Iron and steel industry
Topic: Manufacturing Industries of India: Location and Distribution · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 6 "Manufacturing Industries"
Meaning
The iron and steel industry is a basic industry: heavy, medium and light industries all depend on it for their machinery. How much steel a country uses is treated as a sign of how developed it is. The main inputs are iron ore, coking coal and limestone in about a 4:2:1 ratio. Some manganese is added to harden the steel. Both the inputs and the steel are heavy, so plants locate where transport costs are lowest. India became the world's second-largest crude steel producer in 2018.
Example
The Chota Nagpur plateau, spread over Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal, has the largest number of steel plants. It has cheap, high-grade iron ore and coal close together, cheap labour and a big home market. TISCO at Jamshedpur (1907) gets its iron ore from Noamundi and its coal from Jharia.
Don't confuse with
- Consumer industry: this makes goods for people to use directly, such as sugar or toothpaste. Iron and steel is a basic industry that supplies other industries.