Why capital-ship yard capacity might disappear

Could the additional shipyard have survived into World War II?

Possibly, but it would have had to survive the recession, deliberate contraction of shipbuilding capacity, and wartime bombing.

Preserved yard capacity was a possibility rather than an automatic result of one extra capital-ship order. The interwar recession threatened demand for heavy shipbuilding, alongside government efforts to reduce the industry's capacity. A yard that survived those pressures still faced wartime bombing. The value of an extra order depended on preserving skilled labour and facilities across decades.