Industry

Discover how Scotland's industry and economy have been transformed since 1914.

Industry in Scotland has traditionally been dominated by coal, steel and heavy engineering. The decline of these industries in the 1970s and 1980s produced a fundamental change in the nature of the Scottish economy.

Old and new industries

Find out about how Scotland's traditional industries, such as shipbuilding, textiles and fishing, have made way for new economies, such as finance, electronics and computing and renewable energy. Find out about giants of Scottish industry, and see examples of products designed and built in Scotland.

"I thought shipbuilding was very much an industry in decline so it was a surprise to me when I was looking into jobs that the shipyards came up, and how much advanced technology and skills were involved.

"The ship's built in transverse blocks. It's like a slice of cake. The ships used to be built longitudinally, in layers, but now it's more efficient to build in these cross-sections.

"I was involved in doing a lot of the structural calculations on the centre of gravity of the block and how we were gonna transport it from the shed onto the berth on the transporters. You were just a tiny person next to this huge big bit of ship standing under it.

"There is a real sense of pride among everyone. You can see it at the ship launch; 'Oh, I did a bit of that and I was responsible for that', working together as a team."

"I was appointed to come over to Scotland in 1998 because of my experience in electronics and silicon (in USA and Paris) that was judged useful for managing the operation here in Scotland.

"In early 1980s the Scottish Development Agency was keen to develop the silicon industry here. There were three or four big electronic device manufacturing companies already for Silicon Glen. Therefore, Shin-Etsu came here to serve as a key raw material supplier locally.

"Depending on the types of intergrated circuit devices, it may be rather better to produce them in South-East Asian countries where the cost of the labour forces is not so high, but very specialised and specific types of devices can fit well here in Scotland."