capital intensive

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Related to capital intensive: Labour Intensive

Capital Intensive

Describing a company or industry requiring a great deal of capital to maintain operations. For example, the automobile industry is capital-intensive because, in order to make cars, it requires a lot of workers and expensive equipment that must be properly maintained. Another, smaller scale example is a dentist office, which requires expensive equipment and materials. In order to stay afloat, capital intensive companies need either consistently large profits or inexpensive credit.

capital intensive

Of or relating to a firm or industry that requires large amounts of fixed assets and/or cash to operate. Steel, automobile manufacturing, and mining are capital intensive industries.

References in periodicals archive ?

Some analysts (Tole, McCord, & Pugh, 1992) claim that Free Cash Flow better captures capital intensity, and hence is a better measure of performance in capital intensive industries.

Free cash flow and performance predictability: an industry analysis

IT investments can allow capital intensive manufacturing companies to get the maximum return from their capital equipment investments, but only if the systems are available and employees have confidence in their integrity.

Mill technology utilization--a holistic approach

Third, mills participating in PIMA's 2002 Manufacturing Reliability Survey indicated they experienced an improvement in product quality as a result of their reliability and maintenance improvement efforts, another significant benefit to any capital intensive organization.

The next step for manufacturing reliability: surveying our industry

Gap 3--The process is capital intensive and complicated: A modern chemical pulp mill cannot exist without systems for cooking, washing, recovering, and re-using chemicals.

Seeking breakthrough technology in fiber use: significantly reduced manufacturing costs are possible if we rethink the process of fiber liberation

In the mid-1970s, the global pulp and paper industry began to realize that the energy conversion equipment of that time was inefficient, capital intensive, and had safety and environmental issues.

Fueling self sufficiency: pathways to change: black liquor and biomass gasification/ combined cycle is key to energy self-sufficiency in the pulp and paper industry. New research is needed to resolve several critical issues