Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Profits
a profit is only made if the cost of inputs and processes is less than the money earned from the outputs. For example a factory uses 1000 to get raw materials to make a car and spends a further 500 on wages and 100 on transportation. There is also a cost of 100 for the disposal of waste products. Therefore, for the factory to make a profit the car must be sold for more than 1700. See figure 2
Heavy industry.
Often large scale industries. often have big plants in large areas of land - can often scar the landscape. necessary industries because they are the providers of materials to light industries. often require much money to get set up so they need big investments. Steel, oil refining, ship building and smelting.
Overview
To maximise profits businesses must chose a location with the greatest number of positive factors- different locations have different inputs and outputs of different importance. These depend on the type of industry.
Generally, heavy industries need to be close to raw materials and their market to be profitable due to high transport costs. Whereas footloose industries have greater freedom to chose their location dependant on the nature of the industry.
Page 170-1
Transport
Movement of: Raw materials to factory Manufactured goods from factory to market Both can be done land (road & rail), water (sea and canals) and air (only if the cargo is of high value) Heavy, bulky or comparitively low value raw matierals are used in heavy industry and so cheaper/bulk transport is needed- eg, cargo ferries and rail networks Faster transport is more important for consumer goods as they are sold/bought in greater quantities
Other Communications
Increases in: Fax Phone Internet communication Better information exchange allows for less need for office work or near-market jobs, as people can work from home
Capital
Money invested in: Buildings Machinery Wages for workers Heavy or high-tech industries require large investments so areas willing to provide capital are more likely to be chosen
Raw Materials
Any materials that are needed to be processed. eg: Wood Oil Metal agricultural produce - all are more bulky and less valuable than manufactured goods Heavy industry locate closer to raw materials as heavy industries use lots of materials, and the raw materials are often expensive to transport
Site
Any possible site must have its cost, availability and gradient checked- cheap, flatter land generally preferred as it is easier to develop Heavy industries need large areas of cheap land to develop, while lighter industries use less land and so are less tied down by costs
Market
This reflects The size Location Wealth of buyers Dispersial of market (concentrated or dispersed) Heavy industries or industries that manufacture heavy goods need to be located near the market due to high transport costs whereas the lighter industries only need a major transport link near by to easily retain profitability
Government
Positives: Lowering restrictions Providing industrial locations Govenment incentives can often incite more and bigger industries. These are often reserved for areas of high unemployment to encourage a revival in local industries.
Labour
The area must have: High quantity Well-qualified workforce Low enough average wages to maintian profit If any of these are too low or high then buisnesses will be reluctant to set up there as it will lower profits and if the extra cost is not accountable for then they will just look for somewhere else.
Energy
All industries need energy, to operate machinery, manufacture goods and process raw materials Energy from coal, oil, gas stations Heavy industries need more electricity so locate where a source is closest- conversely, lighter industries can locate more freely as electricity is accessible in most places
Heavy Industry
Heavy industries have been located around the estuary of the river tees for over a century They are a dominant feature of the landscape (fig 5 pg169)
Footloose Industries
In new industrial regions, the industrial structure is dominated by footloose industries, which are most likely to be located next to motorways.
They contain growth industries, which are sometimes referred to as sunrise industries.
Many of these sunrise industries can be found along motorway corridors, such as the M11, M23, M3 and M4. There is a great concentration in the M4 corridor between London and Reading. Industries located here are normally light industries manufacturing goods such as small electronics, car parts and food. High-tech industries engaged in research and processing for computers and telecommunications can also be found here.
pg 174-175
pg 174-175
Close by luxuries such as the countryside, shopping centres and airports help attract skilled (high paid) workers who can afford these luxuries. The offices try to be in easy reach of London, so employees can visit the city for sporting events, exhibitions, shopping and shows.
pg 174-175
pg 174-175
Industries such as heavy engineering that use metals and industries such as textiles that need factories and machines set up in the Rhine-Ruhr region. However the smaller companies found more benefit with setting up in the state where the largest and richest market was in Germany with a population of over 300 million people. The River Rhine is also a key part of the industries. This is because it can be used for water transport. It is used as a highway for barge traffic and as a link to the North Sea and the world of shipping. Moving heavy raw materials, up to 9000 tonnes at a time is much cheaper than using other transport means such as road or rail. Also there are canals which tail off from the river and lead to different cities such as Dortmund. The River Rhine increases the advantages of the region being a key part of industry in the world of today.
Duisberg
I think that this reflects the growth of NICs and also how fast they have grown during the time of Boom.
Industries in LEDCs
By Navdeep Bhamra & Jaipal Gahir
pg 178 - 179
pg 178 - 179
Agriculture, i.e. farming is the most dominant actvity within the primary sector.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Farming is the way of life for most people.
pg 178 - 179
Mali - trading, craft industry and food processing are all restricted within the capital city of Bamako. However, some trading is completed in Timbuktu. (Tombouctou) The River Niger is conveniently placed for this reason.
South America
pg 178 - 179
The employment in agriculture has been plotted against the wealth of the country.
Negative relationship As the wealth of the country increase, the percentage employed decreases.
pg 178 - 179
Multi-National Corporations
Large companies which have business interests in many other countries. E.g. Mining, Plantation, Farming and Manufacturing.
pg 178 - 179
Experiences of Multi-Nationals
Countries' experiences with multinationals have been varied.
In some LEDCs, multi-nationals have set up manufacturing industries, and have profited remarkably, for example Reebok in India. However, areas in plantations have brought little to a country's economy and workers. However, these statements are GENERALISED.
pg 178 - 179
pg 182 - 183
pg 182 - 183
Greenfield site are areas of rural open land that have never been built on. They are located more commonly in the rural-urban fringe. Advantages of building on a green field site are cheaper land; more space; closer to motorways; reduced traffic congestion; easier to landscape to create a pleasant environment. Factories, offices, shopping centres, houses and roads - all of these compete for greenfield sites. This raises issues about the Green Belt and its preservation.
A greenfield site - note the lack of construction on the land
pg 182 - 183
The new industrial areas that are constructed in and around urban areas have a variety of names, depending upon the nature of the industry located there. If the majority of tenants are manufacturing companies, the area is referred to as an industrial estate.
pg 182 - 183
Business parks tend to be dominated by offices and research establishments. However, they could also have a combination of light manufacturing industries; service industries; retail outlets; leisure complexes and distribution warehouses.
The projected image for 'Lakeside', which will provide 76,000 sq feet of lettable office space in the Birmingham Business Park
pg 182 - 183
As with the growth of out-of-town locations, the idea of science parks also came from the USA. Science parks have a direct link to a University, where research is undertaken. The pleasant working environment is so that successful business opportunities are derived from the research carried out there. There are roughly 40 science parks in the UK.
An aerial view of the Cambridge Science Park one of the first, largest and most successful science parks in the UK
pg 182 - 183
pg 182 - 183
However, today's light and hightech industries are more attracted to the motorways instead of the coal fields. Heavy industry has declined rapidly in Britain recently. Industries fail to compete with the more modernised and more profitable industries in the east. For example, the shipbuilding industry in Britain has mainly moved to East Asian shipyards such as those in Japan and South Korea. South Korea produces over half the Gross tonnage of ships in the world.
pg 182 - 183
Some heavy industry did survive in Britain however. One example is steel, but it has undergone huge changes in order to compete with the East. Steel industries are only concentrated in four places in Britain today, many old steelworks have closed down. Only the most profitable locations with the greatest advantages still have steel-making. From the case study on pages 172-173, one of the locations where steel-making is still active is Teesside.
The steel output on Teesside has increased from1971 to 1995, but the number of employees in steel works has fallen dramatically. This shows that to compete with more profitable eastern steel industries, modern technology must be used and fewer workers must be hired.
pg 182 - 183
Without coalmining and other industries, northern and western parts of Britain have suffered. The growing number and range of footloose industries prefer southern and eastern Britain where unemployment rates are lower. In these areas, there is no government assistance. The UK government and the EU provide financial and other forms of assistance to areas with job losses. Therefore, industries are sometimes attracted to these areas where a political factor comes to play. Central Scotland, north-east England and South Wales would become industrial deserts without it.
Assisted areas on the UK in 1996 (Fig 6 on page 183)
pg 182 - 183
Industry is international...
Industrial countries do not only trade in home markets, but in global ones as well. As well as setting up local factories, larger companies set up factories in other countries, where the locational attractions are greater.
Globalisation
In terms of industry, the UK is not as it seems. It is not an island cut off from the rest of Europe, but a member of the EU. This allows for big, multi-national companies like Ford to operate in the EU as if it was one big country.