Industry: a branch of economy The process in which industry becomes the leading branch of economy, is called industrialization.
Most important industrial regions of Europe a developed in the 18th-19th cent. at the time of the exploitation of coal deposits Where coking coal and iron ore appeared a rapid industrialization began
Largest industrial regions are installed at the old mining areas:
e.g.:
- Black Country
- Meuse Valley (Belgium)
- vicinity of Lille
- Lorraine
- Asturias
- vicinity of Bilbao
- Ruhr & Saar region
Ruhr region as an example of all
- characteristic polycentric urban agglomeration
- hard-coal-based
- 4/5 of the coal mined in Germany
- 1 of crude oil and steel production comes from here
- Nearly 1 of Germany’s chemical production
- exhausted iron mines (Rhine schist mountains) assisted the expansion
- navigable canals of the Rhine of the ind. district
- Rhine and its tributaries are not enough to supply the water demand of the region a industrial water is re-used (water recycling)
- most important ind. branches are in connection with coal mining
- coke (koksz) is a dominant factor in the location of metallurgy
- they import Swedish, African and Brazilian ores
- power plants (erőművek) which are fed by hard coal provide electric power
- heavy industry: - great consumer of rolled steel plates
- manufacturing of mining machines
- metallurgical and power plant machinery
- railroad
- military equipment
- chamber gas is used for making chemical products and glass works
- old plants were converted in oil refineries
- petrochemical industry settled here a gets raw-material through pipelines
a pushes coal chemistry into the background
- textile factories a employing female labour force
a processes mainly the synthetic fibres (műszál) produced nearby
Structural crisis of the last 3 decades:
1.) since the 1950’s aamount of coal mined decreased to 1
a the amount of employees decreased to 1/3
2.) increased use of artificial materials and special metal alloys a demand for steel
decreased worldwide
3.) up-to-date technical procedures appeared
blast furnaces: - located near iron ore mines - combines which obtained inexpensive raw-materials from
overseas a advantageous situation
- operate right near the Rhine ports (e.g. Duisburg)
- operate in cities lying farther from the waterway
(e.g. Dortmund)
Coal & steel crisis a many jobs disappeared in a short time
migration
Ruhr region had to attract new, up-to-date branches of industry
by offering various advantages (e.g. Opel Works settled here)
expansion of chemical industry and electrotechnics
cities became more attracting
But crisis is still not solved, outmigration and unemployment still exist.
Economic stagnation in other areas as well:
e.g. traditional textile industry regions
around Lille and Lyon
in the vicinity of Liverpool and Manchester
more and more companies cannot withstand the competition (with the cheaply produced goods in developing countries)
have to be closed
unemployment decline of
outmigration the European
gradual transformation of the structure of industry textile centres
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