Authors: Olavi H. Uusitalo
The aim of the study is to find out the deep reasons for the structural changes in the Scandinavian(including Finland but excluding Iceland) cement industry in 1950-2000. The cement technology hasevolved from the wet methods to dry methods. The cement burning technologies in the late 1970s,changed the structure of the U.S. cement industry (Anderson and Tushman, 1990). However,according to some industry specialists the reasons for structural changes at least in the Finnishcement industry have been the large scale plants and the vision of reduced construction activities inFinland (Lehto, 1996). Conceptually our goal is to define how well the modified version of the modelsuits to our task to identify the impacts of technological change on the Scandinavian cement industry.We also apply the network perspective to industry evolution (Lundgren, 1993, Håkansson andSnehota, 1995).To study the actual problem, a technological change in the market, a longitudinal, historical andcontextual case was applied. “Pettigrew (1985)” argues that to understand a change one has to studyit as a continuing process in the context in which it appears, and he encourages one to adoptcontextual and historical perspectives on processes of change.The manufacturing of Portland cement in Scandinavia started at the end of the 19th century. Therotary kiln introduced at the end of 19th century changed the manufacturing process dramatically.Later on high energy consuming wet burning processes (raw materials are first mixed in slurry which isfirst dried and then burnt to clinker) were replaced by dry burning processes (dry raw materials aremixed thus drying is not needed). Several cement manufacturing companies were founded inScandinavia in the early 20th century. The Scandinavian companies followed the industrydevelopment well, partly because of the co-operation with FLS Industries, a Danish cementmanufacturing equipment designer and manufacturer. By 1980 all Swedish, Finnish and Norwegianproducers used dry manufacturing processes. The average capacity per day of 16 kilns installed in1960-1980 was 1070 tons a day. In Europe the maximum capacity per a kiln in the early 1980s was3500 tons per day. Within 26 years (1968-1994) all Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish cementmanufacturers were merged under a one company, Cementa. By 1999 four multinational companiesowned the Scandinavian manufacturers.The European manufacturers obtained new technology quickly in the 1950s. However, theScandinavian manufacturers switched not until the 1970s to new, dry technology. The Nordicmanufacturers diversified heavily to other industries, which made cement industry less interesting.Moreover, continental manufacturers had got competitive advantage with the new technology. Theimpacts of the opening of the markets and globalization plus the decrease in demand have to be taken into account in the analysis. The Scandinavian cement industry would be interested to study form the stakeholder point of view. It would be interested to look compare the two industries the Scandinavian cement and flat glass industries.Keywords: Technological change, industry change, internationalization of an industry
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Publish Year: 2007
Conference: Manchester, UK (2007)