| ▲ | RetroTechie a day ago | |
It's not boutique vs large plant. It's base materials (paper mills, steel smelters, plastic etc) that tend to be low in added value, versus higher up the stack (like your examples) that also tend to be higher in added value. Most countries didn't care much for the former other than historic reasons, but like the latter for obvious reasons (add £ to GDP). That's changing due to "sovereignty". You can't build a satellite without metal profiles, wiring, tubes etc. Which requires manufacturing capacity for those. Which requires steel/alu/copper smelters & plastic extruders. Which requires plastic & thus a chemical industry. This whole 'sovereign movement' is about keeping/bringing back capabilities across the stack which are deemed critical (like steel). But I suspect there are few (if any) countries that have these dependency chains mapped out in detail. | ||