US loses Jones Act case

A federal court in Virginia has handed the Shipbuilders Council of America its second victory this year in cases it brought against the Coast Guard for allowing major work on Jones Act ships to be done at foreign shipyards. Matthew Paxton, SCA president, said Tuesday that District Judge T.S. Ellis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia had issued an order Sept. 30 in favor of the organization, which had sued over the conversion of a Matson container ship to a combination container-car carrier vessel at a yard in China.