International fragmentation of production of the automotive industry in Argentina

The purpose of this Thesis is to investigate the effects and the role of Argentina regarding the International Fragmentation of Production phenomenon in the Automotive Industry. An analysis showed the major importance of the international fragmentation of production in the automotive industry. The relevance of the economies of scale for each Production Block in the overall efficiency of the international production process was underlined. Benefits of international fragmentation like technology transfer and the possibility to be competitive at a global scale with only one specific part of a major process are particularly important for developing countries. In the last ten years the Argentinean Automotive Industry experienced a continuous growth, and through this research we understood that it was partially due to the complementation of production in the Mercosur Regional market. We also detected that general macro-economical decisions of the country have strong influence in the Argentinean automotive industry. This research confirmed that the trends regarding fragmentation of production of vehicles and parts within the Mercosur Region is significantly driven by the economies of scale. The analysis showed also which are the market factors that affects the mentioned economies of scale.