3. Manufacturing Activities
Manufacturing activities add value to natural resources by transforming raw materials into valuable products. Manufacturing involves the application of power, mass production of identical products and specialised labour in factory settings for the production of standardised commodities. Manufacturing may be done with modern power and machinery or it may still be very primitive.
Some of the major manufacturing industries and their locations are discussed below.
3.1. Iron and Steel Industry3.1.1. America3.1.2. Europe3.1.3. AsiaFig. 9 World- Iron and Steel industry3.1.4. Australia3.1.5. Africa3.2. Chemical Industry with Special Reference to Petro-chemicalsmanufacturing industry. Major factor for the location of chemical industry are availability of raw materials, cheaper means of transport for bulky materials, water supply, sources for energy and demand of chemicals in other industries.3.2.2. Europe3.2.3. West AsiaThe largest refinery in West Asia is located at Abadan (Iran). West Asia is a large producer of petroleum but there is little demand because the region is not industrially developed. Thus, most of the petrochemical complexes are located on the coasts in order to facilitate export. Saudi Arabia has a large petro-chemical complex at Ras Tanura while Mina-el-Ahmadi is the largest petro-chemical complex of Kuwait.3.3. Textile IndustryThe technology for manufacturing synthetic fibres has been developed by economically developed countries and therefore, they have monopolised the production of these fibres.Fig. 11 World-textile industry