East Asia Cargo Ships Overview: This is a simulation designed to increase your knowledge of East Asian economics and geography. It should also allow you to practice good analytical and decision making skills. As an owner and manager of an overseas shipping company with one cargo ship, you must become familiar with the imports and exports of East Asian countries. In each country you will fill the ten cargo holds on your ship with items that you can BUY from the list of EXPORT goods. You will then look on the map and plan a route by sea to other capital cities. In the next city you will SELL the items from your ship which that country is willing to IMPORT and then look for all new items to buy. You will need to look on the chart to find the fixed price for each item before you buy it. When you sell each item you will be able to add a percentage of the original price to the original price, thereby making a profit. Each day you will keep a balance sheet of your buying and selling so that you can keep track of your income. You should keep your trading strategies secret because the winner of the game is the company with the most profits at the end of the simulated 15 day time period! Materials needed: Map of East Asia with capital cities marked List of products and fixed prices of each List of country imports and percentage profit for each item List of country exports Strategy sheet with proposed route Beginning Balance Sheet (Day 0) 15 Daily Balance Sheets (1 for each of the 15 days Optional: Teachers may want to make a map quiz Teachers Note: The length of the simulation could be changed to accommodate classroom needs (10 days instead of 15) or to be more realistic as weeks instead of days. The geography skills would be better emphasized if the students needed to use the scale of miles to calculate travel days or maybe fuel costs. As is, they do not use the map enough! Simulation Steps: 1. Work with a partner and name your shipping company. 2. Read information about East Asian trading. Read a general introduction to each country and about the recent political transition in Hong Kong. Also read these rules. 3. Your company presently owns a ship with 10 cargo holds and you start the game with a $2500 cash bank loan to begin purchasing items. 4. Look at the map. Choose a capital city in which to begin operation and then make a list of the cities that you will travel to next on your strategy sheet. You must visit at least 6 different countries, but you may visit as many as you wish. You may return to any countries which you have already visited. 5. Use your balance sheets, one for each pretend day, and fill out your first one, day zero, to use your $2500 to purchase items which that country exports. Look on the chart of product prices to figure out how much you are spending and add it up. Have no more than 4 cargo holds of the same item. You may not ever add cargo holds to your ship. You do not have to fill up the entire ship and you do not have to spend all of the $2500, but you cannot spend more than this $2500 at the beginning. 6. Take your ship to another city and that will constitute one pretend day. You may only buy and sell in the capital cities and every time that you do, that takes up a day of travel. When you go to the next city, you will write on the balance sheet again. Everything that was on your ship in the previous city is still there, so rewrite it on the income side. If that new city will import your item, you can look for the percentage profit on the import chart and add the profit to the fixed price to get the new sale price. Add everything for your day’s income. If you do not sell an item, it needs to carry over to the purchase side (no additional cost though) to show that that particular cargo hold is still full. Empty cargo holds can be filled with items that you buy which that country is willing to export. Record the purchase prices on the expenses column and add this up on your balance sheet. Fill out a balance sheet for each of the 15 days of travel including day zero, the day you spend your $2500 to get started. 7. It is to your advantage to keep your ship as full as possible with items that will make the highest profit. Plan carefully which items to buy based on your travel route. Have your ship empty after the last day of trading- on Day 15 you do not need to buy more items!! The $2500 that you began the game with is like a loan that will be subtracted out of your final balance in order to determine your company’s profit at the end of the game. You may NOT ever acquire additional ships or cargo holds during the game. 8. Remember- in a country you can only buy what that country is exporting and then in the next country you can only sell what that country is importing! Good luck! Strategy Sheet- Travel Itinerary _________________________ Company Name _________________________ Your Names Day City, Country 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Imports and Exports Chart In each country you may BUY only its EXPORTS and SELL only its IMPORTS. Exports Imports and Profits Exports Imports and Profits Brunei Cambodia Oil products H. Manufacturing- 30% Food Consumer Goods- 20% Fuels Food- 10% Raw Materials Oil Products- 20% Raw materials Chemicals- 30% Minerals H. Manufacturing- 30% Textiles- 10% Steel Textiles- 10% China China (Hong Kong) Textiles Steel- 30% Textiles Food- 15% Consumer H. Manufacturing- 25% L. Manufac. H. Manufac.- 40% L. Manufac. Oil- 25% Consumer Oil products- 25% Fuels Electronics- 35% Electronics Raw Materials- 20% Indonesia Japan L. Manufac. H. Manufac- 30% H. Manufac. L. Manufac.- 10% Fuels Consumer- 20% Electronics Fuels- 20% Food Electronics- 30% Textiles Food- 15% Raw Materials Minerals- 25% Chemicals Raw Materials- 20% Textiles Laos Malaysia Food Fuel- 20% Raw Materials H. Manufac.- 30% Minerals Oil- 20% Electronics Chemicals- 30% Textiles Consumer- 20% Oil Food- 15% Raw Materials L. Manufac.- 15% Textiles Minerals- 20% L. Manufac. Myanmar North Korea Food H. Manufac.- 30% Minerals Oil- 20% Consumer Chemicals- 30% Textiles Fuel- 25% Textiles L. Manufac.- 10% L. Manufac. H. Manufac.- 25% Minerals Steel- 25% Chemicals Consumer- 20% Food- 15% Philippines Singapore Chemicals Raw Materials- 20% Oil H. Manufac.- 30% Electronics Oil- 20% Electronics Food- 15% Consumer H. Manufac.- 35% Consumer Chemicals- 30% Food L. Manufac.- 10% L. Manufac. Minerals- 25% Minerals Textiles- 15% South Korea Taiwan Electronics Food- 15% Minerals H. Manufac.- 30% L. Manufac. Oil- 20% Electronics Chemicals- 25% Steel Chemicals- 30% Textiles Steel- 25% H. Manufac. Minerals- 20% Food Oil- 20% Textiles Consumer Thailand Vietnam L. Manufac. Consumer- 20% Food Oil- 20% H. Manufac. Raw Materials- 20% Consumer Steel- 35% Food Chemicals- 35% Fuel Chemicals- 30% Textiles Minerals- 25% Minerals Raw Materials- 15% Electronics Textiles List of Commodity Costs Fixed buying prices of products per cargo hold Product Cost Fuels (including coal) $100 Food (agricultural and fish products) $100 Textiles (fabric, clothing and footwear) $200 Steel $200 Raw Materials (rubber, timber, etc.) $200 Minerals and Metals $300 Oil Products and Petroleum $300 Chemicals (includes fertilizers) $400 Heavy Manufacturing (large equipment and autos) $500 Electronics $500 Products Average Profits Food, Textiles, Light Manufacturing 10% Oil, Consumer Goods, Fuels, Raw Materials, Minerals 20% Heavy Manufacturing, Chemicals, Steel, Electronics 30 Beginning Balance Sheet Day: 0 City: ___________________ Country: __________________ Your Names: _________________________ Company Name: ______________________ Reminder: Items you are buying must be exports of the country where you now are Cargo Hold Item Profit Sell Price 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Today’s Income (Add Sales Column) Item Fixed Buy Price 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Today’s Expenses (Add purchases Beginning Balance: $2500 Today’s Expenses: ________________ Money Left is New Balance:________________ Daily Balance Sheet Day: ___________________ City: ___________________ Country: __________________ Your Names: _________________________ Company Name: ______________________ Reminder: Items for sale on your sheet must actually be imports for this country. Items you are buying must be exports Cargo Hold Item Profit Sell Price 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Today’s Income (Add Sales Column) Item Fixed Buy Price 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Today’s Expenses (Add purchases Previous Day’s Balance: ________________ Today’s Balance (Income minus Expense): ________________ New Balance as Profit (+) or Loss (-): ________________ 1