Map Shows America's Shipyards Disappear as China's Naval Empire Rises

A map by Newsweek has outlined the extent of the decline of American shipbuilding, which President Donald Trump wants to rejuvenate.

Garnering fewer headlines than the rest of his address to Congress last week, Trump also announced in his speech a new maritime office in the National Security Council to revitalize both military and commercial shipbuilding.

It comes as a report published this week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) a Washington think tank, highlight's China position as the world's dominant player in shipbuilding, posing economic and security challenges for the United States.

The U.S. Navy has only four active public shipyards. Meanwhile, China has at least 35 sites with known ties to military or national security projects, according to CSIS researchers Matthew Funaiole, Brian Hart and Aidan Powers-Riggs, who analyzed 307 Chinese shipyards, all of which "operate under state directives."

Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment.

Why It Matters

The U.S. Defense Department's year-end annual China military power report called the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy the largest in the world, "with a battle
force of over 370 ships and submarines, including more than 140 major surface combatants."

The CSIS last year said the PLA Navy operated 234 warships, compared with the U.S. Navy's 219. The U.S. has an advantage in guided-missile cruisers and destroyers as well as overall tonnage thanks to its fleet of 11 aircraft carriers versus China's three.

This week, however, CSIS said China was on track to reach a 425-ship fleet by 2030—compared with the 300 vessels possessed by the U.S. Navy.

Waning American naval influence combined with the growing size of China's navy and its assertiveness on the seas will pose major challenges to U.S. and allied military readiness in the Indo-Pacific.

What To Know

China's largest state-owned shipbuilder, the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), built more commercial vessels by tonnage in 2024 than the entire U.S. shipbuilding industry had since WW2, the CSIS said.

CSSC's Jiangnan Shipyard, in the eastern port city of Shanghai, built the Fujian, the country's third aircraft carrier, while the the Shandong, its Soviet-inspired second flattop, was constructed at a CSSC-owned shipyard in northeastern Dalian on the Yellow Sea.

Through its "military-civil fusion" strategy, Beijing has integrated commercial and military production at many of its shipyards, giving the PLA Navy access to infrastructure, investment, and intellectual property from commercial contracts, CSIS said.

The think tank said foreign companies, including those from U.S.-allied nations, purchased 75 percent of ships built at China's dual-use shipyards, giving the country revenue and technological expertise.

By contrast, Newsweek's map shows that the U.S. Navy once commanded over a dozen public shipyards, many of which were vital to the American war effort in World War II. In the preceding decades, all but four have been closed.

The remaining active naval yards include Pearl Harbor and Puget Sound on the U.S.'s Pacific coast, as well as Norfolk and Portsmouth in the Atlantic. The sites are used for aircraft carrier and nuclear submarine maintenance.

The U.S.'s dwindling shipbuilding capabilities were outlined in a 2023 U.S. congressional report which said in the 1970s, American shipyards were building about 5 percent of the world's tonnage—up to 25 new ships per year—but by the 1980s, this dropped to its current rate of around five ships per year.

Meanwhile, a leaked U.S. Navy briefing slide revealed that China's shipbuilding capacity was 232 times greater than that of the United States.

Brett Seidle, the U.S. Navy's acting acquisition chief, said in written testimony to lawmakers this week that the service fell short in shipbuilding, with costs too high and deliveries too slow.

He told the House Armed Services seapower panel that the challenges were shared across the nuclear and conventional shipbuilding communities, with both the Navy and the shipbuilding industry sharing responsibility.

Among the recommendations in this week's CSIS report are policies that encourage "friendshoring"—production outsourced to trusted partners, particularly existing shipbuilders Japan and South Korea.

"Washington should set realistic goals for enhancing its domestic shipbuilding capacity," the authors said. "Rather than striving to become a global shipbuilding power, the United States should prioritize developing a commercial shipbuilding industry that meets critical national security needs."

What People Are Saying

Ship Wars, a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies: "The United States needs to take decisive action to address the multifaceted security and economic challenges posed by China's shipbuilding industry. […] Past experiences in industries like solar panels and electric vehicle batteries, where U.S. and allied firms were nearly completely pushed out of the market by low-cost Chinese manufacturing, offer sober warnings of what can happen without intervention."

U.S. President Donald Trump: "We used to make so many ships. We don't make them anymore very much, but we're going to make them very fast, very soon."

Zev Faintuch, head of research and intelligence at Global Guardian told Newsweek: "U.S. security commitments are a question of both political will and capabilities—this is most true when it comes to shipbuilding. If the U.S. doesn't ramp up quickly—China's capacity is over 200 times greater—then the question comes down to will alone, a potential choice between war with China and upholding commitments."

What Happens Next

Trump's comments follow calls in February by four major labor unions for the U.S. to boost American shipbuilding and enforce tariffs and other "strong penalties" against China for its dominance in the sector.

Meanwhile, CSIS said Congress was focused on boosting naval capabilities through the bipartisan SHIPS for America Act, which is backed by the domestic industry groups and figures in the Trump administration, including China hawk national security adviser Mike Waltz.

GOP Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis want the option to build warships and major components overseas, in NATO countries and allies in the Indo-Pacific areas, such as Japan or South Korea, according to Axios.