in the manufacture, maintenance and repair of some of those ships, including submarines. Colonna’s specializes in high-precision work and builds steel components with the strength needed for large ships. It also handles major repair work on military ships as well as commercial vessels.
Dry docks, where water can be drained from around vessels after they have been secured, are essential to those repairs. The new one will enable Colonna’s to do more work with many types of vessels. As Randall Crutchfield, chairman and CEO, said in a news release, this investment will prepare Colonna’s for the future, making it easier to meet the “ever-evolving needs” of its clients, government and commercial.
Commercial and military shipbuilding are intertwined, and strengthening one helps the other.
While U.S. law requires that ships used in domestic cargo trade between U.S ports must be built in this country, most ships used in international trade are built abroad, many in Asia, where costs are lower.
The slow production of Navy ships means shipyards in the United States, are working below capacity. There’s a snowball effect: With less demand, the supply chain dwindles, and shipyard workers who are laid off because work is slow find other jobs, sometimes permanently.
As production of new Navy ships has slowed to a crawl, sometimes years behind schedule, the Navy has been forced to rely more on older vessels, most of which need extensive repairs that also take longer than desirable. While the Navy’s goal has been to increase the size of the fleet, in part to counter the growth of China’s navy, the numbers have been shrinking as some older ships are decommissioned without new vessels to replace them.
Politicians aren’t exaggerating when they say America’s shipbuilding industry needs help.
It would be hard to overstate how essential a strong shipbuilding and repair industry is to the Navy — and to the defense of the nation. Having well-maintained ships ready for action around the globe is at the heart of our defense, providing a strong deterrent to aggression and giving our military forces vital flexibility.
Colonna’s Shipyard’s plans to make a major investment in a fourth drydock should help efforts to revitalize U.S. shipbuilding. It’s a clear indication that recent attention to the state of this vital industry is paying off.
It’s no wonder that Gov. Glenn Youngkin and other state and local officials chimed in to praise and celebrate Colonna’s announcement early in October. Shipbuilding has long been a staple of the Hampton Roads economy, and Colonna’s has been a part of that for 150 years.
This new construction is not the solution to all the nation’s shipbuilding woes, but it should be a solid part of what’s needed to address them.
