The Analysis Of Flat Glass Exports For Romania Using The Gravity Model

The intense international competition and reduced rates of economics growth force the companies at dynamic and appropriate strategies to address internal and external market. The manufacturing industry from Romania has competitive advantages defined by tradition, qualified labour force, indigenous raw materials, and its products serve various industries – construction, automotive, food – that is expected to experience a future sustained development. With approximately 2,500 employees, the glassware sector from Romania is part of the manufacturing industry which has constantly decreased in the last 25 years. Romania has a long tradition in the glassware sector and remains a strategic player in the region being integrated in the global flows from the industry. Geographical orientation of Romanian trade of flat glass for export is analyzed using the gravity model. The purpose of this article is to determine the essential factors of flat glass export level from Romania to states with which has commercial partnerships using both a gravity static model, but also a gravity dynamic model – a common model in the literature, used to analyze the trade flows between world countries or polarization strength of cities and commercial centres. The empirical results of both models have shown that the gravity attraction of local and destination economies, transport costs – measured by the distances between capitals and lack of common border –, language interconnectivity, and also belonging to the BSEC (Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation) are the most important factors affecting the Romanian exports of the flat glass.