This city is known for being huge on production. Abantiare didn't start out being host to so many factories, but it ended up that way over the years as opportunistic businesses found it an ideal location. Now, the streets are lined with them, the bigger businesses often having entire blocks of nothing but their own factories and production centers. If you're jobless and living in Abantiare, you must not have any hands - which isn't all that uncommon, considering how dangerous the factories can be.
Abantiare is also the most polluted city in Ivona. The buildings are covered with soot, and there's a visible fog that coats the city from all the coal that gets burned for fuel. Despite the fact that most people are lower middle-class or slightly better off, the conditions are so poor that living here gives the residents a life expectancy no better than many of the poorest cities (or as some like to say, no better than living in Vohemar).