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The decline of shipbuilding along the Tyne

Ship building used to be the main industry along the Tyne and Wear. Sunderland was once the largest ship building town in the world and generations of families were employed at the shipyards. By the 1950s, Japanese and Korean companies were building ships more quickly and cheaply and this foreign competition led to the decline of Sunderland's shipyards. The issue facing these former industrial areas is no longer one of ship building, but of ship breaking.

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3 minutes