During the 1900's heavy industry began to decline in Scotland. The factors which caused this were -

• Local iron ore supplies were exhausted (used up)
• Coal mining declined as reserves were used up or considered too expensive to mine
• Competition from other countries that produced cheap coal, iron and steel and ships
• Unhelpful location e.g. Ravenscraig, the last big steelworks, was inland and therefore had extra costs in transporting the iron ore and coal by rail
• Shipbuilding yards were built on water that was too shallow to launch modern, very large ships