Human Geo 11.4 Questions Flashcards
Outsourcing is important in the electronics industry. What is an example of a major electronics contractor?
Foxconn, in China, is the world’s largest electronics contractor. It employs over 1 million Chinese, but working conditions there have been scrutinized. Many of their workers live in dorms near factories, working long hours for low wages and limited benefits. More controversial is an internship program employing young people during the summers that critics say is a free way the company gets child labor.
What is the manufacturing/global trade situation in Mexico?
Manufacturing has been increasing in Mexico. Goods move pretty freely between it, the US, and Canada. It attracts industries concerned with a site factor (low-cost labor) and a situation factor (proximity to US market). Nearly all US growth of motor vehicle production has been located in Mexico. It faces challenges (its wages are higher than in China, and competes with them because it has low shipping costs to the US and Europe). Mexico has signed free trade agreements with many countries.
How has integration of North American Industry generated fear in the US and Canada?
Labor leaders fear more manufacturers will relocate to Mexico, bc labor-intensive industries are attracted to regions with lower wage rates. Environmentalists say trade agreements have encouraged firms to go to Mexico because they have softer air and water-quality laws. Mexico has adopted regulations to reduce air pollution, but they’re not strictly enforced.
What is BRICS?
The world’s future manufacturing growth will be clustered in Brazil, Russia, India, China, & South Africa. They encompass 26% of world land area and 42% of world inhabitants, but account for 23% of world GDP. Their economies are 2nd (China), 7th (India), 9th (Brazil), 11th (Russia), and 34th (South Africa).
What is some key information regarding BRICS?
China and India will both surpass the US as the world’s largest economies by 2050. They have the 2 largest labor forces, and Russia/Brazil have many critical inputs for industry. Animosity between China, India, and Russia has limited their economic interaction so far. If the 5 giants work together, they can be the world’s dominant industrial bloc in the 21st century.
What is spinning?
Fibers are spun from natural or synthetic elements. Principal natural fiber: cotton. Synthetics account for 3/4 of world thread production. It is labor-intensive, so spinning is done primarily in low-wage countries. China produces 1/4 and India 1/5 of the world’s cotton thread. -The textile and apparel industry requires less-skilled, low-cost workers. It accounts for 6% of the dollar value of world manufacturing but 14% of world manufacturing employment (labor-intensive). Many women in it too.
What is weaving?
-Fabric has always been woven/laced together by hand on a loom (a frame with 2 sets of threads; the warp and the weft). Labor constitutes a high % of mechanized weaving, and it’s clustered in low-wage countries. China and India have become the dominant fabric producers (low labor costs offset the expense of shipping inputs/products long-distance). China accounts for 60% of woven cotton fabric production and India 30%.
What is assembly?
Sewing by hand in the past: needles made from horns/bones date back thousands of years, and iron needles are from the 14th. The first functional sewing machine was invented in 1830, And Isaac Singer invented the first commercially successful sewing machine in the US in the 1850s. Textiles are cut/sewn to be assembled into garments, carpets, home products, and industrial items.
Where does assembly take place and why?
Developed countries play a larger role in assembly because that’s there the most consumers are located. Still, most clothing is assembled in LDCs. Overall production costs are lower in developing countries because lower labor costs offset high shipping/taxation costs. Most of the cost of clothing in MDCs is markup by the retailer, and the original workers only earn around 1% of the final cost to the consumer.
What is steel?
Steel is an iron alloy that is manufactured by removing impurities in iron and adding desirable elements (magnesium, chromium). Historically, steel production was a good example of a bulk-reducing industry locating near its inputs. 2 changes have altered its distribution within the US and world:
1. Changes in the relative importance of the main inputs
2. Increasing importance of proximity to markets.
How can the shift of world manufacturing to new industrial regions can be seen in China?
The share of world steel production has recently increased in LDCs (it was primarily MDCs in 1980). World steel production has also doubled since 1980 (from 0.7 to 1.6 billion metric tons, China responsible for 0.8 of that increase). Production in MDCs has declined by 0.1 billion metric tons. China’s steel industry has grown due to access to the primary inputs iron ore and coal, but China industries also use a lot of steel (motor vehicles).
Traditionally, where were steel manufacturers located?
2 principal inputs in steel production: iron ore and coal. Most steel was produced at large integrated mill complexes that processed iron ore, converted coal into coke, converted iron into steel, and formed the steel. Because of the need for large bulky amounts of iron/coal, steelmaking clustered near those sources. In the US, distribution of steel production changed several times in the 19th and 20th centuries due to changing inputs.
Recently, where has steel production located?
Closer to markets. Steel minimills have captured 1/4 of US steel market (which mainly uses scrap metal as an input). Traditionally, steel was produced at large mill complexes. Minimills are limited to 1 step in the process, are less expensive to build/operate, and can locate near their markets because scrap metal is widely available.
In Europe, how has manufacturing diffused from traditional industrial centers in northwestern Europe towards Southern and Eastern Europe?
Gov’t policies have encouraged relocation to economically distressed areas. Spain was the Western European country with the most rapid manufacturing growth in the late 20th, esp. after it was let into the EU in 1986. Since the fall of communism, investment in industry has increased in Central Europe, which offers manufacturers low-wage but skilled labor and proximity to Western European markets.
