- A heavy industry is a type of industry that makes heavy/ bulky finished products from heavy/bulky raw materials. For example ship-building.
Case Study: Heavy Industry-Banagher Precast Concrete
History: Banagher Precast Concrete Limited was set up in 1976 and is located at Queen Street, Banagher, County Offaly.
Raw/resource materials: Banagher Concrete is located 2.4 kilometres from Lusmagh Quarry. This limestone quarry provides Banagher 80% of its resource materials, such as sand and gravel.
Labour: Banagher Concrete currently employs around 200 people. The workforce is supplied by the town of Banagher. The local secondary school provides a semi-skilled workforce that is further trained on site. The nearby towns provide other sources of workforce, and the good road network between the towns makes it easy for workers to commute to and from work.
Transport facilities: To transport the large bridge beams produced by the factory, Banagher Concrete built a road to go around the town, connecting with the larger main road outside the town. The factory is located 30 minutes away from the M6 motorway.
Finished product: Banagher Concrete's main product is precast concrete. This means that they can concrete into many different forms to meet the needs of their market. There concrete is used in the production of cattle slats, bridge beams, car parks, tunnel segments and stadiums.
Market: Due to the wide variety of finished products made by Banagher Concrete, it has market throughout the world. For example, Banagher has produced precast concrete for the construction of London's shipping port.