Industrial Production and the Secondary Sector

The Secondary Sector: Industry and Construction

The secondary sector is an integrated sector composed of industry and construction. Industry, the main activity of this sector, consists of the transformation of raw materials into manufactured goods.

The industrial process is characterized by using machines to work in factories and specialized labor. Industry is an indicator used to measure the basic degree of development of a country.

Factors of Industrial Production

The primary factors of industrial production are raw materials, energy sources, human resources, and capital.

Commodities and Raw Materials

These are the resources extracted from nature and are classified by origin:

• Vegetable
• Mineral resources: These include iron, oil, etc. Mineral resources are the mainstay of heavy industry. Some of these minerals, such as copper or aluminum, require processing.

In the use of minerals, the entire product is not used; only the useful part is kept, while the rest is removed, causing a big problem for the environment.

Types of Industry

Heavy Industry

Heavy industry uses large quantities of raw materials to create semi-elaborated products, such as iron. This industry needs large and very clean facilities.

These facilities are located near resources or near a commercial port to be close to raw materials and energy sources, taking advantage of the availability and lower price of land, and finally to dispose of means of transport and communication networks properly. The principal heavy industry sectors are metallurgy and chemistry.

Equipment Industry

This industry transforms the intermediate products of heavy industry. These are expensive products associated with high technology, such as electronics, computers, satellites, and farm machinery. These industries usually install themselves in industrial cities because these areas are better developed, there are sufficient skilled human resources (workers), and these areas are favored by policies to facilitate industrialization.

The equipment industry is divided into:

• The building industry: Covering both the construction of housing and infrastructures.
• Metallurgical and electrical plants: Processing that results in consumer products such as furniture, pharmaceutical products, etc.

Light Industry

Light industry manufactures products for direct consumption. It needs fewer raw materials, produces fewer contaminants, and its size and value are very variable. Examples include frozen or packaged foods, automobiles, television, and radio.

These are high-value products placed in proximity to the cities of consumption, requiring transformation infrastructure and an adequate number of consumers.

Environmental Consequences

Because industry utilizes large amounts of natural resources and limited energy sources, it causes the depletion of raw materials. On the other hand, it emits gaseous pollutants that impact the air, water, soil, and vegetation by altering the aspect of cities where factories or industrial unions are installed.

Industrial gas causes global warming (the greenhouse effect), the thinning of the ozone layer, acid rain, and air pollution in and near industrial cities.