An example is e-Chemicals, which brokers 55-gallon drums of manufacturing chemicals between suppliers like DuPont and those thousands of heavy manufacturers dotting the Rust Belt. n Connecting "wide-thin" markets.
Ohioans have long had a soft spot for heavy metal, which became more popular when the U.S. Rust Belt lost its manufacturing clout in the 1980s, scholars say.
"A lot of it had to do with the decline of heavy industry, which employed a lot of blacks and blue-collar whites, in a whole set of Rust Belt states, " he said.