Industry, resources and trade
Modern industry depends on strategic inputs such as critical minerals, energy, chemicals and components, moved through ports, corridors and logistics networks that few countries control alone. Concentration in extraction, processing or shipping can turn a local disruption into a global shortage, while industrial development offers countries new capability and jobs. The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) studies strategic inputs, production, logistics and industrial development as one system of dependencies. This page is part of global challenges.
- 01In briefThe short answer
- 02The challengeProduction depends on inputs and routes with few alternatives
- 03How GCRI approaches itMapping concentration and testing alternatives
- 04Key termsTerms used on this page
- 05Where to go nextPlatforms, chapters and counterparts
GCRI · Institution · service level R0
The short answer.
Industry, resources and trade covers the strategic inputs modern production depends on, such as critical minerals, energy, chemicals and components, and the ports, corridors and logistics networks that move them. GCRI studies how concentration in extraction, processing or shipping turns a local disruption into a global shortage, and how countries can test alternatives.
Trade and supply corridors in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Ports, chokepoints and the inland corridors behind them, and how far each division sits from a seaport, shown for the United Kingdom and Ireland as an example geography for this subject.
Production depends on inputs and routes with few alternatives.
Efficiency has often meant concentration: fewer suppliers, leaner inventories and longer routes. That lowers cost in normal times and raises exposure when a link breaks.
Critical minerals and materials
Batteries, grids, electronics and medicines rely on materials whose extraction or processing is concentrated in few places.
Ports, straits and corridors
A blocked strait, a congested port or a disrupted rail corridor delays goods far from the point of failure.
Development and safety
New industrial capacity brings jobs and process risk, from chemical safety to pollution.
Mapping concentration and testing alternatives.
- 01
Trace dependencies
Supply networks from input to product using network science and optimization and operations research.
- 02
Find concentration
Points where a single source, route or processor carries a large share of supply.
- 03
Test disruption
Scenarios for route closures and input shortages, labelled as scenario evidence.
- 04
Inform industrial choices
Evidence on capability, diversification and process safety for ministries and operators that decide.
Terms used on this page.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Critical mineral | A mineral essential to economic or security needs whose supply is at risk, listed by agencies such as the USGS. |
| Chokepoint | A narrow passage or node through which a large share of trade must pass. |
| Supply chain resilience | The ability of a supply chain to anticipate, absorb, adapt to and recover from disruptions while continuing to deliver, which OECD work on supply chains examines through diversification and stocks. |
| Supplier concentration | How far a country's imports of a fuel come from few suppliers, measured with indices such as the Herfindahl-Hirschman index. |
Platforms, chapters and counterparts.
Field work is organized through the Trade and Strategic Resources platform, with its critical minerals and materials chapter, and the Advanced Industry and Robotics platform, with its industrial and chemical safety chapter, all in development. See the trade, resources and supply chains field gateway, geopolitical and geoeconomic risk and, at The Global Risks Forum (GRF), corporate and supply chain governance.
Precompetitive work is designed so that competitors' confidential information is not exchanged.
Questions and answers.
Does GCRI advise companies on sourcing?
Can an industry association join a study?
How is commercially sensitive data protected?
Why is industrial safety part of this page?
Is diversification always the answer?
Around GCRI.
Start with an enquiry.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.