Why is there (seemingly) no strong US shipping companies?

Excellent question, long answer, many reasons, politics, finance, regulations, culture, economics. But briefly...As mentioned before, a US businessman invented the forerunner to containerization decades ago. The US had many excellent shipyards and a great fleet, thousands of seafarers. But money speaks volumes. Running a shipping business takes savvy, cash, hard working dedicated people in it for the long term, but most of all, knowledge about business and competition. In the end two things destroyed our industry: cost of labor and building ships. DO NOT confuse my point and assume that US seaman are expensive. An all too common mistake. Japanese nationals are too expensive for Japan. As are Europeans, too expensive for themselves.  The ultra low costs of hiring third world crews to man your ships is what makes an owner save money. It is very common to find one Norwegian man as Captain on a European owned ship, with 20 Chinese nationals as crew. I see this all the time. One Korean Captain, with a Polish Chief engineer, 18 Filipinos as crew, it's a melting pot. Owner saves money. But crew not very happy. All make good money by THEIR standards in THEIR countries. But not by ours. As ships moved cargoes across oceans from various places around the world, competition grew. In the end, the cheapest built ships come from China along with their dirt cheap crew supply. They are also the ships with greatest operational and mechanical problems (you get what you pay for!) and the most illiterate crews (forced labor from farms inland to being at sea). I see this all the time. Most collisions and groundings are with Chinese ships and/or crews. Ok so, why not more US ships and crews? We are too expensive to own and operate, except in a limited area (Jones Act trades). NOT a bad thing, but reality. Same reason NIKE produces shoes in Vietnam or China, right? Same with our industry. Now, do you get the picture a little better? We're not bad or expensive. It's just that other people do the same work at far lower costs. Is that good or better? Depends.

One of the biggest reasons for that is that serving US ports is difficult and costly. For example, there are weight restrictions, after which additional cost is incurred, which isn't the case in most other countries. This historically has shifted the bulk of shipping in the "easier" markets like China, and other Asian countries. People try to do business where doing business is cheaper and easier. Shipping is the same. These issues make running your own shipping company out of the US that much more expensive.

Largest container shipping lines Largest shipping company: http://Www.maerskline.com Second largest shipping company:  http://www.mscgva.ch/ A bit of history SeaLand: The containerization revolution started in the USA through Malcolm McLeans, SeaLand. SeaLand was a major player in container shipping till it was acquired by http://www.maerskline.com American President Lines: Major player in container shipping. Origins in 1860. Acquired by Singapore's NOL group. Dearth of shipping companies in the USA My personal opinion is that shipping is a scale business and grows through consolidation (inorganic growth. MSC is probably the only exception as it has grown almost 100% organically). Except probably for APL and SeaLand, none of the American lines had the scale, and both lines were gobbled up by bigger competitors. Another factor is tradition. Although its influence is debatable... Future With USA's appetite for innovation and entrepreneurship, I think there is an opportunity for a disruptive shipping player to emerge in the market.