British Shipbuilders was a public corporation that owned and managed the UK shipbuilding industry from 1977 to 1986.

The corporation was founded as a result of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 which nationalised British shipbuilding companies. The same act nationalised the large British aviation companies and grouped them in an analogous corporation, British Aerospace.

British Shipbuilders was privatised in 1983 under the terms of the British Shipbuilders Act 1983. The various divisions were sold to the private sector.

List of assets subsumed by British Shipbuilders

• Ailsa Troon (acquired in 1978, merged with Ferguson to form Ferguson-Ailsa Ltd in 1981)
• Cammell Laird
• Ferguson Shipbuilders (merged with Ailsa Troon in 1981 to form Ferguson-Ailsa)
• Govan Shipbuilders
• Northwestern Ship Repairers and Shipbuilding
• Pallion
• Scott-Lithgow Ltd
• Swan Hunter Shipbuilders
• Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd (VSEL)
• Vosper Thornycroft
• Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd (YSL)
• Hawthorn Leslie
• John Readhead & Sons
• Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company
• John Brown & Company
• Harland and Wolff
• Smiths Dock

De-nationalisation

• Cammell Laird - Sold to VSEL
• Ferguson Ailsa - 1986 - sold to Perth Corporation as Ailsa Perth Shipbuilders Ltd
• Govan Shipbuilders - 1988 - sold to Kværner
• Scott-Lithgow Ltd - 1983
• Swan Hunter Shipbuilders -
• Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd (YSL) - 1985 - sold to GEC-Marconi
• Vosper Thornycroft - 1985 - management buyout
• VSEL - 1986 - with Cammell Laird as a subsidiary. Acquired by GEC-Marconi in 1995
• Harland and Wolff - 1989

Defunct companies of the United Kingdom | Shipbuilding companies of the United Kingdom | 1977 establishments | 1986 disestablishments