The Structure of the Hardwood Plywood Industry in the Far East Exporting Countries PDF Download

Author: Gin-Fu Larry Lee
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Plywood industry
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
The purpose of this study is to provide a systematic method to analyze relationships between inputs, technology, and market structure of an industry, and marketing activities among countries in general and to develop an economic analysis of trade flow of the hardwood plywood industry in the Far East exporting countries: Japan, Republic of China (Taiwan), Republic of Korea (South Korea), and the Philippines. It includes an analysis of the nature, determinants, potential and competition of the hardwood plywood industry in international trade as well as prospective changes in international relationships of these four countries resulting from increasing competition for foreign markets. "Intra-industry" trade theory was used as a basis for analyzing nations' trade potential. This theory includes four secondary determining theories: product-cycle, factor endowments, quality differentiation and demand structure, and economic scale theories. In addition to the intra-industry theory, a nation's marketing activities were considered and elaborated for explaining that nation's actual trade performance. A relative price index of the four exporting countries and each country's export growth were examined to show that a comparative cost advantage in producing hardwood plywood for international trade shifted from Japan, the innovating country, to South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines as the hardwood plywood industry proceeded from its introductory and growth stages to a mature stage during the last two decades; low-wage developing countries gained a competitive position in producing and exporting mature products of hardwood plywood. The export composition of hardwood plywood products in Japan was analyzed to show that quality differentiation was the best strategy for an advanced country, such as Japan, endowed with ample scientific and engineering inputs, to increase or at least maintain its share in world markets. This analysis showed that a relative rise in the price of hardwood plywood in Japan did not bring about a decrease in exports. Utilization of hardwood plywood production capacity in South Korea and the Philippines indicated that economic scale and low unit cost of product were related if the products were close export substitutes. It was revealed that low cost mature products from developing countries could gain a competitive position in world markets in spite of these countries' poorer foreign marketing networks. An individual import function for the United States and export functions for Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines were estimated to explain trade behavior and predict trade patterns up to 1975. Finally, an hypothesis explaining trade direction of higher-quality differentiated products was also tested. Quantity and price ratios of Japan's and Taiwan's exports to different areas were constructed for testing an hypothesis that higher-quality higher-priced products were likely to be exported to higher transport-cost areas.