There are primary industries that extract natural resources from the earth or sea. There is another type of industry that takes these raw materials and processes them into finished products - these are called 'secondary industries'. If an economy has a large secondary industry, it is known as an industrial economy.
The refined goods you purchase at shops present typical examples of products that come from the secondary industry. Some of these goods are clothes you wear, mobile phones, television, watches, table, chair, kitchen utensils, power tools, etc. Owing to the secondary industry, you can eat breakfast at your home without having to go out fishing in the morning!
While the primary industry provides raw materials, those raw materials aren't always ready enough to meet all our needs. For example, the crude oil extracted from underground reservoirs is refined by 'oil refinery or petroleum refinery' into more useful products such as petroleum naphtha, gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas, jet fuel, and fuel oils. Similarly, the forestry sector provides us with trees, but it needs a process to convert wood, pulp, extracted chemicals, cellulose, etc into useful products like furniture, doors, paper, cleaning products, natural dyes, etc.
The refined goods we purchase at our shops present a typical example of products that arrived from the Secondary Industry. This industry plays a key part in allowing us to have food on the table without undertaking our own fishing in the morning. The oil extracted from the natural resources needs refinement before we use them as energy resources. The forestry sector provides us with trees, but it needs a process to make them into suitable wood pieces or furniture. We need industries to transform minerals into useable products used by the vehicle or technology industry, for example.
The industry of a country's economy that is related to the manufacturing of processed products is called the 'secondary industry'. The products that are generally used by society are produced by the 'secondary industry'.
The secondary industry acquires the raw materials and changes them into viable goods that can be consumed by the customers in the consumer market. It includes numerous industries that are related to construction or producing a usable and finished product. The secondary industry uses manufacturing plants, factories, machinery, and energy for successfully converting the raw materials into usable products.
The secondary industry includes steel production, automobile manufacturing, and telecommunications, amongst others. This is the key sector that has the potential to change world economies. This industry relates to 'producing goods' unlike the primary industry which relates to 'collecting raw materials'.
The secondary industry is also referred to as a manufacturing industry, as it uses the raw materials provided by the primary industries and processes them into consumer products. The other aspect that relates to secondary industries involves their ability to transform existing secondary goods into more technologically developed products. It focuses on capital development, construction, and energy-related products.
The Secondary Industry remains positioned in developing and developed countries. Developing countries rely more on their primary sectors, but the secondary industry allows for the refinement of various goods. Developing countries sometimes use more small-scale industries and they represent the role of the manufacturer. For example, smaller businesses adopt the role of transforming raw material, for instance, trees into useable wood pieces or planks.
Manufacturing - The production of physical products such as vehicles, furniture, and housewares. Manufacturing is often done at scale in large, highly automated factories that are able to deliver a low unit cost.
Fast-moving consumer goods - The production and marketing of goods that are quickly consumed that people need to buy regularly such as food, cosmetics, toiletries, and candy. The fast-moving consumer goods industry is dominated by large brands with extensive manufacturing and logistics capabilities.
Construction - The construction of houses, buildings, and other structures such as transportation infrastructure.
Heavy industry - Heavy industry is the construction of large facilities such as a hydroelectric dam and the manufacturing of large products such as aircraft.
Food industry - The production of food and beverage products such as a bakery or brewery.
Fashion - The design, production, and marketing of clothing, footwear, and other items that people wear.
Craft - Production by hand such as a craftsperson who produces handmade traditional jewelry.
The secondary industry is divided into two parts:
1. Light industry - These are industries that usually are less capital-intensive than heavy industry and are more consumer-oriented and raw material-oriented than business-oriented, as they typically produce smaller consumer goods. Most light industry products are produced for end-users rather than as intermediaries for use by other industries. It involves the production of small consumer goods. It is a labor-intensive industry that does not require either a large area or a large quantity of raw material. Light industry facilities typically have a less environmental impact than those associated with heavy industry, therefore, zoning laws are more likely to permit light industry near residential areas.
Another definition of light industry is manufacturing activity that takes a small amount of product that is partially processed or is a raw material to create products of a high price per unit weight.
Light industries require fewer raw materials, space, and power. As compared to heavy industry, the light industry typically causes lesser pollution, however, some light industry can cause significant pollution or risk of contamination. For example, electronics manufacturing is a light industry but it can create potentially harmful levels of lead or chemical wastes in soil without properly handling waste products.
Examples of light industries include the manufacturing of clothes, shoes, furniture, consumer electronics, and home appliances. Manufacturing of products related to tobacco and beverage like wineries, bottled water, and breweries also come under the light industry.
2. Heavy industry - This is a category of complex business that produces large products and/or requires large-scale facilities and machinery to produce products. It refers to the manufacturing and production processes on a large scale that involves heavy and large facilities, equipment, areas, machine tools, and complex and large-scale infrastructure. As compared to light industries, it needs high capital investment and is also often more heavily cyclical in investment and employment.
The heavy industry involves one or more of the following characteristics:
Some examples of heavy industry are:
Large systems are often characteristic of heavy industry such as the construction of skyscrapers and large dams during the post-World War II era, and the manufacture/deployment of large rockets and giant wind turbines through the 21st century.
Sometimes, the heavy industry gets a special designation in local zoning laws. This allows heavy industries that have huge impacts on the environment, employment, and infrastructure to be considered with forethought. For example, the zoning restrictions for landfills usually take no account of the heavy truck traffic that will exert expensive wear on the road leading to the landfill.
The Industrial Revolution played a key role to invent and implement the Secondary Industry. Examples of new inventions include the railway sector, power stations, and cotton fabrics. The industrial industries also allowed for the creation of a magnitude of employment opportunities for people. Some of the most popular produced products relate to the vehicle industry. Other aspects include the finished product of extracted oil. Meaning the raw oil material originates from the Primary Industry, but the refined version comes from the Secondary sector.
The advantages of secondary industries are as follows:
The disadvantages of secondary industries are as follows:
The biggest threat the Secondary Industry experiences relate to their influence on climate change. The subsequent impacts because of atmospheric, water, and land pollutions developed into a sensitive debate. Developed countries attempt to change the manner these industries operate and determine cleaner ways of production efforts. The Secondary Industries experience threats in the sense that they may change in terms of their general outlook and workforce.
