Can someone explain storage facility?

[Caz1402]

May seem like a silly question, but why would I want to store goods such as rock, coal etc. I find myself deleting them because I would rather they get used by my buildings or exported straight away. Is this a bad thing to do or should I keep the storage? Really trying to dive into the economics of this game.

[Scaristotle]

Companies that run specialized industry and such will also have their own warehouses in the industrial sector. This helps cut down on the need to import goods from outside the city when used to make higher-end goods like food, machinery, etc.. Keeping the storage is a good thing for your industry and commerce. Personally not certain if they would choose to export sooner with less storage options or not.

[mackster]

Its a bad thing to do. The game auto adds industries that are just warehouses. These are meant to store materials for your cities uses or, if surplus, exporting for profit.

If you delete them you are deleting industry, which is also paying you taxes

[archonsod]

They do two things.
First is that they affect transport costs. It's cheaper for a factory to buy a resource from the warehouse next door than have it delivered from the other side of the city.
Second is they provide a surplus of a resource. Base price of a good is affected by supply and demand, so if a warehouse is stockpiling something it's making them that little bit cheaper.