The Comparative Study On International Competitiveness In The Shipbuilding Industry Of China And Korea After The Economic Crisis Period

The shipbuilding industry is a strategic industry in a country which includes thefeature of labor, capital and technology-intensive, it has a wide range of industrialrelevance, and has a significant impact on shipping, iron steel, chemicals, marineresources exploration and other industries development. The development ofshipbuilding industry could promote the employment problem, international trade,ensure the security of our coast defense, so every country pays a great attention on theshipbuilding industry. As the largest shipbuilding country in the world, theshipbuilding industry’s growth level of China and Korea could reflect the level ofdevelopment of the shipbuilding industry in the world, and has a leading effect to theother countries.In recent years, China and Korea’s shipbuilding industry have made greatprogress, but in2008since the appearance of the financial crisis, the world’sshipbuilding industry suffers a great depression. The economic crisis decreases thetrade volume as well as resulting in reducing the shipbuilding orders. As a result, theworld’s shipbuilding industry falls into a dwindling state. After three years adjustment,the shipbuilding industry gets a advancement, but in2012the European debt crisismakes Korea’s shipbuilding industry go back to the bad situation again, since theexport market of Korea’s ship trade mainly concentrates in Europe, so it has suffereda heavy losses. Due to this European debt crisis, China’s shipbuilding industry hassurpassed Korea in the trade orders in2009and2012. According to the situation in2012, some analysis agencies forecast that in2013the competitiveness ofshipbuilding industries among all the countries in the world would be more intenseand ship price would decline again. Although China’s shipbuilding industry has made a great growth, and the comprehensive strength has been improved, but comparedwith Korea, there are still large gaps between us, how to shift from “largeshipbuilding country” to “strong shipbuilding country”, is a problem for us.This paper uses the national competitive advantage theory to analysis the Chinaand South Korea’s international competitiveness of the shipbuilding industry after thefinancial crisis. Firstly it describes the development situation of these two countriesfrom a macro side, and combines with Porter Diamond Model to analysis thisquestion. Secondly it builds the evaluation factor indicators about the shipbuildingindustry’s international competitiveness, with the relevant data, it could compare eachindex value of China and Korea, and it would get a deeper conclusion with grayrelational analysis method to study various influencing factors on the internationalcompetitiveness of the shipbuilding industry in China and Korea. Finally, according tothe results of the analysis and the comparison of the international competitiveness ofthe shipbuilding industry in China and Korea, this paper identifies the differencesbetween China and Korea: China’s biggest competitive advantage is its low labor costas well as a wealth of resources advantage, while Korea is its develop and researchstrengths and its advanced technical advantage. With this conclusion, this paper putforward the related solutions for our shipbuilding industry: we should pay attention tothe quality of the ship including the technology, funds, supporting industries and so on.On the production factors side, we have to improve shipbuilding technologyinnovation capability, put more research investment; on the demand situation side, itshould consolidate the domestic market and expand more foreign markets; on therelated and support industries side, it should develop the supporting industries of theshipbuilding industry, to keep the cooperation development with it; on the enterprisestrategy side, optimize the structure and competition of the shipbuilding corporation,to improve the overall strength of enterprises; on the government and opportunitiesside, increase government support efforts, and seize the opportunities for development,to get a bigger development.