ABSTRACT
In the market conditions that have existed for the last quarter of a century, political influences have played an increasingly important role in the shipbuilding business. The immediate reaction of most governments with a shipbuilding industry after the 1973 oil price increases was to offer support to the industry. This was done on the initial assumption that such support would be only a short term measure, until the problems caused by oil price increases were resolved. At the time, a number of governments were encouraging the development of new shipbuilding facilities, as a catalyst for industrialisation. The Republic of South Korea was the leading nation in this area at that time (and has continued to develop the shipbuilding industry ever since). Other countries which had embarked on an expansion of shipbuilding at the time included Taiwan, with a major shipyard at Kaohsiung, and Brazil. A number of other countries, including Iran, also saw shipbuilding as a sound basic industry on which to base development plans.
