Industry is the backbone of the economy in many countries. Based on the achievements of science and technology, it extracts minerals from the bowels of the earth, produces electricity, processes natural resources, and produces a wide variety of products. In this article, we have outlined the material on the geography of the industry and its key industries.
Industry and its structure
The word "industry" in Russian comes from the verb "to trade". In common parlance, its meaning is: "feed, extract, make a profit." The term was first used in Russian dictionaries at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century.
What is industry? This is a set of enterprises in a certain territory that are engaged in the production of goods and material goods. These include factories, factories, mines, mines, quarries, oil refineries, etc. Industry is the leading industry in the field ofmaterial production, the level of development of which largely determines the economic well-being of a state.
It is generally accepted that production as such originated in the primitive era (about 5-10 thousand years BC) and went through several successive stages in its evolutionary development:
- hunting and gathering;
- subsistence farming (agriculture and animal husbandry);
- development of crafts;
- small commodity production;
- capitalist cooperation;
- large machine industry.
Based on the scope of products, the entire industry is usually divided into two groups:
- Group "A" (or heavy industry) - produces machinery, machine tools, large equipment and electricity.
- Group "B" (or light industry) - produces consumer goods.
In the structure of industry, "old", "new", as well as "newest" industries are also distinguished. The first group includes iron ore, coal, textile industry, as well as shipbuilding. The second group includes non-ferrous metallurgy, automotive, plastics, etc. The third group includes, in particular, microelectronics, robotics, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, aviation and space industries. The most developed structure of modern industry is presented in the following diagram.
Geography of industry. Factors of placement of productive forces
As ofCurrently, at least 350 million people are involved in the global industry. And these are just rough estimates. The geography of industry is, of course, extremely heterogeneous. The location of production forces is influenced by a number of factors and objective conditions. These include:
- Natural factors (quantity and quality of mineral resources, geological and climatic conditions, relief features, etc.). They play a decisive role in the location of mining enterprises, fuel-, energy- and water-intensive industries.
- Socio-economic factors - features of population distribution, income level of citizens, qualification of labor resources, etc.
- Material and technical factors - scientific and technical base, quality of infrastructure, manufacturability of production cycles, etc. Determine the costs of production and sale of finished products.
In the modern geography of industry, the principle of rational distribution of production plays an extremely important role. It provides:
- The attraction of heavy industries to sources of fuel, appropriate raw materials and water.
- Orientation of labor-intensive industries to places of concentration of labor resources (large cities and densely populated areas).
- Orientation of enterprises producing products with a low shelf life to the consumer.
- Striving for the fullest use of a particular natural resource by creating plants with a full processing cycle.
- Limiting the number of industrial enterprisesin large cities to improve the environmental situation.
Next, we will take a brief look at the most important branches of industrial production.
Fuel and Energy Complex
The fuel and energy industry is a complex and multicomponent system that includes mining enterprises, as well as energy processing and power generation enterprises. In the geography of the fuel industry, one quite logical pattern is observed: this is an orientation towards deposits of combustible minerals (oil, gas and coal). Accordingly, this industry includes three sub-sectors - oil, gas and coal.
Oil industry
This branch of the economy is engaged in the extraction of "black gold", its transportation and processing. Oil production is a rather technically complex production process. It includes geological exploration, drilling of wells, as well as the purification of oil from water, sulfur and other impurities.
Oil is transported through special pipelines or by sea tankers. At oil refineries, gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, fuel oil, paraffin and a host of other useful products are obtained from it. The geography of the planet's oil industry is shown on the following map.
Gas industry
Natural gas is the most important natural resource, widely used in the public sector (in particular, for heating residential buildings) and various industriesindustry. The gas industry is engaged in its exploration, production and transportation. The origin of this industry dates back to the beginning of the 19th century, when in England and France they learned how to extract gas from coal and use it to illuminate city streets. Today, this fuel resource is mined in its pure form in more than fifty countries around the world.
The geography of the planet's gas industry is shown on the map below.
Coal industry
This is one of the oldest branches of industrial production. Coal lies in the bowels of the Earth in layers. Depending on the thickness of these layers and their depth, there are two main methods for extracting this fuel resource - open (quarry) and closed (mine). As of today, 8165 million tons of hard and brown coal are mined annually in the world. The top ten countries in the extraction of this mineral are marked on the map below.
Metallurgy and engineering
Metallurgy is a manufacturing industry that produces various metals. It is divided into black and color. Ferrous metallurgy enterprises extract and enrich iron ore and, on its basis, produce cast iron, rolled steel, ferroalloys, pipes, hardware, wire and some other products. The largest producers of ferrous metals in the world are China, Russia, India, Brazil, Canada, Australia and Ukraine.
Non-ferrous metallurgy is engaged in mining, smelting and processingso-called non-ferrous metals, which are conditionally divided into "light" (aluminum, magnesium, titanium) and "heavy" (zinc, tin, titanium, nickel, lead, copper, etc.). Every year, enterprises in this industry produce about 40 million tons of metals, which are widely used in modern life. The main centers of non-ferrous metallurgy in the world: Russia, Chile, China, USA, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Malaysia, Guinea, Poland.
Engineering is the main consumer of metallurgical products. In addition, this is one of the most knowledge-intensive industries - most of the achievements of scientific and technological progress, first of all, are being introduced here. An interesting fact: over the course of the 20th century, the volume of world engineering products increased a hundred times, and in some countries even more (for example, in Japan - 5,500 times!). The main centers of mechanical engineering in the modern world: Japan, South Korea, USA, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Taiwan.
Chemical industry
The chemical industry is engaged in the processing of a wide variety of raw materials - mineral, hydrocarbon, inorganic and others. Varnishes and dyes, acids and mineral fertilizers, plastics and car tires, chlorine, ammonia, explosives - all this is produced at the enterprises of this industry. The chemical industry is the second most knowledge-intensive (after mechanical engineering) industry. The level of its development is directly related to the scientific and technological achievements of a particular country.
Where are concentratedthe largest enterprises in the chemical industry? In the geography of this branch of the world economy, five states can be clearly distinguished. These are the USA, Japan, Germany, Russia and the Netherlands.
Food industry
The food industry combines a huge number of processing enterprises that produce a wide range of products - from meat and milk to beer and spices. It is closely connected with the agro-industrial complex, which supplies it with the main share of its raw materials.
What is the geography of the food industry? The enterprises of the given branch are guided, first of all, on the consumer. After all, it is much easier to transport wheat grain over long distances than finished bakery products. Although there are exceptions (for example, sugar production). If we talk about the global leaders in the food industry, then it is worth highlighting such countries as China, the USA, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Poland.
Geography of Russian industry (briefly)
The Russian Federation is an industrial state with a fairly high share of industrial production in the structure of the economy (36%). The top five most developed industries are:
- Oil refining.
- Engineering.
- Metallurgy.
- Gas production.
- Food industry.
Production forces on the territory of Russia are not located randomly, but form clear industrial clusters. An interesting map was developed by the Institute of Territorialplanning "Urbanica" in 2013 (see photo below). It shows the location of all the industrial centers of the country. The size of the circles corresponds to the total industrial production of a particular city.
The top ten largest industrial centers in Russia (according to Urbanika) include the following cities: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, Omsk, Perm, Ufa, Novy Urengoy, Nizhnekamsk and Nogliki (Sakhalin Region).
The country's main metallurgical plants are located within two industrial regions - the Kuzbass and the Kursk magnetic anomaly. Non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises are concentrated mainly in the Urals, focusing on significant deposits of zinc, copper, tin, titanium, lead and other metals. The largest centers of mechanical engineering were formed here, in the Urals, as well as in Siberia.
If we talk about the fuel and energy complex, then in Russia there are several regions of active oil and gas production. First of all, this is the European north (including the shelf of the Barents and Kara seas), the Caspian lowland, Tatarstan and Western Siberia. Sufficiently developed in Russia and the coal industry. The geography of enterprises in this industry is concentrated in the Pechora and Kuznetsk basins.
