The Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA) on Wednesday announced a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of shipbuilding and ship repair to the US economy.
Entitled “Know Your Ship”, the campaign will be broadly targeted to reach the general population and spread the word about how vital the industry is to the prosperity of the nation, not to mention its military role in providing national security.
And it has statistics to support its case, referencing US Maritime Administration data showing how shipbuilding and repair support more than 400,000 direct jobs across the nation. On top of that for each job in the industry two are created in ancillary areas – in both the commercial and military sectors.
The industry contributes $36 billion every year to the US economy and, on a daily basis shifts millions of products and people, says the campaign.
With a US general election due next year and road to the primaries already under way, the “Know Your Ship” campaign wants to get its issues in the national limelight – mainly the need for American-built and maintained vessels, plus the role of federal funding in that regard.
