The steep learning curve America faces if it wants to return to previous shipyard glory days

April 15, 2025 Stu Turley ENB Pub Note, Energy Policy, Energy Regulations, Industry Insights, Modular Reactors, Net Zero, Nuclear, Offshore, Press, Regulations, Shipyard, Supply Chain, Top News, US Energy News
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ENB Pub Note: Interesting article from America’s Shipyards. While we retool the 19,000 manufacturing shops that the Democrats and Republicans shipped to China, we should also look at building our commercial nuclear shipbuilding. This would be a market that China could compete in, but countries would want emission-free carriers and ships and would pay a premium. You could also sell the vessel but license or rent the reactor as a service to maintain control. The U.S. Navy has nuclear reactors down to a science, and we could branch that expertise out into the commercial sector and keep the control and licensing under the U.S. military framework. Reviving the Merchant Marines into a division for control of the nuclear plants could have a profound impact on the reduction of fossil fuels and decrease in emissions for decades into the future. 
What do you think about nuclear ships being sold by the United States and keeping the nuclear reactors on lease as a service? I think it might be a significant export if we put the Merchant Marine-type structure to maintain safety and control of the reactors.
From Grok on X on the current shipyards in the US.
As of recent data, the United States has approximately 154 private shipyards actively engaged in shipbuilding, spread across 29 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Additionally, there are over 300 shipyards involved in ship repairs, some of which can build ships but are not primarily focused on construction. The U.S. Navy operates 4 public shipyards dedicated to naval vessel maintenance and repair.
The United States has numerous shipyards spread across various states, primarily concentrated in coastal regions and along major inland waterways. Below is a breakdown of notable shipyard locations by state, focusing on active private and public shipyards engaged in shipbuilding and repair, based on available information. Note that the list is not exhaustive due to the large number of smaller facilities, but it covers major and well-known shipyards.
  • Alabama:
    • Mobile: Austal USA (shipbuilding, specializing in aluminum vessels like littoral combat ships)
    • Mobile: BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards (ship repair, previously included shipbuilding)
  • Alaska:
    • Ketchikan: Vigor Industrial (shipbuilding and repair, modern facility with a focus on fishing boats, tugs, and ferries)
  • California:
    • San Diego: General Dynamics NASSCO (shipbuilding and repair, commercial tankers, Navy support ships)
    • San Francisco: BAE Systems San Francisco Ship Repair (ship repair, serving cruise liners and commercial vessels)
    • Mare Island: Mare Island Dry Dock, LLC (ship repair, with large-capacity dry docks)
  • Connecticut:
    • Groton: General Dynamics Electric Boat (shipbuilding, specializing in naval submarines)
  • Florida:
    • Jacksonville: BAE Systems Jacksonville Ship Repair (repair and maintenance for commercial and naval vessels)
    • Jacksonville: Fincantieri Marine Repair (repair services for various vessels)
    • Fort Lauderdale: Derecktor Florida (yacht repair and custom yacht construction)
    • Tampa: International Ship Repair (ship repair, located in the Port of Tampa)
  • Hawaii:
    • Pearl Harbor: BAE Systems Hawaii Shipyards (ship repair, located at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard)
    • Pearl Harbor: Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard (public, Navy-owned, focused on maintenance and repair)
  • Louisiana:
    • Houma: Gulf Island Fabrication, Inc. (shipbuilding, offshore oil rigs, and marine structures)
    • Multiple locations (e.g., Lockport, Larose): Bollinger Shipyards (11 facilities across Louisiana and Mississippi, shipbuilding and repair for Coast Guard cutters, commercial vessels)
  • Maine:
    • Bath: Bath Iron Works (General Dynamics, shipbuilding, specializing in Navy destroyers)
    • Kittery: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (public, Navy-owned, focused on submarine maintenance; spans Maine and New Hampshire)
  • Maryland:
    • Baltimore: United States Coast Guard Yard, Curtis Bay (public, Coast Guard ship repair and maintenance)
  • Mississippi:
    • Pascagoula: Ingalls Shipbuilding (Huntington Ingalls Industries, shipbuilding, Navy amphibious ships, destroyers)
    • Multiple locations: Bollinger Shipyards (shared with Louisiana, shipbuilding and repair)
  • New Jersey:
    • Port Norris: Dorchester Shipyard (smaller facility, handles steelwork and painting for vessels like ferries)
  • New York:
    • Staten Island: Shipyard for vessel refurbishment (e.g., ferries like M/V New Jersey)
    • Oyster Bay: Jakobson Shipyard (historically significant, though less active today)
  • Oregon:
    • Portland: Cascade General Ship Repair (Vigor Industrial, largest ship repair facility on the West Coast)
  • Pennsylvania:
    • Philadelphia: Philly Shipyard (shipbuilding, commercial vessels, recently acquired by South Korean shipbuilder)
  • Rhode Island:
    • Quonset Point: General Dynamics Electric Boat (auxiliary facility supporting submarine construction)
  • Virginia:
    • Newport News: Newport News Shipbuilding (Huntington Ingalls Industries, shipbuilding, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines)
    • Portsmouth: Norfolk Naval Shipyard (public, Navy-owned, repairs and modernizes naval ships and submarines)
  • Washington:
    • Bremerton: Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (public, Navy-owned, services West Coast naval ships and submarines)
    • Seattle: Vigor Industrial (Winslow Marine Railway & Shipbuilding, shipbuilding and repair)
    • Bremerton: Vigor Industrial (shipbuilding and repair, part of multiple Pacific Northwest facilities)
  • Wisconsin:
    • Marinette: Fincantieri Marinette Marine (shipbuilding, Navy frigates, littoral combat ships)
    • Sturgeon Bay: Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding (shipbuilding and repair, commercial vessels like ferries and barges)
    • Green Bay: Fincantieri ACE Marine (aluminum vessel construction)
Notes:
  • Geographic Distribution: Most shipyards are in coastal states (e.g., California, Virginia, Louisiana) or near major waterways like the Great Lakes (Wisconsin) and Mississippi River (Louisiana, Mississippi).
  • Public Shipyards: The four active Navy shipyards are in Hawaii (Pearl Harbor), Maine/New Hampshire (Portsmouth), Virginia (Norfolk), and Washington (Puget Sound).
  • Private Shipyards: There are approximately 154 private shipyards actively building ships across 29 states, with over 300 others capable of repairs.
  • Data Limitations: Exact counts and locations vary by source, and smaller yards may not be widely documented. Some states (e.g., Delaware, Massachusetts) have historical shipbuilding significance but fewer active yards today.
AmericasShipyards

The stats surrounding the steep learning curve the US faces if it wants to claw back any market share in shipbuilding are astonishing.

Donald Trump, the American president, is taking steps to try and build back the country’s shipyards, creating a shipbuilding office in the White House, and last week signing an executive order creating a Maritime Security Trust Fund to provide sustainable funding for initiatives that strengthen US maritime capabilities. This includes using funds from tariffs, fines, fees, or tax revenues with Trump also expected to rule on penalising Chinese-built tonnage calling at US ports soon.

“We’re way, way, way behind,” Trump said last week, speaking in the Oval Office. “We used to build a ship a day, and now we don’t do a ship a year, practically, and we have the capacity to do it.”

Overseas shipbuilding firms, notably from South Korea, are busy investing in American infrastructure in recent months.

The US accounts for less than 1% of global ship output. Putting the scale of how far behind American shipbuilding is to its Asian rival, China manufactured more commercial vessels by tonnage in 2024 than US shipyards have built since the end of World War II.

Labour force-wise, Americans long ago ditched shipyards as a career, as data from Greek broker Ursa shows (see chart below).

During the 1950s and 1960s, roughly 1 in every 400 non-farm workers in the US was employed in shipbuilding. Today, it is around one in every 1,000.

Global Times, a state-run Chinese newspaper, lambasted the American plans last month in an OpEd, arguing: “The chasm between American and Chinese shipbuilding is fundamentally a gap in industrial infrastructure. The forces of globalization swept away America’s steel mills, machine shops and skilled labor force, leaving behind rusting supply chains and a hollowed-out manufacturing base. Shipbuilding, a quintessential heavy industry, requires a robust industrial foundation. When that foundation crumbles, shipbuilding inevitably follows.”

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About Stu Turley 4521 Articles
Stuart Turley is President and CEO of Sandstone Group, a top energy data, and finance consultancy working with companies all throughout the energy value chain. Sandstone helps both small and large-cap energy companies to develop customized applications and manage data workflows/integration throughout the entire business. With experience implementing enterprise networks, supercomputers, and cellular tower solutions, Sandstone has become a trusted source and advisor.   He is also the Executive Publisher of www.energynewsbeat.com, the best source for 24/7 energy news coverage, and is the Co-Host of the energy news video and Podcast Energy News Beat. Energy should be used to elevate humanity out of poverty. Let's use all forms of energy with the least impact on the environment while being sustainable without printing money. Stu is also a co-host on the 3 Podcasters Walk into A Bar podcast with David Blackmon, and Rey Trevino. Stuart is guided by over 30 years of business management experience, having successfully built and help sell multiple small and medium businesses while consulting for numerous Fortune 500 companies. He holds a B.A in Business Administration from Oklahoma State and an MBA from Oklahoma City University.

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