Chapter 1027 Alloy Steel
You should know that Japan's steel production at that time was only about 100,000 tons, while the Far East Empire may only have 20,000 to 30,000 tons. This shows the horror of Belgium's steel production. There is no doubt that a large part of Belgium's steel is exported to France.
Belgium is rich in coal resources, and iron ore can basically meet demand. The Belgian Congo also has relatively rich iron ore resources. The combination of the two plus France's demand is the main driving force for the development of Belgium's steel industry.
Of course, the iron ore in the Belgian colony is also one of the important sources of imported iron ore in East Africa. The Cabinda steel industry is more dependent on the iron ore in the Belgian Congo.
"At present, the development direction of my country's steel industry, in addition to meeting basic industrial and civilian needs, has also made great progress in special steel. During the First Five-Year Plan, steel smelting technology has made continuous progress, and a variety of alloy steels have achieved large-scale mass production, providing a solid foundation for my country's defense industry and shipbuilding industries, and rapidly catching up with other countries in quality."
In the early 20th century, the steel industry was undergoing major changes. In addition to the fact that iron ore has a higher status than coal in the steel industry, large-scale production of alloy steel is also an important feature.
Alloy steel is steel with elements such as chromium, nickel, and tungsten added. Adding chromium can increase the hardness and elasticity of steel, adding nickel can increase corrosion resistance and yield strength, and adding tungsten not only increases the strength of steel, but also resists corrosion, heat and wear. Adding a variety of raw materials to steel can greatly improve the performance of steel.
Cannons made of alloy steel can withstand higher barrel temperatures, greater barrel pressures, more propellants, and further strengthen the barrel caliber. Therefore, steel artillery has entered the era of giant cannons.
The leader in this field is Germany. Although the German steel industry is difficult to surpass the United States in scale, due to technological breakthroughs and talent advantages, the quality of German steel has developed rapidly and has begun to surpass Britain, France and other countries. This is also an important guarantee for the performance of German artillery and rifles in World War I.
For example, Rheinmetall took the lead in manufacturing tungsten steel artillery, leaving the Allies behind in World War I.
East Africa has also developed rapidly in alloy steel. As early as the 1980s and 1990s, East Africa began to lay out the field of material research and development, and the results of these layouts were widely used during the First Five-Year Plan, and the steel industry was the beneficiary.
Moreover, East Africa already has resource advantages in this field. In the 1990s, East Africa was already the world's largest producer of manganese and chromium, with rich manganese and chromium reserves, and nickel, zinc, tungsten, copper, aluminum, rare earth resources, etc. are not lacking.
This has created a good foundation for East African alloy research. In addition to being used in the production of special steels in the steel industry, East Africa has also made great breakthroughs in the fields of copper alloys and aluminum alloys. Even Ernst himself did not dare to guarantee that East Africa and Germany are now the strongest countries in the world in the field of alloys.
East Africa's emphasis on new material research and development is naturally influenced by Ernst. Coupled with East Africa's resource and talent advantages, this has also led to the explosive growth of East Africa's material field in the 20th century.
Many achievements have long been realized in various laboratories in East Africa, and the First Five-Year Plan and industrial development are to accelerate the successful application of these pre-planned technologies in industrial production.
"The development of the steel industry has also boosted the development of industries such as railways, shipbuilding, electricity, and automobile manufacturing, which is particularly important for the national defense industry."
"The guns used by the army and the ships of the navy have a strong demand for special steel, which has greatly improved the competitiveness of my country's weapons and equipment in the international market. Many countries, including Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, also import a large amount of special steel from my country. Now my country's steel industry is no less than most countries in terms of quantity and quality."
"This has enabled my country's steel industry to not only meet the needs of its own industrial development during the First Five-Year Plan, but also to move out of the country and into the international market."
"Of course, my country's steel industry is also facing new challenges. Although the steel industry has accelerated its development, it still has a large gap compared with the United States and Germany, especially in terms of production capacity."
This is actually a normal phenomenon. The industrialization level of the United States and Germany is far ahead of East Africa, and the demand for steel is naturally greater than that of East Africa. Therefore, the root factor that determines East Africa's steel production is still the level of industrialization in the country.
Of course, in terms of East Africa's population, the United States may still be comparable. Germany's population did not reach 50 million in 1900, and East Africa's population was almost twice that of Germany, but the opposite results were shown in terms of steel production.
"Germany's steel production is close to 10 million tons, while the United States is close to 19 million tons. You should know that the data from the last census in East Africa showed that our population is nearly 10 million more than the United States, and nearly 40 million more than Germany. So theoretically, East Africa's steel production should be higher than that of the United States and Germany, but the facts are just the opposite. Therefore, my country's steel production has developed rapidly during the First Five-Year Plan, but this is not a reason for us to be complacent. Instead, we should take this as a warning and strive to surpass Germany first and then the United States."
"Of course, before that, although our steel production was infinitely close to that of the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom still ranked ahead of my country, so before the end of the First Five-Year Plan, my country's steel industry should continue to exert its strength and officially surpass Britain before 1905."
"During the Second Five-Year Plan, my country's steel industry should take Germany as its main target and strive to surpass Germany during the next Five-Year Plan."
Ernst did not say much about the ambitions of the industrial sector, but in Ernst's opinion, it is still difficult to surpass Germany during the Second Five-Year Plan.
Because the German steel industry is also developing rapidly, the growth rate may not be as fast as that of East Africa, but it is very difficult to achieve a reversal within five years. This requires East Africa's steel production to double again during the Second Five-Year Plan. Even if it breaks through the 10 million tons mark, it is probably difficult to catch up.
Of course, although Ernst has high hopes for East Africa's first two five-year plans, he is not too enthusiastic. It is very unrealistic for East Africa to achieve the amazing results of the Soviet Union's first two five-year plans.
First of all, the timing is wrong. The Soviet Union's first two five-year plans encountered the most serious crisis that capitalism has rarely seen. This opportunity period is very important, and there is obviously no such opportunity during the first two five-year plans in East Africa.
Of course, East Africa is not without opportunities. In the past life, in addition to the great crisis of the capitalist world, were there any opportunities of this scale? The answer is yes, that is, World War I and World War II, so the Americans are much luckier than the Soviet Union.
Although the Soviet Union made a lot of profit in the first two five-year plans, World War II directly caused a devastating blow to the Soviet Union. When the war ended, the Soviet Union's light industry, which was not rich to begin with, was basically destroyed. The city was bombed into ruins, and a large number of young and middle-aged people died on the battlefield. It can be said that many of the achievements of the two five-year plans of the Soviet Union were offset by World War II, while the United States made a lot of money through the two world wars.
So if East Africa, led by Ernst, wanted to take advantage of the major development opportunities of the world war, then East Africa must not be involved in the vortex of war.
According to the time when the First World War occurred in the previous life, it was almost during the "Fourth Five-Year Plan" or "Fifth Five-Year Plan" of East Africa, and the previous industrial plan, in the absence of major historical opportunities, the industrial plan must not be specified too radically.
So it is unrealistic to want to surpass Germany in steel production during the Second Five-Year Plan. East Africa still needs to formulate reasonable industrial development goals based on its own situation. However, the First Five-Year Plan has not yet ended, and Ernst naturally does not want to dampen the enthusiasm of government officials.
The overall progress achieved in the First Five-Year Plan is still enormous for East Africa, mainly because the industrial level in East Africa was relatively low before, so there is a lot of room for improvement. However, we must not be too optimistic because of this.