Uploaded on 2015-05-31 by RikHartog

![enter image description here][1] **Picture taken by:** R. Hartog; **Location coordinates:** 52.089680, 5.107997; **Location description:** Municipal office, Utrecht, the Netherlands. **The Netherlands and globalized economy** The Netherlands are highly dependent on materials from abroad in all forms: raw materials, semi-finished and finished products. Most of the raw materials are imported from Europe. Fossil fuels (especially crude oil) are from Russia and Norway. Non-metallic minerals are mainly from the neighbouring country Germany. Biomass consists to a large proportion of wheat and maize from France. The raw materials from outside Europe are mainly from Africa, the Middle East and Central and South America. The main raw materials from Central and South America are coal and iron ore. Crude oil is imported from the Middle East and Africa. The import of raw materials from Asia, such as aluminium ore, is relatively small. **Globalized economy in a building construction** The photograph shows the new municipal offices in the city of Utrecht. This building has a steel construction of 7.500 ton. The walls are made of 17.650 m2 prefab composite elements. The raw materials were probably imported from Central or South America. [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14330825725611341.jpg