Aluminum Production and Upstream Manufacturing Capacity: Rethinking Economic Growth in Postwar Taiwan

While scholars of Taiwan’s industrialization and postwar growth often focus on finished export goods, this paper asks how firms obtained inputs and achieved manufacturing capacity. I argue that in order to understand Taiwan’s economic development, upstream and midstream industries need to be taken into consideration, and that aluminum was one of the most important industries. Drawing on firm archives, internal publications, and local reports I show how Taiwan’s export production was made possible by aluminum inputs and aluminum-made machinery. I argue that without domestically produced aluminum, Taiwan’s export industry would not have been able to achieve cost-competitive rates in the international market, nor would it have even been able to manufacture export products. This perspective not only offers a new explanation of Taiwan’s economic development, but also provides better policy direction for developing countries.