Baku is the capital city of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. On the coast of the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...

, in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

region, it is an international junction of land and sea trade routes and the center of Azerbaijan's economic life. The city's economy encompasses a number of sectors.

Industry

Heavy industry

Baku's main branches of heavy industry include

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and

gas extraction Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon di ...

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

steelmaking Steelmaking is the process of producing steel from iron ore and carbon/or scrap. In steelmaking, impurities such as nitrogen, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur and excess carbon (the most important impurity) are removed from the sourced iron, and all ...

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...

, and

chemical manufacturing The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials (oil, natural gas, air, water, metals, and minerals) into more than 70,000 different products. The pla ...

. The city also manufactures equipment for local and international oil and gas extraction, including a

deep foundation A deep foundation is a type of foundation that transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile or piling is a vertical structural element ...

plant in Sahil, and engineering plant in

Keshla Keşlə (; Кешлә, کشله; also Keshly, Keshlya, Kəşlə, Keşlä, Kešlæ, Kishly, Kishlya, Kishty, Kişli and Kitly) is a settlement and municipality in Baku, Azerbaijan. It has a population of 25,626. The Keshla area is becoming main b ...

and clay and steel plants in Binagadi. The Baku Steel Company meets local demand for

casting Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...

imported steel. It has two

electric arc furnace An electric arc furnace (EAF) is a furnace that heats material by means of an electric arc. Industrial arc furnaces range in size from small units of approximately one-tonne capacity (used in foundries for producing cast iron products) up to ab ...

s and three rolling lines, with an annual steel-production capacity of 1,000,000 tonnes. The company manufactures

rebar Rebar (short for reinforcing bar), known when massed as reinforcing steel or reinforcement steel, is a steel bar used as a Tension (physics), tension device in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures to strengthen and aid the concr ...

, square and round

billets A billet is a living-quarters to which a soldier is assigned to sleep. Historically, a billet was a private dwelling that was required to accept the soldier. Soldiers are generally billeted in barracks or garrisons when not on combat duty, alth ...

channels Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

, rolled wire, angle bars,

I-beam An I-beam, also known as H-beam (for universal column, UC), w-beam (for "wide flange"), universal beam (UB), rolled steel joist (RSJ), or double-T (especially in Polish language, Polish, Bulgarian language, Bulgarian, Spanish language, Spanish ...

s, square and round rods, and related products. Steel Structures, the open joint-stock company Baku Steel Construction, and several other plants produce products for the construction industry. Radio-electronics factories and car and shipbuilding plants also operate in the city. The Gozdak,

Shuvalan Şüvəlan is a settlement and municipality in Baku, Azerbaijan. It has a population of 14,992. The population origin comes mostly from a settlement of Qala, Azerbaijan. History According to the old generation, an ancient times people i ...

, and

Korgöz Korgoz (also, Kar’yery and Kërgëz) is a settlement and municipality in Baku, Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcon ...

quarries surrounding Baku produce sawn stones.

Reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

and brick plants, and the Garadagh cement plant produce construction materials.

Light industry

Clothing is an important part of Baku's light industry, in addition to shoe and leather plants. Baku-Glass produces bottles for juice and alcoholic beverages, and Baku Sewing House manufactures coats, jackets, suits and casual clothing. Caucasus Paper Industry is one of the largest producers of cleansing and hygienic paper in

and the

South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

Mining

Oil production decreased by 6.2 percent from 2016 to 2017, and commercial gas production decreased by 2.2 percent. Total 2017 oil production was m2,469.2 million, a 9.2-percent decrease from January to November of the previous year. Petrol production increased by 4.7 percent,

petroleum coke Petroleum coke, abbreviated coke or petcoke, is a final carbon-rich solid material that derives from oil refining, and is one type of the group of fuels referred to as cokes. Petcoke is the coke that, in particular, derives from a final cracki ...

by 6.8 percent, bitumen by 22.7 percent, and lubricating oil by 370 percent. Diesel-fuel production decreased by 20 percent,

mazut Mazut is a low-quality heavy fuel oil, used in power plants and similar applications. In the United States and Western Europe, by using FCC or RFCC processes, mazut is blended or broken down, with the end product being diesel. Mazut may be used fo ...

fuel oil by 42.6 percent, and white petrolatum by 6.9 percent.

Manufacturing

From January to November 2017, goods with a value of m4,843.7 million were manufactured.

Agriculture

Baku's agricultural sector has been developed in the city's suburbs. Due to its semi-desert, dry-steppe climate, olives, pistachios, almonds and saffron are also grown.

Construction

The new

Baku Higher Oil School Baku Higher Oil School ( az, Baki Ali Neft Məktəbi) is an institution of higher education in Baku, Azerbaijan. History The Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) was established as a subsidiary of SOCAR by the decree of the President of the Republ ...

campus, the new Narimanov District Court administrative building, a bridge in Pirallahı raion, the Pirallahi Solar Power Plant, the Balakhani Industrial Park, the

Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway The Baku–Tbilisi–Kars (BTK), or Baku–Tbilisi–Akhalkalaki–Kars railway (BTAK), is an international rail link project connecting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, which became operational on 30 October 2017 following several years of delay ...

, the Pirshagi-Novkhani road and the Binagadi-Novkhani-Corat highway were completed between January and November 2017. Almost three-quarters of the funds allocated to

capital asset A capital asset is defined as property of any kind held by an assessee, whether connected with their business or profession or not connected with their business or profession. It includes all kinds of property, movable or immovable, tangible or in ...

s were spent on construction.

Metallurgy

Baku is considered one of the country's largest metallurgy centers due to the availability of

scrap Scrap consists of Recycling, recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap Waste valorization, has monetary ...

metal, local energy resources (oil and natural gas) and a large, well-trained labor force. The city produces non-ferrous and ferrous metals.

Transportation

Baku's transportation system consists of the

Baku Metro Baku Metro ( az, Bakı metropoliteni) is a rapid transit system serving Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. First opened on 6 November 1967 during the time of the Soviet Union, it has features typical of ex-Soviet systems, including very deep centra ...

, buses, and taxis. According to data from January to November 2017, freight transport by road increased by 1.6 percent over 2016 to 5,3021.2 thousand tons. Passenger transportation increased by 0.1 percent, to 623,024.1 thousand passengers. The number of metro passengers increased by 5.3 percent over 2016, to 207.6 million.

Consumption

From January to November 2017, the cost of consumer products and services in Baku increased 2.2 percent over the same period of 2016 to m21,964.1 million. Non-governmental goods and services made up 95.6 percent of the total; retail goods and services in this sector increased by 1.7 percent over the previous year, to m21,001.3 million.

Pipelines

The Baku-Novorossiysk, Baku-Supsa (Georgia) and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (Turkey since 2006) pipelines originate in Baku and transport Azerbaijani oil to the global market.

References

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Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...