Thursday, October 20, 2011

Industrial Dislocation: The Case of Global Shipbuilding

Industrial Dislocation: The Case of Global Shipbuilding Review



Over the past decade there has been much discussion on the decline and depression of heavy industry in developed Western countries. This is in stark contrast to the rapid growth in this area in the newly industrialized countries of the Far East. The shipbuilding industry has become symbolic of this dislocation. This study considers how this situation arose. The author argues that three points are central: industrial life cycles, the international division of labour and the energy crises of 1973. He emphasizes that the processes of industrial maturity (and in particular Japanese attitudes towards them), the removal of barriers to entry and the lengthening product life cycle encouraged new companies at a time when hard-pressed traditional producers were falling at the twin hurdles of declining competitiveness and dwindling markets.


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