Secondary Activities — Manufacturing and Its Location
Where Industries Locate
Industries maximise profits by reducing costs, so they locate where the costs of production are minimum. The factors are: access to market (the existence of people with purchasing power); access to raw material — industries using cheap, bulky, weight-losing materials such as ores locate close to the source, as do those using perishable materials such as dairy produce and fruit; access to labour supply; access to sources of energy, for industries that use a great deal of power; access to transport and communication; government policy, which may promote balanced regional development; and agglomeration economies — the benefits firms gain from being close to other industries.
Four Ways to Classify Industries
| Type | Features |
|---|---|
| Household (cottage) industry | The smallest unit; artisans with local raw materials and simple tools produce everyday goods — food, fabrics, mats, vessels, tools, furniture, pottery — at home with family members; little capital and transport needed |
| Small-scale industry | A workshop outside the home; local raw material, simple power-driven machines and semi-skilled labour; provides much employment in populous developing countries |
| Large-scale industry | A large market, varied raw materials, enormous energy, specialised workers, advanced technology, assembly-line mass production and large capital |
| Basis | Classes and examples |
|---|---|
| Raw material (input) | Agro-based — food processing, sugar, pickles, fruit juices, beverages, spices, oils, cotton textiles, rubber. Mineral-based — ferrous (iron and steel) and non-ferrous metals (copper, aluminium), and non-metallic minerals for cement and pottery. Chemical-based — petrochemicals, synthetic fibres, plastics; salt, sulphur, potash. Forest-based — timber for furniture, wood and bamboo for paper, lac. Animal-based — leather from hides, wool |
| Output (product) | Basic industries make products used to make other goods — iron and steel used to make machinery. Consumer goods industries make goods consumed directly — bread, biscuits, tea, soaps, toiletries, writing paper, televisions |
| Ownership | Public sector — owned and managed by government; private sector — owned by individual investors and managed by private organisations; joint sector — managed by joint-stock companies, or by the public and private sectors together |
Traditional Industrial Regions and High-Technology Industry
Traditional large-scale industrial regions grew around heavy industry, often close to coalfields, and engaged in metal smelting, heavy engineering, chemical manufacturing or textile production. Germany’s Ruhr coalfield was for long one of Europe’s major industrial regions; as the demand for coal declined, such regions had to diversify.
High-technology industry is the latest generation of manufacturing. It applies intensive research and development (R&D) to products of an advanced scientific and engineering character; a high proportion of its workforce is professional, white-collar; robots, computer-aided design (CAD) and manufacturing, and electronic controls are used. Its buildings are neatly spaced, low, modern office-plant-lab units rather than massive assembly structures, and where they cluster into a self-sustained, highly specialised region the result is a technopolis — Silicon Valley near San Francisco and Silicon Forest near Seattle are examples.
Key takeaways
- Secondary activities add value by transforming raw materials into products; manufacturing once meant making by hand.
- Modern manufacturing: specialisation, mechanisation, technological innovation, organisational structure, uneven distribution.
- Location factors: market, raw material, labour, energy, transport and communication, government policy, agglomeration economies.
- Bulky, weight-losing or perishable raw materials pull industry to the source; footloose industries are free of that pull.
- By size: household, small-scale, large-scale. By raw material: agro, mineral, chemical, forest, animal-based.
- By product: basic industries feed other industries; consumer goods industries serve consumers. By ownership: public, private, joint.
- High-tech industry: intensive R&D, white-collar workforce, robotics and CAD, technopolis clusters such as Silicon Valley.
Practice questions (8)
Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.
Footloose industries are best described as industries that:
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Answer: D — can be located in a wide variety of places
Footloose industries are not tied to any specific raw material; they use component parts obtainable anywhere, employ small workforces and are generally non-polluting, so they can be set up in a wide variety of places — road access is what matters. Being tied to a bulky raw material, a coalfield or perishable produce are exactly the pulls a footloose industry escapes.An industry whose products are used to make other goods, such as iron and steel used to make machinery, is called a:
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Answer: B — Basic industry
Classified by product, an industry whose output is the input of other industries is a basic industry, and iron and steel is the standard example. Consumer goods industries make things consumed directly, household industry is a class by size, and footloose describes freedom of location rather than the kind of product.Silicon Valley near San Francisco and Silicon Forest near Seattle are examples of:
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Answer: A — A technopolis of high-technology industry
Both are self-sustained, highly specialised clusters of high-technology industry — what is called a technopolis — built on research and development and a white-collar workforce. Coalfield regions such as the Ruhr represent the older heavy-industry pattern, and agro-processing and ports of call have nothing to do with the electronics and software these regions are known for.Match List-I (type of industry by raw material) with List-II (example):
List-I: A. Agro-based B. Mineral-based C. Forest-based D. Animal-based
List-II: I. Leather II. Sugar III. Paper IV. CementShow answer
Answer: C — A-II, B-IV, C-III, D-I
Sugar is made from sugarcane (agro-based), cement from limestone and other non-metallic minerals (mineral-based), paper from wood and bamboo pulp (forest-based), and leather from animal hides (animal-based). The commonest slip is to treat cement as forest-based or paper as mineral-based; ask what the raw material is before you match.Which of the following industries is most likely to be located close to its raw material?
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Answer: A — An iron and steel plant using iron ore and coal
Iron ore and coal are cheap, bulky and weight-losing — far more weight goes into a steel plant than comes out as steel — so transport costs are lowest when the plant sits near them. Software and component assembly are footloose, and a garment unit serving a city is pulled towards its market rather than towards its raw material.An industry that is owned and run jointly by the government and private companies belongs to the:
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Answer: C — Joint sector
Classified by ownership, industries run jointly by the public and private sectors, or by joint-stock companies, form the joint sector. The public sector is owned and managed by government alone, the private sector by private investors alone, and "household" is a classification by size rather than by ownership.Assertion (A): Sugar mills are usually located close to the sugarcane fields that supply them.
Reason (R): The sugar industry is classified as an agro-based industry.Show answer
Answer: B — Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
Both statements are true, but the classification does not explain the location. Many agro-based industries, such as cotton textiles, are not tied to their fields. Sugar mills stay near the cane because cane is bulky, loses weight in processing and loses its sugar content soon after it is cut, so it must be crushed quickly — that, not the label, is the reason.Consider the following statements about high-technology industry:
A. It applies intensive research and development.
B. A high proportion of its workforce is professional and white-collar.
C. It is housed mainly in massive assembly structures on coalfields.
D. Robotics and computer-aided design are widely used.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:Show answer
Answer: D — A, B and D only
A, B and D describe high-technology industry: R&D-intensive, staffed largely by professionals, and run with robotics and CAD. C is false — its buildings are low, neatly spaced office-plant-lab units, often in technopolis clusters, and massive assembly structures on coalfields belong to the traditional heavy-industry regions. Dropping D leaves an incomplete set.