Industry has been developing since the late 1950s and espacially since the mid-1970s. In addition to much wider activities in processing agricultural, marine, and forest products, there are modern textile, chemical, petrochemical, electronic, steel, shipbuilding, and building-material industries. Guayaquil and its environments is the main industrial center, with Quito next in importance. Nearly three-quarters of Ecuador's industry is concentrated in this conurbations.
The industrial branch employs 13 percent of the workforce. Hydroelectrics station produced 81 percent of the country's electric power in 1987.
The country's main trading partners are the United States (54% of exports and 33% of imports), Japan (2.5 and 12 percent), and Germany (2 and 10 percent).