At times we need to consider the industry supply curve rather than just the curve for a single firm. The industry supply curve is simply the sum of the supplies of all the individual firms in the industry. Above, we show a simple illustration of this idea.

Suppose an industry only consists of three firms (so we have room for the graph). The industry supply, at any price, is simply the sum of the amounts supplied by each firm at that price. Notice that firm 3 doesn't supply any output until the price is well above zero. When the price reaches the level at which firm 3 starts supplying, the industry supply curve becomes flatter as more is being supplied.

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