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Industry 2
Alfred Weber's location theory from 1909 established the foundations of modern location theories. Weber proposed that firms will choose a location to minimize costs, which involves optimizing transportation costs, labor costs, and benefits of agglomeration. His location triangle model illustrates how to find the optimal location to minimize transportation costs of importing raw materials and exporting finished products. While transportation is the most important factor, labor costs and agglomeration economies also influence industrial location. Weber's theory helped explain the concentration of industries in major regions around raw materials and transportation networks before 1950, such as Western Europe's Ruhr Valley, Eastern North America's manufacturing belt, Russia's Urals, and East Asia's industrial centers in China, Japan, and India.
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Industry 2
- 2. How do LocationTheories explain Industrial Location?
- 3. Location Theory • LocationTheory – predicting where a business will or should be located. • Location of an industry is dependent on economic, political, cultural features as well as whim. • Location Theory Considers: – Variable costs-energy, transportation costs & labor costs – Friction of distance-increasing distance =increased time & cost
- 4. Location Models Weber’s Model-TheLeast Cost Theory Alfred Weber, (1868-1958) a German economists, published Theory of the Location of Industries in 1909. His theory was the industrial equivalent of the Von Thunen Model. Manufacturing plants will locate where costs are the least. Three Categories of Costs: Transportation-the most important cost-usually the best site is where cost to transport raw material and finished product is the lowest Labor-high labor costs reduce profit-location where there is a supply of cheap, non-union labor may offset transportation costs Agglomeration-when a group of industries cluster for mutual benefit- shared services, facilities, etc.-costs can be lower Deglomeration-when excessive agglomeration offsets advantage- eastern crowded cities
- 5. Weber's Location Triangle • •Alfred Weber's work (1909) is considered to have established the foundations of modern location theories. One of his core assumption is that firms will chose a location in view to minimize their costs. This involves a set of simplifications, namely that location takes place in an isolated region (no external influences) composed of one market, that space is isotropic (no variations in transport costs except a simple function of distance) and that markets are located in a specific number of centers. Those conditions are quite similar to those behind Von Thunen's agricultural land use model elaborated almost one hundred years earlier. The model also assumes perfect competition, implying a high number of firms and customers, small firm sizes (to prevent disruptions created by monopolies and oligopolies) and a perfect knowledge of market conditions, both for the buyers and suppliers. Several natural resources such are water are ubiquitous (available everywhere) while many production inputs such as labor, fuel and minerals are available at specific locations. According to Weber, three main factors influence industrial location; transport costs, labor costs and agglomeration economies. Location thus imply an optimal consideration of these factors.
- 6. Weber's Location Triangle • •Solving Weber's location model often implies three stages; finding the least transport cost location and adjusting this location to consider labor costs and agglomeration economies. Transportation is the most important element of the model since other factors are considered to only have an adjustment effect. To solve this problem, Weber uses the location triangle within which the optimal is located. The above figure illustrates the issue of minimizing transport costs. Considering a product of w(M) tons to be sold at market M, w(S1) and w(S2) tons of materials coming respectively from S1 and S2 are necessary. The problem resides in finding an optimal factory location P located at the respective distances of d(M), d(S1) and d(S2). Several methodologies can be used to solve this problem such as drawing an analogy to a system of weights and pulleys (Varignon's solution) or using trigonometry. Another way preferred among geographers, particularly with GIS, is to use cost surfaces which are overlaid.
- 7. M= market P= placeof industry S1=raw materials S2 = raw materials Measured in tons – Triangle is not the same as the Weber’s Location Theory because of the lack of labor and agglomeration cost
- 8. Location Models • Hotelling’sModel-Harold Hotelling (1895-1973) this economist modified Weber’s theory by saying the location of an industry cannot be understood with out reference to other similar industries-called Locational Interdependence • Losch’s Model-August Losch said that manufacturing plants choose locations where they can maximize profit. Theory: Zone of Profitability
- 9. Losch’s Model-Zone ofProfitability
- 10. Major Industrial Regionsof the World before 1950 • First manufacturing belts were close to raw materials & good transportation • In addition to raw materials other factors: relative location, political situation, economic leadership, labor costs & education and training. • Four primary industrial regions were Western & Central Europe, Eastern North America, Russia & Ukraine and Eastern Asia
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- 12. Western and CentralEurope • Europe’s coal deposits stretch across northern France, north central Germany, northwestern Czech Rep. & southern Poland. • Colonial Empires gave France, Britain, Belgium, Netherlands & later Germany capital for industrial development. • Germany-The Ruhr & the Westphalian coal field, Saxony near Czech Rep. Silesia, now part of Poland. • Germany is still the leader producer of coal & steel and is Europe’s major industrial power. • European Coal and Steel Community was the predecessor of the European Union.
- 13. Manufacturing Centers in WesternEurope • The manufacturing centers in Western Europe extend in a north-south band from Britain to Italy. • The are centered on coal fields and iron ore deposits and cross roads of transportation.
- 14. Western and CentralEurope • The Ruhr, a small tributary to the Rhine, became the leading industrial region of Europe • Saxony and its cities of Leipzig & Dresden became known for cameras, textiles and ceramics. • Destruction of WW II- German factories were rebuilt-competitive edge over older factories of North America
- 15. The American ManufacturingBelt • America’s manufacturing belt extends from the Northeast coast to Iowa and from the St. Lawrence Valley to the Ohio & Mississippi Rivers. • New England & New York- light manufacturing New York with its large market has a huge skilled & semi-skilled labor force. • Philadelphia & Baltimore with heavy industry-iron ore was smelted in tidewater steel mills
- 16. The American ManufacturingBelt • NYC Port is a break-of-bulk (cargo shifted from one mode of transport to another) center. • Buffalo on Lake Erie grew after the Erie Canal was finished-early 19th cent. • Interior nodes-Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago- Gary, Milwaukee, St. Louis & Cincinnati-Appalachian coal & Mesabi iron ore-autos, bulldozers, harvesters, & appliances Caterpillar manufacturing plant in Aurora, Illinois
- 17. Major Manufacturing Regionsof North America
- 18. Major Deposits ofFossil Fuels in North America
- 19. Open Pit CoalMine in southern Illinois Coal train moving across Montana is 1½ miles long. It carries barely a day’s fuel for a large power plant. The US burns over 1 billion tons of coal a year-has the world’s richest coal deposits-enough to last 250 years.
- 21. Manufacturing Centers inEastern Europe and Russia
- 22. Major Manufacturing Regionsof Russia
- 23. The Former SovietUnion • Moscow developed light industry in the last days of the Tsars and St. Petersburg focused on machinery, optics, medical equipment, shipbuilding, chemicals & textiles • Soviets emphasized heavy industry-established Nizhni Novgorod (southeast of Moscow) as the “Detroit of the Soviet Union” • WW II Soviets shifted industries east to protect them from the German advance-Volga area & Urals • Ural Mountains provided metallic ores:copper, iron, nickel, chromite, bauxite, etc. • Siberia coal and iron remained important • Kuzbas, Krasnoyarsk and Lake Baykal region served by Trans-Siberian Railroad-impressive coal, timber & water resources
- 24. Major Manufacturing Regionsof East Asia Shanghai Steel Mill
- 25. Eastern Asia-China• Japanbuilt steel mills in Dongbei (Manchuria) during its occupation in WW II • From 1949 until 1969 Soviet planners helped the China industrialize • Tonghua Iron & Steel is subsidized and operated by the Communist Party. • Built in 1958, it employs 29,000 workers-China produces 30% of the world’s steel
- 27. Eastern Asia-China • Shanghairecently beat out Rotterdam as the busiest port in the world. • China has many jobs that or outsourced or moved offshore. • Northeast is China’s rust belt with many state-run inefficient factories. • Dalian, Shanghai, Zhuhai, Xiamen & Shenzhen- smog- choked cities jammed with people-rapidly changing with new construction & renewal
- 28. Eastern Asia-China• Shenyangon the Liao River became the “Chinese Pittsburgh” with machine-making and steel production. • Shanghai & Chang River district is the 2nd largest industrial region of China-rail cars, ships, books, food & chemicals • Enormous labor force, low daily wages, few restrictions have attracted foreign companies to China’s Special Economic Zones Coal=65% of China’s energy & Consumption could double in 20 years
- 29. Shoe factories inGuangdong Province China
- 30. A Dormitory forWorkers in Dongguan, China
- 31. Eastern Asia-Japan• ½the US population, size of California, limited resources, yet remarkable industrial growth-Meiji Restoration 1860s • Kanto Plain includes Tokyo- Yokohama-Kawasaki metro areas=2nd biggest megalopolis on earth- produces 20% of Japan’s total goods • Kansai District, Kobe-Kyoto- Osaka triangle is the 2nd area- steel, chemicals, autos, shipbuilding & textiles The Imperial Palace in Tokyo
- 32. After WW II,Japanese industry recovered quickly due to its large supply of cheap, highly skilled labor
- 33. • Japan rapidly industrializedin the late 19th cent. • Due to a lack of resource, Japan acquired colonies on the Asian mainland at the expense of China. • In the 1930s militarists dominated the government & began a policy of further expansion.
- 34. At left-Kamikaze pilots bowbefore the Emperor • Right-the ruined Japanese landscape after WWII
- 36. South Asia-India • Blessedwith large coal deposits, metallic minerals such as iron ore and a vast labor force, India is growing by 8% year. • Despite rapid industrialization it still remains agrarian and underdeveloped due to a poor infrastructure- over 50% of India’s crops rot in the field due to a lack of transportation
- 37. South Asia-India • TheBihar Steel Mill in India produces high quality steel at a low price-the down side-low pay, few environmental restrictions=pollution. • India’s service sector is also growing very rapidly. • The Delhi Call Center at right is typical of the the outsourcing done by many Western firms. • India has millions of low paid blue-collar workers and millions of white collar, high tech. workers