South Korean shipbuilding centers’ spatial dynamics

Abstract

The Republic of Korea has been a leading player in the global shipbuilding market since the 1980s, surpassing European and Japanese competitors. The shipbuilding accounts for 3–9% of the country's exports and employment in manufacturing. The scale of Korean shipbuilding provides internal diversity that allows us to trace the industry’s spatial dynamics through the prism of various development trajectories of different centers, depending on their internal characteristics. The purpose of this study is to identify development features of different Korean shipbuilding centers and their groups. To this end, industrial statistics by regions and municipalities, information from shipbuilding companies and regulatory authorities are used. It is presumed that the shipbuilding centers’ development paths mainly depend on the size and diversification level of companies and manufacturing within them, what determine their ability to overcome regular cycles in shipbuilding industry. During each upswing in the industry, new companies and shipyards emerge, capitalizing on the growing market. Regular crises lead to the bankruptcy of and absorption by the least competitive manufacturers. Small specialized centers are most affected by fluctuations due to changes in the global markets. Local small shipbuilders unable to maintain production and employment during the next industry downturn. This group also include young centers outside of industrial regions that have traditionally specialized in shipbuilding, where production costs are too high. A group of major centers — shipyards belonging to multi-profile industrial conglomerates with greater stability and significance to the country's economy than small specialized firms, which guarantees them abundant government support, — are almost ensured from the consequences of industry downturns. The most stable group are centers with a well-developed manufacturing industry, where shipbuilding is present only as one of many industries, and the shipbuilding specialization lies in the production of components for neighboring major centers.

Keywords:

shipbuilding, Republic of Korea, economic geography, economic cycles, industrial geography, industrial centers