Industrial Production Systems: Types, Energy Sources and Location Factors

The Industrial Process

The industrial sector comprises the set of activities that transform raw natural materials into semi-elaborated or fully elaborated products. Four essential elements intervene in this process: raw materials, energy, human labor, and capital.

Types of Industries

Depending on the products obtained, industries can be classified into three major groups:

• Base industries: These process raw materials to supply other industries.
• Equipment goods industries: These transform the products supplied by base industries into finished products destined for other industries.
• Consumption goods industries: These produce articles destined for direct use by the population, utilizing natural or semi-elaborated raw materials.

Raw Materials

Raw materials are the basic element of industrial production. Depending on their origin, they can be of mineral, animal, or vegetable origin.

Mineral Products

A good portion of raw materials are mineral products. Among metallic minerals, the most important is iron, the basic element for the siderurgical and metallurgical industries. Among non-metallic minerals, phosphates, utilized as fertilizers, are those that present a larger volume of holdings. Diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires are valued as the most precious stones.

Energy Sources

Energy transformation processes turn a primary energy source into a final energy product. Energy is obtained from these energy sources. In the pre-industrial stage, energy provision relied exclusively on muscular force, wind, water, and firewood. With the industrial revolution, these energy forms began to lose importance compared to the growing use of coal, electricity, petroleum, and natural gas later on. In recent decades, nuclear energy and, still quite slowly, renewable or alternative energies such as solar, wind, geothermal, and tidal energy have been increasingly incorporated.

Raw Materials and Energy Sources Conflicts

Developed countries have historically used various strategies to maintain control. This was done primarily through colonialism or military occupation, and later, when the colonies became independent, through trade conventions and new control over emerging states. Raw materials and energy minerals are one of the main political and exterior objectives of developed countries, which is the underlying reason for some of the wars and crises that have broken out in the 20th and 21st centuries in countries with important reserves of natural resources.

Fossil Fuels and Radioactive Minerals

Energy minerals include so-called fossil fuels—coal, petroleum, and natural gas—and radioactive minerals. The production value of energy minerals constitutes about 75% of the total world value of mineral production, while metallic minerals represent 20% and non-metallic minerals only 5%.

Coal

Mineral coal was the first energy source to be utilized. Coal comes from the decomposition and petrification of large forest areas from millions of years ago. The oldest carbons are anthracite and pit coal, which possess greater caloric power; lignite, of more recent formation, has less. The siderurgical industry, thermal power plants, and large consumers utilize coal for their production. From 1960, coal production began to decrease as a consequence of the exhaustion of major deposits and the competition from petroleum. Nevertheless, the crisis of 1973 made the inconveniences of exclusive dependence on a single energy source obvious and reactivated the exploitation of coal mines.

Petroleum

Petroleum is a dark, liquid fuel formed millions of years ago from the fermentation of accumulations of plants and animals at the bottom of lakes and seas. Currently, petroleum is the principal energy source in the world, serving as the primary source for an important petrochemical industry. The principal petroleum-producing countries are Saudi Arabia, the United States, Russia, and Iran.

Nuclear Energy

The control of the process of uranium atom fission in nuclear reactors made possible the enormous exploitation of caloric energy to produce electricity. Decades ago, it was thought that nuclear energy could substitute petroleum as the principal energy source. Subsequently, after seeing the risks and costs it implies, many developed countries abandoned or restricted their plants.

Natural Gas

Natural gas has the same origin as petroleum and is often found associated with petroleum deposits, situated in the upper layers or caps. It is utilized in thermal power plants, the chemical industry, and metallurgical workshops.

Electricity Production

Electricity is not a primary energy source but a primary form of energy. To produce electricity on a large scale, different sources are utilized: water, coal, petroleum, natural gas, and uranium. Alternative energy power plants are also utilized: wind, solar, geothermal, and tidal. Wind energy makes the most of air force using aerogenerators installed in wind parks. Solar energy can be exploited as caloric energy through homesites, or light energy through photovoltaic plates. Geothermal energy exploits the interior zones of the Earth. Tidal energy makes the most of the force of sea tides.

Electric Power Plants

Hydroelectric power plants exploit the motor force of water and rivers from the levels of water drops to move turbines that produce electricity. Thermoelectric power plants utilize the caloric fuel derived from petroleum, coal, natural gas, or the fission of uranium atoms.

Industrial Location Factors

Physical Factors

The proximity to energy sources and raw materials are two physical industrial location factors. Proximity to an energy source was essential at the start of the industrial revolution; the most important factory concentrations were produced near coal deposits and along river courses where water could be utilized as an energy source. The proximity of raw materials is very important when they are heavy or have low unitary value.

Human Factors

Human factors in industrial location include the following: the existence of an important nearby market that absorbs the first part of production; the availability of abundant and qualified labor; good communications for merchandise that facilitate the flux; infrastructure of public and financial services that facilitate basic supplies; and the existence of industrial infrastructure, which favors the installation of industries and can convert into a new complementary source.

Industrial Spaces

Industrial development began to create spaces during the 18th century proper to industrial occupation forms in the territory. Industrial points are concentrations of activity around a concrete location factor, but which due to an absence of stimulus cease to grow. Industrial complexes are composed of complementary industries. Industrial regions present a dense and varied fabric, and technological complexes are more advanced. Science parks are a new form of space where cutting-edge industries apply scientific and technological research with significant results. Business parks are spaces dedicated to offices and advanced technology industries.

Industrial Landscapes

The appearance of industrial spaces gave a definitive industrial landscape with specific characteristics. A very classic landscape is proper to the 19th century and mid-20th century industrial complexes, where the energy source was coal and blast furnaces operated urban industrial machinery. These formed around large urban nuclei. Modern industrial polygons and modern industrial naus organize spaces for consumer goods industries moved by electricity or petroleum derivatives. The rural industrial landscape responds to the proximity factor of primary materials.

Distribution of Industry

The majority of industries are concentrated in regions of Europe, North America, and industrializing Asia. The process started during the 18th century in England. In the 19th century, around coal, it extended to the entire European continent and passed to North America. Japan, through the inversion of foreign capitals, an abundance of disciplined and hardworking labor, and the adoption of Western technologies, made the late 19th century industrialization fast and converted it into one of the world leaders. During the decade of 1980, industrialized countries displaced activities towards Southeast Asian countries: Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Korea converted into newly industrialized countries. More recently, the displacement of industrial activity is observed toward Latin America and North Africa. China is the new large industrial power of the 21st century, with high productivity, low labor costs, and an extensive internal market.

Industry in Developed Countries

Developed countries continue controlling the major part of industrial capitals, the development of research, and new technologies. Enterprises transform and fuse, with a tendency toward the creation of large concentrations and multinationals. Their headquarters are based almost always in a developed country. Meanwhile, subsidiary enterprises displace raw material processing and production to third world countries with a double objective: to avoid rich-country environmental legislation and to benefit from the contracting of cheap labor.

Industry in Developing Countries

In developing countries, industrialization has a very low level. Scarse domestic industry is mounted with machinery imported from developed countries, and enterprises are mostly subsidiaries of large multinationals.

Industry in Europe

Industrialization started in the 18th century near mineral deposits producing coal. Around mines and large cities, there were also industrial concentrations for the transformation of imported raw materials and equipment goods production.

Industry in Spain

The industrialization process in Spain started in the mid-19th century in a slow and localized manner. From 1986, the full incorporation into the European Union expanded the market and brought competition against the entry of European products. Currently, there are four important industrial regions: the Basque Country, Asturias, Catalonia, and Madrid.

Industrialization in Catalonia

Catalonia has been the industrial engine of Spain. Catalan industrialization started very early, at the end of the 18th century following the English model of work mechanization, but the lack of energy sources and raw materials obliged Catalan industry to specialize in consumption goods and equipment production. Currently, Catalonia is an industrial region with a degree of industrialization similar to large European industrial regions. Catalan industrial production represents the fourth part of the total state production.

Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and medium enterprises predominate in industry. This characteristic is an inconvenience when competing with large multinationals. Nevertheless, globalization provokes the phenomenon of industrial relocation.

The Construction Sector

Construction has been an impulse for the Catalan economy motors. Construction activity can be divided into four large groups: rehabilitation of ancient housing, construction of new housing, construction of non-residential buildings, and civil works.