The US is seeking to restart closed or idled US shipyards with the help of capital and technicians from Japan and South Korea because it is "struggling to keep up with the pace of China's shipbuilding industry".

    Last week, U.S. Navy Secretary Del Toro visited shipyards in South Korea and Japan, and at each stop mentioned the idea of restarting idled U.S. shipyards, Nikkei Asian Review reported on the 4th. Mr. Del Toro was accompanied Thursday by Mr. Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Yokohama shipyard.

    He said the purpose of the visit was twofold: to check on the repair work of the US Navy supply ship, the USS Clarion, and to assess Japanese companies' interest in investing in the closed US shipyard. "We want to see if Mitsubishi and other Japanese companies would be interested in investing in and reopening one of the shipyards to build ships for the Navy, Coast Guard and commercial fleet," Mr. Emanuel said.

    In South Korea earlier this week, Del Toro visited Hyundai Heavy Industries' Ulsan shipyard and Hanwha Marine Shipyard on Geoje Island. The Navy said in a press release that the shipbuilders had expressed "strong interest" in establishing subsidiaries and investing in shipyards in the United States. However, the two South Korean companies' press releases focused on opportunities to provide repair services to U.S. ships in South Korea.

    Del Toro told the executives of the two companies that "there are many old shipyards across the United States, mostly intact and dormant, that are well suited for redevelopment into dual-use shipyards." He added, "Investments in America's dual-use shipyards will create good-paying blue-collar jobs." Del Toro will also meet with South Korean shipyard executives at the Pentagon in the near future.

    The US Navy ships are currently being built under contract by seven private shipyards, including two non-US shipyards: Italy's Fincantieri Group's Marinette shipyard in Wisconsin, and Australia's Aosta Company's shipyard in Alabama, which provide a precedent for the participation of South Korean and Japanese shipbuilders. However, the maintenance of the most sensitive nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines is carried out at only four public shipyards. There were 13 government-owned naval shipyards in the United States, nine of which are currently idle.

    After the Reagan administration eliminated commercial shipbuilding subsidies in 1981, the U.S. shipbuilding industry declined rapidly, losing about 40,000 jobs during the Reagan years. Forbes magazine previously reported that the decline of the U.S. shipbuilding industry is also a consequence of the "deindustrialization" of the United States, after the end of the Cold War, American companies abandoned the production of almost everything from smartphones to aluminum. Some shuttered shipyards have been converted into national parks, container terminals or naval air stations. Private and public shipyards in the United States have struggled to hire enough workers as the industry struggles to compete with other industries on pay.