The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) will make nearly $20 million in federal grant money available to small U.S. shipyards seeking to modernize or invest in workforce training, the agency said Thursday.
MARAD’s Small Shipyard Grant Program will provide grants to shipyards with fewer than 1,200 production employees and can be used, the agency said, to purchase equipment or provide employee training.
“Small shipyards play vital roles in their local economies and our national economy,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. “With these funds, we are helping small shipyards across the country train their workers, modernize their equipment, and improve their operations.”
Since its inception in 2008, the Small Shipyard Grant Program has awarded more than 320 grants totaling approximately $282 million. In 2022, the program awarded $19.6 million in grants to 24 shipyards in 19 states across the country.
“Small shipyards are essential to the U.S. maritime industry and critical to ensuring that we have a resilient industrial base,” said Maritime Administrator Ann Phillips. “These shipyards are an economic pillar, strengthening our maritime industry and the communities along and near our nation’s ports and waterways, and employing thousands of Americans, who ensure the nation maintains expertise and skills critical to our economic and national security.”
Grant applications are due by 5 p.m. EST on Feb. 27, 2023. Additional information is available online at https://www.maritime.dot.gov/grants-finances/small-shipyard-grants or by contacting David Heller, Association Administrator for Business and Finance Development with the Maritime Administration, at David.Heller@dot.gov.