Why Only Three Countries Bother Building Ships Anymore
When I wrote this it was still the Department of Defence.
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The SAUCE 🥫
https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/global-value-chains-and-the-shipbuilding-industry_7e94709a-en.html
https://one.oecd.org/document/C/WP6%282022%2915/FINAL/en/pdf
https://www.jbic.go.jp/en/support-menu/export.html
https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/public/doc/355/355.en.pdf
https://investor.matson.com/news-releases/news-release-details/matson-hanwha-philly-shipyard-mark-aloha-class-ship-construction
https://www.matson.com/aloha-class.html
https://www.hanwha.com/companies/hanwha-ocean.do
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-08-22/us-backed-south-korean-shipbuilding-plans-aim-to-keep-china-at-bay
https://www.hanwha.com/newsroom/news/press-releases/hanwha-acquires-philly-shipyard-expanding-its-footprint-in-global-shipbuilding-and-deployment-of-naval-systems.do
https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/industrial-policy-lessons-shipbuilding
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Export-Import-Bank-of-Japan
https://www.statista.com/statistics/895736/japan-leading-shipbuilding-companies-by-total-assets/
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FI.RES.TOTL.CD?locations=JP
https://www.cnet.com/pictures/meet-the-navys-new-13-billion-aircraft-carrier/
https://ourworldindata.org/trade-and-globalization
https://treaties.fcdo.gov.uk/data/Library2/pdf/1924-TS0005.pdf
41 Comments
Romania builds big ships
If only we lived in a timeline where Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher weren't born…
Only 3! S Korea, China, Japan, Norway, Finland, Germany, Italy, Holland, France, Russia, US, UK. Only 3.
So this program must be an AI created or something, its full of stupid stuff. It do not matter where the ships are constructed…uh well NO. Best ships so far were made by Japan, there ships are still going, most of them are still floating around and working in some ports in Africa or S America, these ships were made to the HIGHEST standards. Then S Korea took over the big ship build off. Kore an ships are OK, and they were build for 3/4 price. And then China came over and perfected what Japs did, Japan was experimenting with prefabricating floating build mono giants of 400 meters long or more….now in China that is the normal stuff, and the price for a simple naked freighter is so cheap than no other country dares to compete. If this was a competition in a ship building, USA vs China , the USA maybe would build 2 ships , when China would build 50, in the same time at the same price, so should I say more. TH
From a Chinese perspective, this is really quite laughable. The U.S. has placed its most critical warship manufacturing capacity right on the doorstep of its so-called adversary. To put it bluntly, if one day Japan and South Korea were to fully side with China, would the U.S. have to buy warships from Alibaba and AliExpress in the future? Besides, the real decision-makers in South Korea and Japan have already grown smart enough to balance between China and the U.S., instead of being as obedient as they once were.
According to google 12 Nations build Ships.
Industrial policy, which neoliberal America is literally allergic to (ironic considering industrial policy is the statecraft equivalent of medicine but whatever, let your Empire collapse lmao I won't complain).
14:15 caterpillar is American though 😂
why do all the dirty hard work when someone can do it for you for some paper you printed？
Netherlands used to be dominant in building ships and England is cheaper and gradually took most orders.
During WWII, US build ships cheaper and took most orders.
Now China is cheaper and took most orders.
LNG Ships are a lot more expensive now
China is the only country in the world that can build every part of a ship and the only country that builds all of the world’s most complex ships, LNG ship, cruise ship, carrier ship, and oil rigs.
This doesn't even mention the recent agreement between South Korea and the US to revive ship building in the US collaboratively. It also ignores military ship building by the US – General Dynamics anyone??
Japanese surrendered because of attack by soviets and rapid capture of territory by soviets in west. So they negotiated easy terms with americans who were finding it very difficult to do mainland invasion
India also make ships even own Air craft carrier
Americans rarely fought in ww2 but they did make lots of money in it
My guess it’s the myriad labor, union, EPA and tax regulations. The shipyards are all in blue states, so there’ll never be another ship produced in this country or degenerate teacher fired. It’s a gigantic money grab by all the corrupt city, state and federal agencies and (God save us) the directors of same. Unless Kansas (or any red state) can build a ship, then we won’t ever come back. Good luck protecting the sea lanes, US Navy. And if that ever comes to pass, goodbye reserve currency status and the ability to print money like drunken sailors. Sorry for the slander, sailors. I didn’t create the metaphor.
I must question the title of this video, HIGHLY inaccurate at best, WIKIPEDIA list hundreds of shipyards around the world, a short list of the countries I know build ships, UNITED STATES of AMERICA, SOUTH KOREA, JAPAN , CHINA, GERMANY and RUSSIA, a few more than THREE
Dutch shipyards build some impressive ships too. Vietnam and India have smaller ship building low tech stuff. Turkey is also a major yacht builder. Even UAE has yacht building yards.
Russia builds most advanced nuclear ships
amerykańskie okręty exportują wojny na cały wolny świat
High value ship? When it comes to battle, a ship built of dollars cannot defeat a ship built of steel.
S.Korea wouldve invested in shipbuilding in the US…. till Hyundai raid happened in Georgia.
18:06 the cope
Cheap labor is too dangerous to shipping business. The quality and safety is questionable. The world can't trust China because of poor quality.
Every story starts with the US trying to stop the spread of communism and how that was a worthless, harmful endeavor
Italy is also a top-tier shipbuilding nation
Lemme guess before watching: a bunch of BS regulations and government policy positions. That’s the answer I’m going with even if the video doesn’t mention it.
The answer is much simpler. Post-industrial society is a westoid meme, and flipping stock on the market doesn't actually produce any goods. But countries, who kept and developed their industry, do produce stuff. Building ships is most profitable when you have state-of-the-art metallurgy and heavy industry supporting it, and an up-to-date engineering school – everything the West was actively getting rid of when market speculations became possible on a global scale.
The title is perplexing. The US Navy manufactures its naval ships domestically through contracted private companies.
One of the reasons is US shipyards are full with defence contracts that are usually way more generous money wise..why brother build a commercial ship when you can build a warship for twice the money?
Wtf are these graphs. Makes no sense how you overlayed the U.S.
What's a building ship and how do you border it?
estados hundidos de america xd
He didn’t mention the fact that the few leftover shipyard were bought by the private equity firms. Who decided that it’s worth more in piece meal land value that to continue making ships. So they went shipyard hunting and contributed significantly in the destruction of these ship yards and industry as a whole. This is the difference between capitalism in the west vs capitalism in communist China they keep it even if does not make significant revenue but at least they are not dependent and moaning all the time.
Thing is even in Korea shipbuilding is known for its labor conditions and companies have trouble finding workers
China is the biggest builder.
Germany USED to be able to tick those boxes, but now they've switched cheap, direct, Russian oil for very expensive indirect Russia oil…😂
Over-regulation and over-taxation.
Building ships requires an enormous amount of expertise and experience, logistics and infrastructure to even do, let alone do profitably. Throw in stadiums-worth of red-tape to jump through, including Federal, State and Local red-tape BS laws, administrative fees and costs of everything involved and taxation on all of it, let alone the cost of labour, and you're better off just buying a ship than building one.
France, the UK and the USA used to lead the world in ship building, but now, as this video points out, the UK just gave up. Over-regulated and over-taxed into oblivion.
7:05 and even here it wasn't without stupid propaganda. What do you think, if the USSR had really decided to seize Japan, in what condition would it have received its cities and factories?
Germany also just doesn't have the right geography for very large shipyards. It takes significant and ongoing efforts just to keep our ports accessible for the larger container ships. And even that much is a major burden on the local environment. If I recall correctly, the biggest classes of ships can't even dock at most of our ports because they're either too narrow or too shallow.