10/11/13 Mrunal [Geography] Location Factors: Iron-Steel, Heavy Engineering, Automobiles for UPSC GS Mains Paper 1 & Detroit

t Bankruptcy Print
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[Geography] Location Factors: Iron-Steel, Heavy Engineering, Automobiles
for UPSC GS Mains Paper 1 & Detroit Bankruptcy
1. Prologue
2. Iron-Steel industry
3. The three locations
1. #1: Near Forest
2. #2: Near coal fields
3. #3: Near coastal areas
4. Factor: Empty Wagons
1. Ural-Kuznetsk combine
2. Bokaro Rourkela Combine
3. The curious case of Cleveland
5. Factor: Coking coal Shortage
6. Factor: Technology
7. Industrial Inertia
1. Why industrial inertia?
2. Inertia due to Government Policy
8. Factor: strategic reasons
9. Factor: Developmental policies
10. Steel Based Industrial Regions
1. USA, Great Lakes-Pittsburg region
2. Canada: St Lawrence Valley
3. Germany, Ruhr Valley
4. Britain: Birmingham, Midlands
5. Sweden, Central region
6. CIS: Ural region
7. China: Steel industry
1. China: Backyard Furnaces
11. Integrated vs Mini steel plants
12. Desi Steel Plants
1. TISCO, Jamshedpur
2. Bokaro
3. Durgapur
4. Burnpur
5. Rourkela
6. Bhilai
7. Steel Plant: South India
1. Vishveshwarya, Karnataka
10/11/13 Mrunal [Geography] Location Factors: Iron-Steel, Heavy Engineering, Automobiles for UPSC GS Mains Paper 1 & Detroit Bankruptcy Print
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2. Salem, TN
3. Vishakhapatnam, AP
13. Secondary industries
14. Heavy engineering industry
15. Shipbuilding industry
1. Japanese Shipbuilding industry
2. German Shipbuilding
16. Automobile industry
1. Detroit: Car Capital of World
2. Detroit Bankruptcy
3. Toyota-Nagoya region, Japan
4. Sanand, Ahmedabad: the Nano Factory
17. Machine tools
18. Light engineering industry
19. Mock Questions
Prologue
Separate Archive page for Geography created: Mrunal.org/geography (Just like Ive
for /economy, /diplomacy, /snt, /enb, /aptitude, /history)
In the last four articles, we saw the industrial location factors for
1. Timber And Fish Industry
2. Natural Fibers: Wool, Cotton, Silk And Jute
3. Wheat, Corn, Milk, Meat, Pig, Poultry, Vegetable And Wine
4. Sugar, Tea, Coffee, Rubber And Cocoa
Now moving to Iron-Steel, heavy engineering and automobile industry, with disclaimer
as usual: Disclaimer as usual: not covering everything, fill up the details as and where
you find necessary.
Iron-Steel industry
Iron ore + coke + limestone ==heat==> pig iron.
pig iron=more processing=>cast-iron, wrought iron, steel and variety of alloys
Thus, Essential inputs are
1. iron ore, coking coal and limestone
2. water for cooling
3. energy for heating
Steel industry also requires dolomite, manganese etc. but in small quantities=> their
presence is not the main deciding factor for the location.
The three locations
10/11/13 Mrunal [Geography] Location Factors: Iron-Steel, Heavy Engineering, Automobiles for UPSC GS Mains Paper 1 & Detroit Bankruptcy Print
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1. Near Forest
2. Near Coalmines
3. Near Coastal Areas
#1: Near Forest
Until the end of medieval period, iron production was done on small scale.
Energy was immobile (No wires to move electricity, No trains to move coal).
To produce five tons of iron, you had to chop down one acre of forest to get
sufficient charcoal.
Therefore, wood supply=primary factor for deciding location. And smelters
were usually setup near forest areas
Even in Modern times, Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant (Karnataka) was setup
near jungle to get wood-charcoal. (Later switched to hydro-electricity from
Sharawati river)
#2: Near coal fields
During the Industrial Revolution, iron and steel industry were setup near coalmines,
due to following reasons:
1. The coalfield region had a tradition of iron working based on charcoal as a result
coalfield areas already had the labour and technology.
2. In Britain, iron ore was found embedded with coal seams= same area provided
both iron ore + coal
3. During that era, to process 1 tons of iron ore, you needed 8-12 tons of coal.
Railway engines were also inefficient. So, weight-wise, it was cheaper to
transport iron ore to coalfields rather than transporting coal to iron ore site.
Examples of Iron-industry near coalmines:
Germany Ruhr Valley, Saxony region
Britain Lancashire, York shire, South Wales
United States Appalachian-Pennsylvania-great Lakes
Australia New South Wales region
China Wuhan, Anshan, Chongqing
by the way,
Why do we need Coking coal?
Because Iron ore=has iron oxide. But Were only interested in iron. So, weve to get
rid of the oxide part.
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Then how can we remove the oxide part? Ans. Make him marry with carbon and
form Carbon dioxide.
But where will you get the carbon? Ans. Coking coal. Because Coking coal has
high concentration of carbon, compared to cheap varieties of coal like Lignite.
Therefore youve to mix the coking coal with iron ore.
Iron Ore (Iron Oxide) + Coking Coal (source of Carbon) + Limestone (reducing
agent)=heat*=> Iron + CO
2
+ slag.
*for heating you can use other variety of coal / even electricity.
#3: Near coastal areas
By early 20th century the coal and iron ore mines in US-Europe started getting
depleted. So, they started importing iron ore from other countries.
As a result the iron space and steel industry started moving toward coastal sites
to reduce cost of transporting ores from port to factory via railways.
Japan Iron steel industry is developed @coastal areas/port