Heavy industry

Relates to a type of business that typically carries a high capital cost (capital-intensive), high barriers to entry and low transportability. The term "heavy" refers to the fact that the items produced by "heavy industry" used to be products such as iron, coal, oil, ships, etc. Today the reference also refers industries that cause disruption to the environment in the form of pollution, deforestation, etc.

Investopedia Says:
Industries that are typically considered heavy include:

1. Chemicals and plastics
2. Steel and oil refining, production
3. Mining
4. Industrial machinery
5. Mass transit (railways, airlines, shipbuilders)

Another trait of heavy industry is that it most often sells its goods to other industrial customers, rather than to the end consumer. Heavy industries tend to be a part of the supply chain of other products. As a result, their stocks will often rally at the beginning of an economic upturn and are often the first to benefit from an increase in demand.

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Traditional production industries in the auto, steel, rubber, petroleum, and raw material areas, requiring high capitalization and producing large quantities of output. Heavy industry employs many people, and is often beset by environmental impacts.

Manufacturing industry which needs large quantities of often bulky raw materials. These are usually transported by water or rail as in iron smelting or shipbuilding. These industries have a high material index. Productivity per worker is generally low, and heavy industries are often dirty and noisy. Compare with light industry.

"Heavy machinery" redirects here. For the album by Anders Johansson, Jens Johansson and Allan Holdsworth, see Heavy Machinery (album).

Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (January 2007)

Heavy industry does not have a single fixed meaning as compared to light industry. It can mean production of products which are either heavy in weight or in the processes leading to their production. In general, it is a popular term used within the name of many Japanese and Korean firms, meaning 'construction' for big projects. Example projects include the construction of large buildings, chemical plants, the H-IIA rocket and also includes the production of construction equipment such as cranes and bulldozers. Alternatively, heavy industry projects can be generalized as more capital intensive or as requiring greater or more advanced resources, facilities or management.

Contents 1 Heavy industry in law and government 2 Heavy industry in firm names 2.1 Japan 2.2 South Korea 3 References 4 External links

Heavy industry in law and government

Heavy industry is often defined by governments and planners in terms of its impacts on the environment. These definitions concentrate on the seriousness of any capital investment required to begin production or of the ecological effect of its associated resource gathering practices and by-products. In these senses, the semiconductor industry is regarded as "heavier" than the consumer electronics industry even though microchips are much more expensive by weight than the products they control.

Heavy industry is also sometimes a special designation in local zoning laws.

Many pollution control laws are based on heavy industry, since heavy industry is usually blamed for pollution more than any other economic activity.^{[citation needed]}

The zinc works at Lutana is the largest exporter in Tasmania, generating 2.5% of the state's GDP. It produces over 250,000 tons of zinc per year.^[1] The Zinc works were historically responsible for high heavy metal levels in the Derwent River.^[2]

Heavy industry in firm names

Many conglomerates in South Korea (chaebol) and Japan (keiretsu), call divisions or companies responsible for capital-intensive manufacturing (shipbuilding, mining, industrial machinery) their "heavy industry" group. All industries have heavy machinery.

Japan

• Fuji Heavy Industries
• Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries
• Kawasaki Heavy Industries
• Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

South Korea

• Hyundai Heavy Industries
• Samsung Heavy Industries
• Hanjin Heavy Industries
• Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering
• Doosan Heavy Industries

References

1. ^ ""The Zinc Works"". TChange. http://www.tchange.com.au/resources/zinifex_smelter.html. Retrieved 2009-07-11. 
2. ^ "Derwent Estuary - Water Quality Improvement Plan for Heavy Metals". Derwent Estuary Program. June 2007. http://www.derwentestuary.org.au/file.php?id=193. Retrieved 2009-07-11. 

• Morris Teubal, Heavy and Light Industry in Economic Development The American Economic Review, Vol. 63, No. 4. (Sep., 1973), pp. 588-596.
• Some Definitions in the Vocabulary of Geography, IV, British Association Glossary Committee, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 118, No. 3. (Sep., 1952), pp. 345-346.

External links

Look up heavy industry in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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