Divergent growth trajectories in China’s chemical industry: the case of the newly developed industrial parks in Shanghai, Nanjing and Ningbo

Abstract

In the late 1990's, the ''new-economy'' industries in China proved to be relatively vulnerable and were strongly hit by the financial crisis in Asia. As a result, a new economic support policy was introduced in China's Yangtze Delta region, which put greater emphasis on the support of traditional industrial sectors, including the chemical industry. This paper investigates the effects of the growth of this industry, as well as the potential and current problems emerging from new growth paths. It compares the growth of three newly developed chemical industry parks in Shanghai, Nanjing and Ningbo. The paper is based on an institutional perspective of clustering processes arguing that regional industrialization is subject to formal and informal institutions which shape the growth paths and contribute to divergent regional trajectories. Although these industrial parks all benefit from the general economic upswing in China, their development is influenced by different business models, economic contexts, goals and strategies, leaving room for divergence and specialization. Due to the existing structure of operations, these parks have a great deal of potential but also face substantial challenges, such as the establishment of internal networks and close customer linkages. It is argued that this might limit their innovative capability in the future. Furthermore, their growth prospects differ depending on future government policies.

Global-local interactions in agrochemical industry: Relating trade regulations in Brazil to environmental and spatial restructuring in China

“…This technological upgrading and public investments to facilitate environmental compliance illustrates growth trajectories that verify the PH. On the other hand, as pollution and deadly accidents increased due to the production and transportation of hazardous chemicals, especially in the Yangtze delta and other highly industrialized coastal regions (Cao et al, 2018;Duan et al, 2011), government policy began to encourage the upgrading and/or relocation of the agrochemical industry towards less industrialized areas (Zeng & Bathelt, 2011;, as witnessed in the maps of firms exporting to Brazil in 2006 and 2010 (Fig. 2).…”

“…8 We believe this is explained by the disproportionate concentration of both agrochemical production and environmental accidents in the Yangtze river delta (Cao et al, 2018), where the higher incidence of environmental accidents is matched by higher investment in anti-pollution initiatives and higher PIT Index (IPE/NRDC, 2010). Moreover, in these regions firms benefit from robust local/provincial government efforts to channel chemical production into specialized industrial parks within the region (Bathelt & Zeng, 2012;Zeng & Bathelt, 2011) 8 Results for eastern and central China provided in the appendix.…”

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