JPMorganChase announced $24 million in funding on Wednesday to strengthen Philadelphia's shipbuilding and maritime manufacturing industry, targeting submarine production, workforce training, and supply chain development at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
Of the total commitment, $18 million takes the form of loans and investments while $6 million will flow through philanthropic grants, the company said. Leading the package is a $13 million New Markets Tax Credit equity investment in Rhoads Industries, which supplies General Dynamics $GD Electric Boat's submarine program, to fund a new 95,000-square-foot high-bay manufacturing and assembly facility projected to bring 450 permanent positions, according to The Wall Street Journal. JPMorganChase is also providing a $5 million loan to PIDC Community Capital, a community development financial institution, to expand lending to maritime small businesses, expected to support up to 15 loans and the creation or retention of roughly 200 jobs.
The remaining $6 million in grants will be distributed among three organizations: $2.4 million to the Greater Philadelphia Growth Partnership to build a regional employer and training collaborative, $2 million to the Skills Initiative at University City District to expand non-degree workforce pathways for roughly 300 individuals, and $1.5 million jointly to PIDC Community Capital and the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center to support as many as 100 maritime suppliers with technical assistance.
"America can compete and lead in shipbuilding again — it starts with more skilled workers and secure supply chains," JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement. At a separate defense industry event, Dimon pointed to an acute labor shortage in the sector. "We hear from clients all the time — they don't have the workers they need. That could be welders, electricians, a lot of those folks are near retirement age," Dimon said, according to The Journal.
Jay Horine, who oversees the bank's Security and Resiliency Initiative, indicated that Philadelphia is only a starting point and that the bank plans to extend similar support to shipyards elsewhere in the country. "We want to work with multiple people to bring back multiple shipyards over time in the United States," Horine said.
The Philadelphia commitment sits within two firmwide frameworks: the American Dream Initiative, which targets economic opportunity, and the Security and Resiliency Initiative, a $1.5 trillion, decade-long program to direct capital toward industries JPMorgan $JPM views as essential to the country's economic and national security, the company said. A report from the JPMorganChase PolicyCenter estimates demand for 250,000 new skilled shipbuilding workers over the next decade.
JPMorganChase reported second-quarter net income of $21.2 billion on Tuesday, the highest quarterly profit in the bank's history, with CEO Jamie Dimon describing the U.S. economy as displaying "notable resiliency" while flagging geopolitical instability and stretched asset valuations as longer-term risks.