50 Examples of Raw Materials

The raw Materials are those elements from which consumer products are made, adding value to them. Raw materials are a fundamental factor for the development of the economy and they are part of the value added chain. For example: oil, steel, wool, sugar.

The origin of these raw materials can be diverse, natural or synthetic. Among the former are minerals, vegetables, animals and fossil resources. Among the latter we can mention plastic and steel, with which countless products are manufactured.

Importance and evolution

The concept of raw material is associated with industrialization. Man always took advantage of the natural resources available in some way. And the availability of resources was often a major factor associated with invasions and expansions of empires and civilizations, which as incorporated territories also appropriated the natural resources of the place, which served as raw material for various products.

The advent of trade caused this question to change substantially, giving rise to the

exchange of goods between different countries, which laid the foundations for what we now consider to be very normal, which is international trade.

Thus, a world scenario was generated in which the countries that have highly demanded raw materials are fundamentally dedicated to their extraction, while the countries that do not have these raw materials, but do have elements of high technology To transform it efficiently, they are bought from them and transformed into finished products, which are then offered on the market as finished products.

Although this international scheme of production is changing with the passage of time and political circumstances, the main axis has not been modified, perhaps it has been accentuated even more with the process of globalization.

Some of the most important events in world economic history have to do with this distribution of raw materials in the world. world, such as the so-called ‘oil crisis’, where the producing countries organized among themselves and put pressure on their main buyers.

Raw materials are key elements: their export is necessary to sustain the economy of the countries that have them, while their import is essential for the core countries that elaborate diverse goods and products with them, and then sell them at a higher price of course.

Raw materials thus acquire a strategic value, and instead of closing each transaction in a In isolation, there are some markets in the world where raw materials are traded, such as grains, meats or metals.

When a raw material is obtained from a non-renewable natural resourceLike oil, this becomes a key point in the production process and can represent a good part of the production cost.

In this sense, it is important to think of ways to regenerate thenatural resources that provide essential raw materials for today's man. Wood, for example, is a raw material obtained from woods and the junglesTherefore, it is essential to renew forest plantations so that this does not become a limitation in the production chain that employs many people.

Examples of raw materials