> Are wages the principal component of “commodity” ship building? Wages and steel. China is the world's largest steel producer (US makes ~4% of global output)

> Are wages the principal component of “commodity” ship building? Wages and steel. China is the world's largest steel producer (US makes ~4% of global output). Reminder that Nippon Steel wanted to buy US Steel and (AIUI) keep US plants open, but that was killed by both Biden and Trump: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_acquisition_of_U.S._Steel_by_Nippon_Steel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_acquisition_of_U.S._S... If US management/ownership cannot keep a company alive, perhaps let non-US folks give it a try if they're willing keep US plants open. The world learned lots of lessons from Toyota (who learned from Denning), perhaps Nippon Steel can teach a few things.