American shipbuilders have a long and proud history of building commercial ships.
During World War II, American shipbuilders employed more than 1.3 million workers and constructed 5,063 cargo ships and 1,556 Navy ships. Our industry invented and perfected series ship construction techniques which would later be transferred to Asian and European shipbuilders. Following the war, there was a huge surplus of Navy and commercial ships leading to a significant downsizing of American shipyards. From the largest commercial shipbuilding nation in the world following World War II, by the 1980's America's commercial shipbuilding market share had fallen to zero. Shipbuilding, both commercial and naval, is cyclical.