FUTURE OF HEAVY INDUSTRY

The heavy industry associates with a type of business that typically offers a high capital cost or capital-intensive, high limitations to entry, and low transportability. The term "heavy" refers to the fact that the items delivered by "heavy industry" used to be products such as iron, coal, oil, ships, etc. Now, the reference also refers to industries that disturb the environment in the form of pollution, deforestation, etc. The heavy industry typically requires large and heavy goods or large and heavy machinery and tools (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, and huge buildings); or complex or numerous methods. Because of those factors, the heavy industry involves higher capital power than the light industry does. The heavy industry is also often more deeply cyclical in investment and employment.

Transportation and construction, along with their upstream building supply businesses, comprised the largest industry during the industrial age, along with some capital-intensive manufacturing. Common examples from the Industrial Revolution through the early 20th century included steelmaking, artillery production, locomotive erection, machine tool building, and the heavier types of mining. When the chemical industry and electrical industry expanded, they included elements of both heavy industry and light industry, which was soon also true for the automotive industry and the aircraft industry. Heavy industry shipbuilding converted the norm as steel replaced wood in modern shipbuilding. Large systems are often characteristic of heavy industry, such as the construction of skyscrapers and large dams during the world wars, and the assembling/deployment of big rockets and giant wind turbines through the 21st century.

Another feature of heavy industry is that it most frequently sells its goods to other manufacturing customers, rather than to the end consumer. Heavy industries are also a part of the supply chain of other products. As a result, their assets will often recover at the beginning of an economic upturn and are often the first to benefit from an increase in demand. The economies of many countries are based on heavy industry. Amongst such Japanese and Korean firms, many are manufacturers of aerospace products and defense contractors. Examples include Japan's Fuji Heavy Industries and Korea's Hyundai Rotem, a joint project of Hyundai Heavy Industries, and Daewoo Heavy Industries.

In the 20th century, many countries often focused on heavy industry as an area for large investments in their planned economies. This decision was inspired by fears of losing to maintain military parity with foreign powers. For example, the Soviet Union's manic industrialization in the 1930s, with heavy industry as the preferred weight, sought to bring its capacity to manufacture trucks, tanks, artillery, aircraft, and warships up to a level that would address the country a big power.