Foreign Shipyards, Big Contracts: Can the Caribbean Get a Piece of the Action?

President Trump signed a memorandum on August 13, opening select categories of U.S. Navy shipbuilding to foreign yards for the first time in decades. This news quickly impacted the market, with shares of South Korea’s Hanwha Group and Italy’s Fincantieri both rising, underscoring the significance of the shift in U.S. maritime industrial policy. The question it raises is interesting; could Saint Lucia, or the wider Caribbean, ever realistically position itself to capture a piece of this kind of contract? If we are honest with ourselves, the answer is not anytime soon.

It is worth understanding why rather than dismissing the idea outright. The directive follows what is being called the “Finland Model,” built on a prior agreement with Finland for medium icebreaker construction. Under this approach, a qualifying foreign shipbuilder may construct the first two vessels in a series overseas, but only on strict conditions; they must also establish or acquire a shipyard in the United States, transfer technology, and train an American workforce, with every subsequent vessel built domestically. In other words, the model is not simply about using foreign shipyards; it is designed to use foreign expertise to help rebuild America’s own shipbuilding capacity.

This is defense-grade shipbuilding at its most technically demanding tier, requiring security clearances, decades of engineering expertise, enormous capital, and industrial infrastructure that countries like South Korea and Italy have spent generations building. None of that exists in the Caribbean today and building it from scratch would take decades and large-scale investment.

But dismissing this story as entirely irrelevant would mean missing a smaller, more realistic set of opportunities sitting just beneath the headline. The same directive reflects a much broader U.S. push to rebuild its maritime industrial base, extending well beyond warship construction into ship repair, logistics support, supply chains, and workforce development. While the memorandum focuses on rebuilding these capabilities in the United States, increased naval and maritime activity in the region could create opportunities for Caribbean countries to provide supporting services.

Trinidad and Tobago has historical shipyard and vessel repair capacity worth building on, while the wider Caribbean has also long functioned as a logistics and provisioning hub for vessels transiting between North and South America. These roles do not require frigate-grade engineering capability, just reliable infrastructure and a skilled workforce.

One niche worth Saint Lucia’s specific attention is robotic hull cleaning. As fleets face growing pressure to control fuel consumption and meet tightening emissions standards, in-water hull cleaning using remotely operated robotic systems is becoming a fast-growing global service segment, since a clean hull reduces drag and fuel burn without requiring dry dock. A modest investment in robotic hull-cleaning equipment and certifying technicians could position Saint Lucia as a regional service point rather than leave the opportunity to better-equipped neighbors.

Taken together, the achievable openings are ship repair subcontracting, robotic hull cleaning and underwater maintenance, port services and provisioning that could support increased U.S. naval activity in this hemisphere, and workforce training pipelines connected to this broader industrial push. None carries the scale of a warship deal, but these are opportunities a region our size can realistically pursue. The Chamber will keep monitoring how this directive develops, including the 120-day review for establishing a new U.S. Navy shipyard, since any expansion closer to this hemisphere could create further openings worth pursuing.