Spatial Distribution of Spanish Industry: Key Insights
INEQUALITIES IN THE SPACE DISTRIBUTION OF SPANISH INDUSTRY: Key Areas and Lines of Industrial Expansion: New technologies have, on the one hand, led to the segregation of industrial activities and intensive skilled labor to subcontractors and pequeños talleres. The result is a new espacios productivos – a hierarchy of the singular case of Madrid, which reserves the registered office with the ability to make decisions, management, control, innovation, and strategic and production units that are technologically advanced. Madrid, after Catalonia, is the second community in absolute contribution to industrial GVA in España. Moreover, it induces industrial development in neighboring communities along the main axes of communication, generating meshes and industrial brokers. On the other hand, the flow of trade with the rest of the country is very intense because of its status as a subcentro europeo, tending to specialize in strategic sectors, high technology, and a national decision-making center. This is due to value-added activities, expanding markets, and providing more qualified and better-paid jobs. All of this favors a growing outsourcing industry: growing occupations related to tasks before and after production. Its external reflection is the emergence of industrial parks, with buildings in office functions that surpass in importance the proper fabriles.
**Industrial Dynamism of Barcelona and Its Metropolitan Area:** Barcelona shares with Madrid the head offices of companies, decision-making capabilities, management, etc. It has also consolidated with the capital to become the main campus known in España. The industry has collapsed or converted in major metropolitan areas. The industries are relocating from the central area or new locations of businesses seeking metropolitan advantages. The decline of traditional industries enhances the revaluation of peripheral areas. The process was aided by the revaluation of land occupied in the city for other uses. The new facilities are located in industrial parks. These areas also attract innovative companies that are installed in parks with technology. Peri-urban fringes in the transition zone between the city and the surrounding countryside have become very attractive for industries to locate or relocate nearby towns, seeking to reduce costs while attaching great importance to accessibility. They are located along the main roads with small cities. Predominantly, companies with small capitalization are devoted, in some cases, to low-skilled labor-intensive tasks and, in other cases, to subcontracting surrounding resources.
**The Ebro Valley and the Mediterranean Axis:** The spread of industry first affects the municipalities closer to the big cities, then those farther away with good accessibility. The motorway network communicates with the most important and dynamic axes in southern Europe. The Ebro Valley extends through La Rioja, Navarra, and Aragón. It is characterized by a strong spatial imbalance. The northwest of Navarra has benefited from the industrial distribution from Guipúzcoa. Aragón has excessive concentration in Zaragoza. The Mediterranean axis polarization corresponds most closely to the concept of development and presents densely populated cities with a well-structured economic system. The metropolitan area of Valencia stands out as a complement.
**Developed Industrial Areas in Decline:** These areas are located along the entire Cantabrian coast, including the Basque Country, Cantabria, and Asturias, and the naval construction industry, textiles, wood, and fisheries in isolated nuclei such as Galicia. Some areas include Cádiz-Ponferrada, Puertollano, and others. The characteristics and problems of the industrial sector in these areas are that they specialize in mature industrial sectors in crisis, without industrial diversification that can generate alternative jobs. Large businesses and large factories predominate, while the labor market is characterized by middle or lower qualifications with a strong presence of conflict. The association has a deteriorating environment due to the existence of old basic industries and highly polluting urban growth that is accentuated by disorganization. All of this leads to abandoned solar facilities, falling profits, rising corporate debt, and difficulties in joining the EEC. Investment has exacerbated the situation with new restrictions on production and employment.
**Induced Areas of Industrialization and Low:** General characteristics of the spatial distribution of industry in these areas include induced industrialization areas in Aragón, Castilla y León, and Andalusia, which since the 1960s have been the subject of industrial initiatives. They possess some of the more developed industrial sites focused on investment and employment. However, they relate only to other sites and do not spread into nearby areas. Some industries are also present in provincial capitals or large traditional industries. The dominated industries are punctual and traditional sectors with low added value, with small and medium enterprises and low competitiveness.
**Centers and Industrial Hubs in These Regions:** – CYL – La Mancha, Andalusia, Extremadura, and the Balearics, with the shaft protruding from CyL. In Valladolid, Palencia, and Burgos, nuclei and Miranda de Ebro are linked to diffusion phenomena from the Basque Country. In Castilla-La Mancha, Guadalajara and Toledo are examples of the expansion of Madrid, while Albacete in the eastern Mediterranean is linked to the shaft, leaving today isolated locations in Puertollano. Relevant industrial areas in Andalucía include Seville, Huelva, Cádiz, and Málaga. The heavy reliance on tourism leaves the Canary Islands out of possible industrial hubs.