This is the full-content study version of "Patterns of Economic Activity — Industrial Production", one of the spatial patterns of economic activity in the People, Patterns and Processes focus area. Read it, then use the activity sheet and the topic study guide to revise. Industrial production means turning raw materials into manufactured goods — the pattern of where this happens, and why it keeps shifting, is the heart of this chapter.
Syllabus: spatial patterns of economic activity — industrial production.
The transformation of raw materials and components into finished or semi-finished goods, using labour, machinery and energy — the secondary sector of the economy (mining and utilities are often grouped with it as "industry").
Manufacturing has never been spread evenly across the world, and its map is not fixed. Over the past five decades the geography of manufacturing has shifted dramatically — from the traditional industrial heartlands of North America and Western Europe towards emerging economies, above all in East and South Asia. This shift is driven by differences in labour costs, technology, access to markets and materials and government policy.
According to World Bank data, manufacturing is roughly 15–17% of global GDP, and its share has been broadly stable-to-declining in high-income economies as they shift towards services. China is now the world's largest manufacturer by output, and manufacturing is a large share of its own economy (about 26–28% of Chinese GDP). The overall pattern is one of relative decline in the old Western heartlands and rapid growth in emerging economies.
Quote figures as approximate and attribute the source (e.g. "around 15–17% of global GDP, World Bank"). Precise-looking single numbers copied from a textbook are a common way to lose marks when they are out of date.
The four great clusters — and how they differ.
Despite globalisation, manufacturing is still highly concentrated in a small number of world regions. Four stand out:
From workshops to global, automated production.
Manufacturing has evolved through several broad stages, and how goods are made has repeatedly changed where they are made:
Two changes matter most for the spatial pattern:
Deindustrialisation in the traditional Western heartland.
The sustained decline of manufacturing employment and output in a region, usually as production moves elsewhere and jobs shift to services.
The Manufacturing Belt stretched across the US north-east and Great Lakes — cities such as Pittsburgh (steel), Detroit (cars), Cleveland, Buffalo and Chicago. Located on coal, iron ore and cheap water transport, it was the industrial core of the United States for roughly a century.
From the 1960s–1980s it lost output and jobs and became the "Rust Belt". The drivers of decline were:
The result was factory closures, population loss, and social and political strain — though some cities have since reinvented themselves around services, health and high-tech (e.g. Pittsburgh).
An emerging manufacturing hub — the other side of the shift.
Zhengzhou is the capital of Henan Province in central China and a major inland manufacturing and logistics hub. It is best known for the huge Foxconn complex — sometimes called "iPhone City" — which assembles a large share of the world's iPhones and employs on the order of hundreds of thousands of workers at peak.
Zhengzhou's rise rests on deliberate policy and geography:
Zhengzhou and the Rust Belt are a ready-made compare/contrast pair: one region rising, one declining, both explained by the same global processes (cost differences, technology, supply chains). Use them together.
The process behind the shifting map.
Economic restructuring is the reshaping of an economy's mix of activities — here, the movement out of heavy manufacturing towards services in the West, and into manufacturing in emerging economies. The new international division of labour describes how, over recent decades, routine production has shifted from traditional Western centres to lower-cost emerging economies, while design, finance and management often stay in the West.
Put simply: for much of the past 50 years, the where of making things has moved from the old Western heartlands to emerging economies — especially East and South Asia. The figure below shows the direction of that change.
You should be able to: describe the global spatial pattern of manufacturing and its four major concentrations (incl. NW Europe's "Blue Banana"); explain how the pattern has changed over ~50 years; account for the decline of the US Manufacturing Belt / Rust Belt; explain Zhengzhou's rise as an emerging hub; and define economic restructuring and the new international division of labour. Quote statistics as approximate and attribute the source. Test yourself with the activity sheet and the topic study guide.
Everything in this chapter traces to a source you can check. Watch the explainer, read the primary sources, follow the news, and practise the geographical skills this chapter uses.