The European Power Plant Industry: Structural responses to international market pressures

Fülszöveg

The main features of the industry are the dominance of a few giant electro-technical corporations for which power plánt is merely one of a wide rangé of advanced technology product areas, the long lead times for manufacture and especially innovation, and the heavy protection of home markets through nationalistic procurement policies of governments and electric Utilities. Barriers to entry are high, as increasingly are the costs of maintaining just one or two national champion suppliers on the basis of small European home markets. European producers, because of their small home markets, are more vulnerable to adverse developments in export markets than their US and Japanese competitors. Now that production is so highly concentrated in each European producing country, a major question, which this study addresses, is whether significant benefits would accrue from international mergers and how new alliances could be forged to alleviate the structural pressures. This study investigates... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The main features of the industry are the dominance of a few giant electro-technical corporations for which power plánt is merely one of a wide rangé of advanced technology product areas, the long lead times for manufacture and especially innovation, and the heavy protection of home markets through nationalistic procurement policies of governments and electric Utilities. Barriers to entry are high, as increasingly are the costs of maintaining just one or two national champion suppliers on the basis of small European home markets. European producers, because of their small home markets, are more vulnerable to adverse developments in export markets than their US and Japanese competitors. Now that production is so highly concentrated in each European producing country, a major question, which this study addresses, is whether significant benefits would accrue from international mergers and how new alliances could be forged to alleviate the structural pressures. This study investigates the situation of European producers of electric power plánt and how they can cope with the major difflculties facing them - a widespread slump in orders since the mid-1970s (especially for nuclear plánt), intense competitive pressures from Japan and the United States, import-substitution policies in significant parts of the Third World and uncertain directions of technical change. John Surrey and William Walker are Senior Fellows with the Energy Programme of the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex where they have conducted extensive research on the public policy aspects ofnumerous energy-related issues. Vissza