Study On Paper Industry Competitiveness Of Chinese Provinces

Paper industry has played an important role in social and economic development. It's recognized as a "sunrise industry" internationally and attracted more and more attention. Along with the economic development in China, the pulp and paper production and consumption have been growing rapidly. The global paper manufacturing center is trending to move toward China-centered region in Asia and Pacific Rim. Thus, paper industry in China has been falling into a brutal battle for severe competition. The analysis shows that the regional competition is becoming more and more furious- the traditional paper-making provinces wish to maintain or maximize their competitive advantages, while some non-paper-industry provinces hope to catch up with this last opportunity for reshuffling and gaining more market shares. Therefore, this study on regional competitive advantage of the paper industry is a vital important nowadays.The research is the first time in China to develop a conception model for region competitive power in paper industry. The model consists of resources endowment, financing ability, quality of enterprise, structure of industrial organization, relevant industries and the institutional environment. In this research, Porter and its affiliated models have been improved and modified. The quantitative analysis on these six elements has been conducted. The analysis has provided a new direction and fresh concept for further research in the future. Moreover, the regional competitive power evaluation model has also constructed, which will provide an important tool for assessment of the temporal-spatial competitive powers amongst provinces.Several research methods, namely, System Analysis, AHP, Delphi process, Cluster Analysis and Multivariate Analysis were employed in this study to examine the issues, mechanism and main factors of regional competition in paper industry at provincial level. The evaluating systems and the potential countermeasures were proposed. A number of research outcomes were concludedThe main conclusions: 1) the capital intensive, recourses intensive, scale-based benefit, high pollution and high industrial correlativeness are five most influential factors in paper industry; 2) theoretically, resources endowment, financing ability, quality of enterprise, structure of industrial organization, relevant industries, and the institutional environment are six key components of competitive power for regional paper industry. Among them, quality of enterprise, financing ability and the structure of industrial organization are the key elements for regional competition in paper industry; 3) the assessment of the competitiveness power of Fujian paper industry has showed that during 1999-2005, the competitiveness power of Fujian paper industry was stable; 4) financing ability and the structure of industrial organization have positive impact on the competitiveness power of paper industry; 5) The SWTO analysis shows that the advantage of Fujian paper industry is resource abundance, however, the disadvantages are financing ability and the structure of industrial organization.