Scotland's Marine Economic Statistics 2021

Shipbuilding

Shipbuilding includes building, repair and maintenance of ships and boats. Scottish Annual Business Statistics is the source of the shipbuilding data. See Data and Methodology for more information. Shipbuilding economic data fluctuates between years. It can take several years to build and sell a ship. So, costs are higher in some years and income higher in other years. Company re-structuring also contributes to year-on-year fluctuations. The Shipbuilding Profile in the industry profiles compares Scottish shipbuilding to the UK.

In 2021, Shipbuilding generated £403 million in GVA, 0.27% of the Scottish economy and 9% of the marine economy GVA. Shipbuilding employed 6,800 people, 0.26% of Scottish employment and 10% of marine economy employment.

Scottish shipbuilding made up 15% of UK shipbuilding GVA in 2021 (Shipbuilding Profile). This is a higher proportion than Scotland's contribution to the whole of manufacturing. Scotland accounted for 8% of UK manufacturing GVA in 2021.

From 2012 to 2021, Shipbuilding GVA decreased by 26%. Employment decreased by 4% between 2012 and 2021. Changes in a small number of large shipbuilding companies can have a large impact on the annual data. So, long term trends are more reliable than year on year comparisons (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Ship building GVA has decreased from £547 million in 2012 to £403 million in 2021. However, there are large annual fluctations with some years changing by more than £200 million compared to the previous year.

Ship building GVA by year, 2012 to 2021

The top five local authority areas in 2021 (Glasgow City, Aberdeen City, Inverclyde, Aberdeenshire and Fife) accounted for 88% of GVA in the sector. Full local authority breakdowns are not available. See the industry profiles Shipbuilding Profile for more information.