Page 457 - Solid Waste Analysis and Minimization a Systems Approach

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW 435

industry’s revenue was $85.6 billion in the year 2006. There were 200 countries that
conducted foreign trade with the United States in 2006, exactly the same as year 2005.
The leading countries that did trade with the United States in 2006 were: Canada,
$49,844,026,000 (28.67 percent); Japan, $45,906,127,000 (26.40 percent); Germany,
$25,749,794,000 (14.81 percent); Mexico, $17,745,627,000 (10.21 percent); and
Korea, $9,525,028,000 (5.48 percent).
Northeastern United States and Southern Great Lakes Region, Northwestern
Europe, Western Russia and the Ukraine, and Japan are the major manufacturing regions
of automotive products in the world.
In North America, the prominent automotive manufacturing regions are New England,
New York and the Mid-Atlantic, Central New York, Pittsburgh/Cleveland, Western Great
Lakes, St. Lawrence Valley, Ohio and Eastern Indiana, Kanawha and middle Ohio Valley,
St. Louis, the Southeastern region, Gulf Coast, Central Florida, and the West Coast.
The European Union has the largest automotive-production regions in the world.
The key automobile-manufacturing regions are United Kingdom, Rhine-Ruhr River
Valley, Upper Rhine–Alsace-Lorraine region, and the Po Valley in Italy.
In the Western Russian and Ukraine region, the leading industrial regions are
Moscow, the Ukraine region, the Volga region, the Urals regions, and the Kuznetsh
Basin region.
The highlighting features of the global automotive industry are

■ It offers support to other industries such as iron, steel, rubber, glass, plastic, petroleum,
textiles, oil and gas, paints and coatings, transportation industries.
■ Rising foreign investments have led to the rapid growth in terms of automobile pro-
duction and exports. Overseas companies are making huge investments and are
installing extensive production capacities in developing countries.
■ Continuous investment in research and development has resulted in increased pro-
ductivity and better quality automobiles and automotive accessories and parts.
■ Increases in standards of living and purchasing-power parity have resulted in the
increased demand for automobiles especially four-wheelers in developing nations,
mostly in the South Asian region.

This sector provides employment to a major chunk of the human population in the
world, that is, 25 million. This industry not only provides millions of jobs to the people,
but also produces billions of dollars in terms of worldwide revenues. Adequate infra-
structural facilities in the form of power supply, machinery, capital, and ready availabil-
ity of raw materials and labor help in the tremendous growth of this industry.
The automotive industry is witnessing tremendous and unprecedented changes
these days. This industry is slowly and gradually shifting toward Asian countries,
mainly because of saturation of the automobile industry in the Western world. The
principal driving markets for the Asian automotive industry are China, India, and
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nations. Low-cost vehicles, namely,
scooters, motorcycles, mopeds, and bicycles have led to the massive growth of some
of the fastest-developing economies like China and India. The future of the automotive