Car manufacturing

• In 1973, the Arab-Israeli war in the middle east occurred in which many western states supported Israel
• Consequently, the Arab states (led by OPEC - Organisation of petroleum exporting countries) responded by embargoing the supply of oil to the western countries
• This increased the oil prices by 300% per barrel which caused petrol and energy prices to increase drastically - this was bad as English car manufacturers relied on cheap energy for manufacturing
• Alongside their growing prices to produce the vehicles, English manufacturers also had growing competition from foreign TNC's
• Japanese car manufacturers became popular in the 1970s as their cars were cheaper, more reliable, and more fuel efficient - this is as well as Volkswagen (Germany) + Renault (France)
• As car manufacturing declined, there were lots of strikes by trade unions in the 1970s which led to the closure of factories, leading Birmingham to become unattractive to investors
• Some TNC's however set up factories in the UK e.g. Nissan and Honda who were attracted due to the grants provided by the government - however, none ended up in Birmingham