Major Industrial Regions: Case Studies of the USA, China and Egypt

1Where the world's goods are made

Figure 1 shows each country's share of the value added by manufacturing worldwide in 2021, the latest year for which the World Bank gives figures for both China and the USA.

Figure 1: Shares of world manufacturing value added, 2021. Data: World Bank.

Three facts stand out. China alone added almost twice as much value as the USA (US$4.85 trillion against US$2.50 trillion). East Asia, North America and Western Europe together dominate. And the whole of sub-Saharan Africa added only 1.3%, less than India. This lesson locates the world's major industrial regions and then studies three countries in depth.

2The world's major industrial regions

3Case study 1: the USA

Why it industrialized. The USA had almost every advantage: coal in the Appalachians, iron ore around Lake Superior, oil in Texas and Oklahoma; the Great Lakes, rivers and a dense railway network to move them; a huge, wealthy home market; capital and inventive entrepreneurs; millions of immigrant workers; and, later, universities and government spending on defence and research.

• The Manufacturing Belt. Coal and iron ore met by water at Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Gary and Chicago, making these the world's great steel centres; Detroit used the steel to become the centre of car making from the 1900s.
• Deindustrialization. From the 1970s, competition from Japan and later China, automation and ageing plants closed many mills: the Rust Belt. Detroit lost much of its population and declared bankruptcy in 2013.
• The Sun Belt. Industry grew in the south and west: oil refining and petrochemicals around Houston, aerospace in California and Washington State, and high technology in Silicon Valley near San Francisco, where universities, venture capital and skilled workers attract footloose firms.

The USA remains the second-largest manufacturer, adding US$2.50 trillion in 2021, though manufacturing was only about 10.5% of its GDP that year (World Bank).

4Case study 2: China

Why it industrialized so fast. In 1978 China began "reform and opening up" under Deng Xiaoping. In 1980 it created its first Special Economic Zones at Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen on the southern coast, near Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Foreign firms were offered low taxes, cheap land and a vast supply of low-cost workers who migrated from the countryside. The state built ports, roads, railways and power stations on an enormous scale, and exports surged.

• Pearl River Delta (Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan): electronics, clothing, toys, telecommunications equipment.
• Yangtze River Delta (Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou): steel, cars, chemicals, shipbuilding, computers.
• Bohai Rim (Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian) and the old north-east: heavy industry, steel, machinery.

By 2021 China produced 30% of the world's manufacturing value added (World Bank), and manufacturing was still about 25% of its GDP in 2025. The costs have been high: severe air and water pollution, heavy coal use, and long hours for migrant workers. China is now moving into higher-value industries such as electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels, while some labour-intensive work moves to cheaper countries.

5Case study 3: Egypt

Why industry grew. Egypt was one of the first African countries to industrialize: under Muhammad Ali, the state built textile mills in the early nineteenth century. Its advantages are: long-staple cotton for textiles; oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Suez, the Western Desert and offshore in the Mediterranean, where the giant Zohr gas field was found in 2015; hydroelectric power from the Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970; a large population that provides both labour and a market; and a position on the Suez Canal, with ports at Alexandria, Port Said and Suez linking Europe, Asia and Africa.

• Main regions. Greater Cairo (including Helwan and new desert cities such as 10th of Ramadan and 6th of October); Alexandria (textiles, oil refining, chemicals); the Nile Delta towns, such as Mahalla el-Kubra, a centre of cotton textiles; the Suez Canal zone; and Upper Egypt, with the Nag Hammadi aluminium smelter powered from Aswan.
• Government policy. After 1952 the state built and owned most large factories; since the 1970s it has opened to private and foreign firms, and in 2015 it created the Suez Canal Economic Zone to attract manufacturing and logistics.
• Problems. Dependence on imported machinery and parts, scarce water, air pollution around Cairo, and old state plants that lost money; the Helwan iron and steel works was closed in 2021.

Manufacturing made up 14.5% of Egypt's GDP in 2025 (World Bank), a larger share than in the USA (10.5% in 2021).