The steel industry site was located to Llanwen. This was a good idea because this area is located near the M4 and so then the steel being produced can easily be sent of to market in England. Llanwen is also located near a port and so material are easily imported from other countries.
The new relocation of the steelworks has had good and bad effects of the natural environment, people and jobs. The air became cleaner because the pollution was less concentrated compared to when the were many coal, iron ore ans limestone mines. The new steelworks were high tech and met higher regulations. This mean less labour was needed and so unfortunatly there were less jobs for people due to this. The mines had closed and the only large industrial factory was the steel-works. This lead to a high unemployment and therefore high social deprivation. Crime and drug use also became a big issue in the area of South Wales.
The steel industry changed in many other ways as well. Electronic Data Interchange, Research & Development and looking after the environment were ways in which the industry changed. Electronic Dat Interchange was when customers had the chance to order directly, delivery time could be estimated and the J-I-T method (just-in-time) started to be used like in
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Japan. Research & Development meant sharing ideas with customers and testinig and building prototype models for new types of steel or cars. Looking after the environment was done by doing many different things such as; reusing 4 million tonnes of steel per year, recycling iron ore because of its low resources, dust and heat energy being recycled, by making the amount of energy to produce a tonne of steel 25% less in 15 years and by using up derelict and redundant land.
The government had also intervened in the industrial location by coming up with finantional aid. This was so that the government could renew attempts to combat the problems of economic decline and unemployment. They did this by;
- limiting the number of factories in certain areas
- redistributing industries
- assiting areas where targeted, new jobs will hope for the multipler effect
- enterprize zones to focus aid on specific areas
- creating urban development corporations to rejuvenate areas of decline
- attracting investment from overseas
South Wales seems to attract a lot of new new industries from overseas by using a policy of 'inward investment'. High tech industries such as, I.T industries and micro-electronics have been attracted to this area.
The reasons why new high-tech industries have been attrached to South Wales is becasuse of £2,228 million of grants and loans that have been set up by the Welsch Development Agency in 1976 to attract inwrad investment. Also the UK government gave the 'Assisted Areas' status, which attached more funds from the central government. The EU regional development also funded a new road to open up the valleys and to extend the M4 west. The M4 in the main orad running from Swansea to London. High tech industry in also attracted to South Wales because of the skilled labours in the area.
An example of a high tech industry that had located in South Wales is Bosch. Bosch is the world's largest independant manufacturer of automotive equpiment and it is also one of the largest industrial groups in Germany. Bosch set up its first overseas office in the Uk in 1898. The company now employs a world-wide workforce of 180,000 in 32 countries. One the Bosch site of Miskin in Wales produces a range of advanced compact alternates for the automotive industriy. This was the company's first manufacturing venture in th UK. On the Bosch site in South Wales there are 950 people employed.
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The Bosch site is located close to the M4 nad railway link. It is also near Cardiff and Manchester airport and Cardiff and Dover seaports. Bosch specialise in making power tools, fuel lamps, domestic appliances, car radios, lawn-mowers and mobile telephones.
Still not all areas of South Wales have benfitted from this industry. The narrow, steep-sided valleys of the Rhondda lined with terraced houses have been less attractive to the large new assembly industries. The industries have also taken up large flat sites positioned along the M4 corridor. The valley floors are often too narrow and the landscape is then scarred from years of coal mining and steelworks. An adequate flat site and access to an efficient transport network is essential for modern conponent-based industries this therefore means that uneven industrial developmenyt has meant that some areas have suffered as shown by local options.
