Industry is the backbone of the national economy: it supplies other sectors with machines, energy, fuel, fertilisers and materials, and creates jobs and export earnings. The key question in industrial geography is: why is the plant exactly here? The answer lies in the location factors. Exams ask about industries and their centres, plants built since independence and location factors; often you must match a plant to a city or explain why it is where it is.
As an economy develops, the primary sector’s share falls while the secondary and especially the tertiary sectors grow. Industry is split into extractive (mines and fields) and manufacturing (plants); the deeper the processing, the more valuable the product — so exporting finished goods pays better than exporting raw materials.
Worked example
A country’s GDP structure, in arbitrary units: agriculture 25, industry and construction 35, services 40. Find each sector’s share.
Total: 25 + 35 + 40 = 100 units.
Primary (agriculture): 25 / 100 · 100% = 25%.
Secondary: 35%; tertiary: 40%.
Answer: 25%, 35%, 40% — services have the largest share.
§2. Industrial location factors
Raw materials, fuel and energy, water, labour, consumers, transport, environment
Raw-material orientation: mining, metallurgy, building materials, cotton ginning — the raw material is heavy or bulky and costly to transport.
Energy: aluminium, ferro-alloys and some chemical plants need a lot of electricity.
Water: chemicals, metallurgy and thermal power stations need much water for cooling and processing.
Labour: light industry (many workers), complex engineering and electronics (skilled workers).
Consumer: bread, milk, drinks, furniture — products perish quickly or are expensive to transport.
Transport: large plants sit at rail and road junctions.
Environment: harmful plants should be built away from densely populated areas.
Spatial forms: the industrial centre (a town with several plants), the industrial node (a group of nearby centres), the free economic zone (preferential tax and customs rules; Navoi — 2008, Angren, Jizzakh and others), technology parks and clusters (from growing raw material to finished product in one system).
§3. The fuel and energy complex
The gas industry is the leading branch. Fields: Kashkadarya (Shurtan, Mubarek), Bukhara (Gazli) and the Ustyurt. Since independence the Shurtan and Ustyurt gas-chemical complexes have been built, turning gas into polyethylene and other products. A gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant has been launched in Kashkadarya. Gas is exported by pipeline (the Central Asia–China pipeline).
Oil: the Fergana Valley and Kokdumalak; refining at the Fergana and Bukhara (Karaulbazar) refineries.
Coal: Angren (brown coal), Shargun and Baysun (hard coal).
Electricity: most comes from thermal power stations (TPS) — Syrdarya (the largest), Tashkent, Navoi, Talimarjan and Angren — mostly gas-fired. Hydroelectric stations are on the Chirchik cascade (Charvak) and on the Syr Darya (Farkhad). In recent years many solar and wind power stations have been built, helped by the large number of sunny days.
Worked example
Which factors explain the building of a nitrogen-fertiliser plant in Navoi?
Nitrogen fertilisers are made from natural gas, and the Gazli and Bukhara gas fields are nearby (raw-material factor).
Production needs a lot of water — the Zarafshan River and the Amu-Bukhara Canal (water factor).
The irrigated oases that use fertiliser are close by (consumer factor).
Answer: mainly the raw-material (gas) and water factors.
§4. Metallurgy and the chemical industry
Non-ferrous metallurgy: the Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine (copper, zinc, lead, molybdenum, silver, gold), based on the Kurama mountain deposits; the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combine — gold (Muruntau and other Kyzylkum deposits); uranium production was later moved to a separate company.
Ferrous metallurgy: the Bekabad steelworks (steel, rolled metal); electricity and water were important factors.
Chemicals: nitrogen fertilisers — Chirchik, Navoi, Fergana; phosphate fertiliser (ammophos) — Almalyk; the Kungrad soda plant (based on Barsakelmes salt); the Dehkanabad potash fertiliser plant; polyethylene — the Shurtan and Ustyurt complexes.
The chemical industry is closely tied to farming, supplying fertilisers and crop-protection products for cotton and other crops.
§5. Engineering, light industry, food and building materials
Car making is a new industry created after independence: Asaka (passenger cars since 1996), Pap (engines), Tashkent; Samarkand — buses and lorries; there is also a car plant in Jizzakh. It relies on labour and on the domestic market.
Agricultural engineering — Tashkent, Chirchik; electrical engineering and household appliances.
Light industry: cotton ginning (near the raw material), textiles — yarn, cloth, knitwear (cotton-textile clusters), silk (Margilan, an ancient centre), carpet weaving, leather and footwear.
Food: canned fruit and vegetables, dried fruit, vegetable oil (from cottonseed), wine, bread and dairy.
Town A has a large bakery and town B a cotton-ginning plant. Which factor explains each location?
Bread goes stale quickly and is needed daily, so a bakery is built near consumers.
Raw cotton is bulky and loses weight in ginning, so the gin is built where cotton is grown.
Answer: A — consumer factor; B — raw-material factor.
§6. Industry and the environment
Industry affects nature: metallurgy and chemicals pollute the air, mines damage land and thermal power stations emit greenhouse gases. So treatment plants are built, low-waste technologies introduced, damaged land restored (reclamation) and renewable energy expanded. The environmental factor is becoming ever more important when locating new plants.
§7. Where industry is located
Industry is spread unevenly, and each area has its own "specialisation":
Tashkent city and region — the largest industrial node: engineering, chemicals (Chirchik), non-ferrous metallurgy (Almalyk), steel (Bekabad), coal and cement (Angren, Akhangaran), energy.
The Fergana Valley — oil refining, chemicals, car making (Asaka), light industry and silk (Margilan).
Navoi and Bukhara — mining and gold, chemicals, gas, oil refining.
Kashkadarya — gas and gas chemistry (Shurtan, Mubarek, GTL), potash fertiliser.
Karakalpakstan — the Ustyurt gas-chemical complex and the Kungrad soda plant.
Samarkand — buses and lorries, food and light industry.
This pattern clearly reflects the location factors: gas chemistry next to gas fields, car making where labour is plentiful.
Check yourself
What does the Almalyk combine produce?
Which power stations generate most electricity?
The centre of ferrous metallurgy?
Give one example of a plant built since independence.
Which factor determines the location of a bakery?
Which sector does tourism belong to?
Industry 42, agriculture 18, services 60 units. Industry’s share?
When was the Navoi free economic zone set up?
Common mistakes
Attributing gold production to Almalyk — the main gold producer is the Navoi combine.
Writing that hydroelectric stations generate most electricity — most comes from thermal stations.
Thinking car making dates from Soviet times — it was created after independence.
Confusing extractive and manufacturing industry: a mine extracts, a plant processes.
Linking a bakery to the raw-material factor — it is consumer-oriented.