The Shipbuilders’ Association of Japan said Thursday that it plans to invest ¥350 billion in capital expenditures in a bid to double shipbuilding output by 2035.

The association, comprising 17 Japanese shipbuilders, is also aiming to prepare for Japan-U.S. cooperation in the shipbuilding sector, which was part of an agreement the Japanese government reached with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

SAJ Chairperson Yukito Higaki announced the plan Thursday at a joint meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s headquarters for the promotion of economic security and other related panels.

The LDP plans to create a fund of more than ¥1 trillion to support the shipbuilding industry. By showing its readiness to invest its money, the industry group is effectively calling for the fund’s early launch.

“We will advance public-private initiatives, with the industry also taking on maximum risk,” LDP policy chief Takayuki Kobayashi, who chairs the economic security headquarters, said at the start of the day’s meeting.

According to Higaki, who also serves as president of major Japanese shipbuilder Imabari Shipbuilding, many shipbuilders have aging facilities and need to make large-scale, long-term investments to boost shipbuilding capacity, including the introduction of large cranes and robotics.

Unless Japanese shipbuilders regain market share lost to Chinese and South Korean competitors, they will further lose competitiveness, analysts say.

The government will set a target in a roadmap to be drawn up as early as this autumn to double annual shipbuilding output from roughly 9.1 million gross tons at present to about 18 million gross tons by around 2035.

In addition to boosting domestic production capacity, the government will aim to achieve this target by expanding Japan-U.S. technical cooperation and ship repair operations.