• Ques: Explain the factors of localization for optimal location of any industry.

(2009)

Industries maximize profits by reducing costs. Therefore industries are located where the costs are
minimum. The factors influencing optimal localization of industries are:

i. Access to Market:
Areas/regions having high purchasing power provide large market therefore industries are located
in these regions.

ii. Access to Raw Material:

a. Raw material used by industries should be cheap and easy to transport. Industries based on
cheap, bulky and weight-losing material (ores) are located close to the sources of raw material such
as steel, sugar, and cement industries.

b. Industries using perishable raw material are located closer to the source of the raw material. Such
as Agro-processing and dairy industries are located close to the sources of farm produce or milk
supply respectively.

iii. Access to Labour Supply: Some types of manufacturing require skilled labour therefore
industries are located near urban-educational centres where skilled labour is easily available.

iv. Access to Sources of Energy: Industries which use more power are located close to the source
of the energy supply such as the aluminium industry.

v. Access to Transportation and Communication Facilities:

Speedy and efficient transport facilities reduce the cost of transport. Therefore industries are
attracted in regions having good transport facilities.

vi. Government Policy: Governments adopt ‘regional policies’ to promote ‘balanced’ economic
development and hence set up industries in particular areas.

vii. Access to Agglomeration Economies: Many industries benefit from nearness to a leader-
industry and other industries. These benefits are termed as agglomeration economies.
 • Ques: “iron and steel industry is a basic industry in the development of any country.”
Explain.(2008)

The iron and steel Industry is the basic industry because:

1. All the other industries — heavy, medium and light, depend on it for their machinery.
2.. Steel is needed to manufacture a variety of engineering goods, construction material, defence,
medical, telephonic, scientific equipment and a variety of consumer goods.
3. Iron and Steel is often called the backbone of modern industry. Almost everything we use is
either made
of iron or steel or has been made with tools and machinery of these metals. Ships, trains, trucks,
and autos are made largely of steel. Even the safety pins and the needles you use are made from
steel. Oil wells are drilled with steel machinery. Steel pipelines transport oil. Minerals are mined
with steel equipment. Farm machines are mostly steel. Large buildings have steel framework.
4. The development of the iron and steel industry opened the doors to rapid industrial development
in world. Almost all sectors of the all industries depend heavily on the iron and steel industry for
their basic infrastructure.

• Ques: write the significance of cost and price in industries. (2009)

The most dominant factor of industrial location is the least cost.

i. Cost of obtaining raw materials at site: Manufacturing activity tends to locate at the most
appropriate place where all the raw materials of production are either available or can be arranged
at lower cost.
ii. Cost of production at site: These are influenced by availability of labour, capital, power, etc.
Thus industrial location is influenced by the costs of availability of these factors of production.
iii. Cost of distribution of production: The distance of industry from market influence the
transportation costs. Transportation costs influence the cost of distribution of production.
Capital That is the money that is invested to start the business. The amount of capital will
determine the size and location of the factory.
 • What factors affect location of cement industry (2008).

Factors Affecting Location of cement industry are as follows:

i. Demand in relation to supply (market for its product)-: the demand of cement in excees
of supply is in eastern region and northern regions while is reverse in southern and western
regions. Therefore, cement industries are more concentrated in eastern and northen regions.
ii. Availability of Raw Material: In the cement industry, availability of raw material and fuel,
and transport cost are more significant than the other factors because cement is a weight
losing and bulky product. Its weight losing nature argues for location near raw materials
while bulkiness favours location near the market. The raw materials required for cement are
limestone, clay, and gypsum. Although limestone deposits and clay are available in fairly
large quantities all over the country, proximity of railhead is essential for reducing the
transportation cost.
iii. Production Cost and Profit Prospects :Cost for any industry is usually classified into
fixed cost and Variable cost. Fixed cost includes cost of land, buildings, machines, etc., and
variable cost comprises costs of raw materials, fuel, labour, transport, etc. Buildings and
machines costs are about the same in different regions. Land cost varies over regions but
exerts no significant influence on locational decisions, for it is a small part of the total cost.
Variable cost is significant because it is influenced by the availability of raw materials and
labour, transport cost, etc. the cost-profit data argue for greater dispersion of the industry
and for more of it in regions such as Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Mysore
iv. Management's Interest: The choice of location of a new factory to a certain extent
depends on the management's interest in a particular region. interest are found in the Indian
cement industry. On the one hand, we have Associated Cement Companies Ltd. (ACC) and
Dalmia Cement (India) Ltd., whose intersts are country-wide. On the other hand, there are
cement\ firms run by state governments, such as Andhra Cement, Madras Cement, and
Orissa Cement, whose interests are limited to its development within their own territories.
Since South India possesses more regional entrepreneurs willing to float cement factories at
present, the Southern region continues to have more cement factories than other regions
v. Government Policy: For quarrying of limestone, the cement industry has necessarily to
depend on the government for lease terms.
 • Analyse the industrial regions of Britain. (2009).
The main industrial and commercial areas are the great conurbations, where about one third of the
country's population lives. The administrative and financial center and most important port is
Greater London, which also has various manufacturing industries. London is Europe's foremost
financial city.
1. West Midlands conurbation: Metal goods, vehicles, aircraft, synthetic fibers, and

electronic equipment are made in the West Midlands conurbation, which with the addition
of Coventry roughly corresponds to the former metropolitan county of West Midlands. The
industrial Black Country and the city of Birmingham are in the West Midlands. Greater
Manchester has cotton and synthetic textiles, coal, and chemical industries and is a
transportation and warehousing center.
2. Merseyside conurbation.:Liverpool, Britain's second port, along with Southport and Saint
Helens are part of the Merseyside conurbation. Leeds, Bradford, and the neighboring
metropolitan districts are Britain's main center of woolen, worsted, and other textile
production.
3. the Tyneside-Wearside region:, with Newcastle upon Tyne as its center and Sunderland as
a main city, has coal mines and steel, electrical engineering, chemical, and shipbuilding and
repair industries.
4. The South Wales conurbation, with the ports of Swansea, Cardiff, and Newport, was historically
a center of coal mining and steel manufacturing; coal mining has declined sharply, however, in
many parts of the region. Current important industries also include oil refining, metals production
(lead, zinc, nickel, aluminum), synthetic fibers, and electronics. In Scotland, the region around the

River Clyde, including Glasgow, is noted for shipbuilding, marine engineering, and printing as well

as textile, food, and chemicals production. The Belfast area in Northern Ireland is a shipbuilding,
textile, and food products center.

• Ques: examine the influence of labour for the localization of industry. (2009)

Adequate supply of cheap and skilled labour is necessary for and industry. The attraction of
an industry towards labour centres depends on the ratio of labour cost to the total cost of
production which Weber calls ‘Labour cost of Index’. The availability of skilled workers in
the interior parts of Bombay region was one of the factors responsible for the initial
concentration of cotton textile industry in the region.Industries which demand a lot of
workers tend to locate where there is a large supply of labour. They are called labour-
intensive industries.
The existence of differences in labour costs leads an industry to deviate from the optimal
point of transport orientation. Geographical distribution of the population would give rise to
 differences in wages for labour. Naturally, the transport oriented location of an industry is
drawn out and attracted towards the cheaper labour centres. Such migration of an industry
from a point of minimum transport costs to a cheaper labour centre may be likely to occur
only where the savings in the cost of labour are larger than the additional costs of transport
which it ought to incur.
The role of Labour : Labour is needed to operate any industrial plant but the type and amount
vary from industry to industry. In some industries, labour input is a large cost item while other may
be of minor importance. Labour is relatively immobile factor, difficult to move to new areas or to
new jobs. Largely for this reason, labour-intensive industries may be attracted to areas that have a
surplus of labour
 Labour costs are determined by 3 main consideration:

(i) payments to workers:

(ii) educational level of workers and costs of training workers
(iii) Stability of labour force

• How transport and raw material influence location of industries(2010)

• Mention the importance of raw material in the localization of particular industry.
(2008)

According to Weber, transport costs and labour costs are the two regional factors on which his pure theory is
based. Assuming that there are no other factors that influence the distribution of industry, except
transportation costs. Then it is clear that the location of industry will be pulled to those locations which have
the lowest transportation costs. The key factors that determine transportation costs are

(i) the weight to be transported and

(ii) the distance to be covered.

Weber lists some more factors which influence the transportation costs such as – (a) the type of
transportation system and the extent of its use, (b) the nature of the region and kinds of roads, (c) the nature
of goods themselves, i.e., the qualities which, besides weight, determine the facility of transportation.

However, the location of the place of production must be determined in relation to the place of consumption
and to the most advantageously located material deposits. Thus, ‘locational figures’ are created. These
locational figures depends upon (a) the type of material deposits and (b) the nature of transformation into
products.

Weber classifies and calls those raw materials, which are available practically everywhere as ‘ubiquities’
(like brick-clay, water, etc) and ‘localised’ (like iron-ore, minerals, wood, etc) which are available only in
certain regions. It is clear that localized materials play a more important role on the industry than the
ubiquities. Further, regarding the nature of the transformation of materials into products, Weber categorized
the raw materials as ‘pure’ and ‘weight losing’. Pure materials impart their total weight to the products (eg.
cotton, wool, etc) and the materials are said to be ‘weight losing’ if only a part enters into the product (eg.
wood, coal, etc.). Hence, the location of industries using weight-losing materials is drawn towards their
deposits and that of industries using pure-materials towards the consumption centres.