Numbers of U.S. Shipyards

Most recent update: June 30, 2009.

Source: MARAD, Report of Survey of U.S. Shipbuilding and Repair Facilities

(These data used to appear in MARAD's Annual Survey of Shipyards, but it has not been published since 2004.)

Note (1): In 1985, MARAD lowered the size criterion for major shipbuilders from a ship length of 475 feet to 400 feet and raised the size criterion for major shiprepairers from a ship length of 300 feet to 400 feet.

Note (2): In 2001, MARAD redefined a major shipbuilder as either an "active shipbuilding yard", i.e., shipyards actively building vessels of 400 feet in length or over, or a "shipyard with build positions", i.e., shipyards with at least one building position capable of accommodating a vessel of 400 feet in length or over, but that have not actually built such a vessel in the past two years. 

The first category currently includes only 9 shipyards - the so-called "Big Six" - Avondale, Bath, Electric Boat, Ingalls, NASSCO and Newport News - plus Bender, VT Halter Pascagoula and Kvaerner Philadelphia. 

The second category currently includes 15 shipyards - Atlantic Dry Dock on the East Coast; Alabama, AMFELS, Austal USA, Signal International Pascagoula, Tampa Bay Shipbuilding, United Marine Enterprise and VT Halter Moss Point on the Gulf Coast; Gunderson and Todd on the West Coast; and Bay, Fraser, Marinette, Metro and Toledo on the Great Lakes.