Abstract:

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Many countries have been trading intermediate goods in the fields of manufacturing and assembly these days. However, the similar phenomenon is observed in the Japanese steel industry. The purpose of this study is to clarify the reason why intermediate steel products have been exported from Japan since 1990s more than final ones. The study treats hot-rolled steel plates as intermediate goods, and cold-rolled or surface-treated as final ones, analyzing the steel statistics of Japan and the world after 1960s based on the fragmentation theory and new-new trade theory. These frameworks help to explain the international fragmentation and its difference between steel companies; NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION (NSSMC) and POSCO. First, the study reveals that thediversification of production occurred in the steel industry after 1960s and therefore more cold-rolled steel plates and surface-treated steel plates with high added value came to be produced in Japan and exported. Second, the author also shows that the production process for final products was fragmented mainly in the East Asia in the form of investment and joint venture, to which intermediate goods began to be delivered from Japan after 1980s. Third, the factors of the fragmentation are analyzed as the increasing demand in emerging countries, the automotive industry to expand overseas, and the decreasing of service-link costs. Finally, the fragmentation similar to Japan can be seen in the Korean steel industry in the form of subsidiaries after the mid-2000s. Therefore, it can be argued that the development of steel trade is divided into two phases; “Flying-geese development phase” when the main exported items shift from low-value added products to high-value added ones, and “Fragmentation development phase” when the production process of final goods is fragmented and low-value added ones start to be exported again as intermediate goods. Thus, setting time for the horizontal axis and the amount of export for the vertical, the transition of final and intermediate goods can be drawn as crossing S-curve and inverted S-curve respectively, which the author proposes as “Crossing curves hypothesis.” The author also concludes that POSCO of higher productivity fragmented its production process, with transactions organized within the firm, while NSSMC of lower productivity is oriented to transactions in a market according to the fragmentation and new-new trade theory. The significance of this study has two points. Scholarly, it is to bring new perspectives to trade theory of intermediate goods by “Crossing curves hypothesis” and the reinterpretation of fragmentation theory based on new-new trade theory. Practically, it is to demonstrate the necessity for improving productivity when companies fragment its production within them. |