11 Production, location and change
11.3 Manufacturing and related service industry Industrial location: influential factors
Revised
Table 11.2 outlines the important factors controlling industrial location. Table 11.2 Factors controlling the location of industry Physical factors
Human factors
Site: the availability and cost of land Large factories need flat, well-drained land on solid bedrock. An adjacent water supply may be essential.
Capital (money) Business people, banks and governments are more likely to invest money in some areas than others.
Raw materials Industries requiring heavy and bulky raw materials will generally locate as close to these raw materials as possible.
Labour The quality and cost of labour are key factors. Reputation, quantity, turnover and mobility can also be important.
Energy At times in the past, industry needed to be located near fast-flowing rivers or coal mines. Today, electricity can be transmitted to most locations. However, energy-hungry industries, such as metal smelting, may be drawn to countries with relatively cheap hydroelectricity.
Transport and communications Transport costs in real terms have never been lower, but remain important for heavy, bulky items. Accessibility to airports, ports, motorways and key railway terminals may be crucial factors for some industries.
Natural routeways and harbours Many modern roads and railways still follow natural routeways. Natural harbours provide good locations for ports and related industrial complexes.
Markets The location and size of markets is a major influence for some industries.
Climate Some industries such as aerospace benefit directly from a sunny climate. Indirect benefits such as lower heating bills and a more favourable quality of life may also occur.
Government influence Government policies and decisions can have a big direct and indirect impact. Governments can encourage industries to locate in certain areas and deny them planning permission in others. Quality of life Highly skilled personnel who have a choice about where they work will favour areas where the quality of life is high.
Raw materials
Industries that use raw materials directly are known as processing industries. The processes involved in turning a raw material into a manufactured product usually result in weight loss. If weight loss is substantial the location of the factory will be drawn towards the raw material that is most costly to transport. Tidewater locations are particularly popular with industries using significant quantities of imported raw materials, such as flour milling and oil refining. Tidewater locations are break-of-bulk points.
Weight loss refers to industries for which the finished product is lighter than the weight of the raw materials required to manufacture it.
Markets
Break of bulk refers to a location, such as a seaport, where freight has to be transferred from one mode of transport to another.
Where the cost of distributing the finished product is the greater part of total transport costs a market location is logical. A small number of industries, including soft drinks and brewing, are ‘weight gaining’ and are thus market oriented. However, there are other reasons for market location. Industries where fashion and taste are variable need to be able to react quickly to changes demanded by their customers.
Energy
The Industrial Revolution was based on the use of coal, which is costly to transport. Thus, industrial towns and cities developed on coalfields, which became focal points for the developing transport networks. The investment in
160
Tidewater locations are port locations where freight can be transferred between road, rail and pipeline to water transport.
The Industrial Revolution involved the transformation in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of first Britain and then other European countries and the USA from agricultural into industrial nations.
Cambridge International AS and A Level Geography Revision Guide
