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decades later, when he sold his steel company in Textile Industry
1901 for 480 million US dollars, Carnegie had Textile is a fabric that’s knitted or woven and
become the richest man in the world. It was not made from yarn. Thus, the textile industry is the
the profit that he made in this deal but the role industry responsible for taking a raw material,
he played in making Detroit “geographically like cotton or wool and spinning it into yarn that
mobile”. The location ‘Detroit’ Became a new is later used to create a fabric. All of the pro-
home of America’s major automobile companies. cesses involved in the converting of the raw
Factors that made Detroit attractive to material into a finished product — developing,
Automobile Industry producing, manufacturing and distributing
Location : Detroit was then a large city in textiles — are included in the industry.
Michigan State in the Centre of the Great Lakes India is the second largest producer of textiles in
area. the world. This industry accounts for almost 24%
Steel Production : The great Lakes Region is of the world’s spindle capacity and 8% of global
the largest steel producing area of the United rotor capacity. Abundant availability of raw
States. Other than Detroit, important steel materials such as cotton, wool, silk and jute as
centers are Chicago, Sparrows point and Gary well as skilled workforce have made the country
Bethlehem. a sourcing hub.
Facilities for Steel Production :
Coal : Pennsylvania
Iron Ore : Messabi, Cuyuna and Menominee
Fluxes : Limestone from Western Coast of Lake
Huron and Appalachian Mountains.
Labour : Because of high density of population,
labour is easily available.
Market : There are many multinational corpora-
tions and other industries in the Great Lakes
Area on account of which demand is very high.
Indian Textile Industry
From the above analysis, it will be seen that there
The textiles industry has made a major contribu-
are many iron and steel centres in the Great lakes
tion to the national economy in terms of direct
Region because of many favourable factors.
and indirect employment generation and net
Many of the entrepreneurs realised that the Area
foreign exchange earnings. It provides direct
could support other industries as well. The USA
employment to over 45 million people. The
was the first country in the world to usher in
motorcar manufacture. In the 1880s, only about textiles sector is the second largest provider of
employment after agriculture. Thus, growth and
300 automobiles were manufactured. In the
all round development of this industry has a
beginning of the 20th century, more than a
direct bearing on the improvement of the India’s
million automobiles were manufactured at
economy. Based on the sources of raw materials,
several places in the country. Today, more than
60 million automobiles are built worldwide each textile industry can be studied under following
year. Many of the multinational automobile categories — Cotton textiles, Silk textiles,
manufacturing companies are based in the USA. Woollen Jute and Synthetic fabrics.
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