Chapter 1027 Alloy Steel
You must know that Japan's steel output at this time was only about 100,000 tons, while the Far Eastern Empire may only have two or thirty thousand tons. This can see the horror of Belgium's steel output, and there is no doubt that Belgium's steel production is huge. Part of it is exported to France.
Belgium is rich in local coal resources and iron ore can basically meet the demand. The Belgian Congo also has relatively abundant iron ore resources. The combination of the two and the demand from France is the main driving force for the current development of the Belgian steel industry.
Of course, the iron ore in the Belgian colonies is also one of the important sources of imported iron ore in East Africa. The Cabinda steel industry is relatively dependent on the iron ore in the Belgian Congo.
"The current development direction of my country's steel industry, in addition to meeting basic industrial and civilian needs, has also made great progress in special steels. During the First Five-Year Plan, steel smelting technology continued to make progress, and various alloy steels achieved large-scale mass production. It has provided a solid foundation for my country's defense industry, shipbuilding industry and other industries, and has quickly caught up with other countries in terms of quality."
At the beginning of the 20th century, the steel industry was undergoing major changes. In addition to iron ore surpassing coal in the steel industry, mass production of alloy steel was also an important feature.
Alloy steel is steel with added elements such as chromium, nickel, and tungsten. Adding chromium can increase the hardness and elasticity of the steel. Adding nickel can increase corrosion resistance and increase yield strength. After adding tungsten, steel not only increases its strength, but also resists corrosion and heat. Wear resistance, 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 strengthened barrel calibers. This has accelerated the entry of steel artillery into the era of giant guns.
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 the United Kingdom, France and other countries. This is also the German artillery in the previous world war. and an important guarantee of rifle performance.
For example, Rheinmetall took the lead in manufacturing tungsten steel artillery, leaving the Allies behind in World War I.
East Africa has also developed relatively rapidly in alloy steel. East Africa began to deploy materials research and development fields as early as the 1980s and 1990s, 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 reserves of manganese and chromium, nickel, zinc, tungsten, copper, and aluminum. , there is no shortage of rare earth resources, etc.
This has created a good foundation for alloy research in East Africa. In addition to being used in the production of special steels in the steel industry, East Africa has also made huge breakthroughs in copper alloys, aluminum alloys and other fields. Even Ernst himself cannot guarantee who will be the best in East Africa or Germany. It is the strongest country in the world's alloy field.
East Africa's emphasis on the research and development of new materials was naturally influenced by Ernst. Coupled with East Africa's resource and talent advantages, this also led to the explosion of East Africa's materials 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 advanced technologies in industrial production.
“The development of the steel industry has also promoted the development of railways, shipbuilding, electric power, automobile manufacturing and other industries, and is especially important for the national defense industry.”
“This enabled my country’s steel industry to not only meet the needs of domestic industrial development during the First Five-Year Plan, but also began to go out of the country and move towards the international market.”
"Of course, my country's steel industry is also facing new challenges. Although the steel industry has accelerated its development, there is still a big gap compared with the United States and Germany, especially in terms of production capacity." This is actually a normal phenomenon. The degree of industrialization in the United States and Germany They are all significantly ahead of East Africa, and the demand for steel is naturally greater than that of East Africa. Therefore, the fundamental factor that determines East Africa's steel output is the country's industrialization level.
Of course, in terms of the population of East Africa, the United States may still be comparable. Germany's population did not reach 50 million in 1900. The population of East Africa was almost twice that of Germany. However, the opposite result was shown in terms of steel production.
"Germany's steel production is close to 10 million tons, and the United States is close to 19 million tons. You must know that the last census data in East Africa shows that our country's population is nearly 10 million more than that of the United States. It is even more 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 fact is exactly the opposite, so my country's steel production has developed rapidly during the First Five-Year Plan, but this is not that we are complacent. Instead, we should take this as a warning and strive to surpass Germany first and then the United States.”
“Of course, before, although our steel output was infinitely close to that of the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom still ranked ahead of our country. Therefore, before the end of the First Five-Year Plan, our country’s steel industry should continue to make efforts and achieve a formal overtaking of the United Kingdom before 1905.”
“During the Second Five-Year Plan, my country’s steel industry will 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 view, it is still relatively difficult to surpass Germany during the Second Five-Year Plan period.
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 overtake in five years. This requires East Africa’s steel production to almost double again during the Second Five-Year Plan, even if it exceeds 10 million tons I'm afraid it will be difficult to catch up with the big pass.
Of course, although Ernst had high hopes for the first two five-year plans in East Africa, he was not too enthusiastic. It was very unrealistic for East Africa to achieve the amazing results of the Soviet Union in the first two five-year plans.
First of all, the timing was wrong. The Soviet Union's first two five-year plans encountered the most serious crisis rarely seen in capitalism. This period of opportunity was very important. However, during the first two five-year plans in East Africa, there was obviously no such opportunity.
Of course, East Africa is not without opportunities. In the past life, apart from the great crisis of the capitalist world, were there opportunities of this scale? The answer is yes, that is World War I and World War II. Therefore, the luck of the Americans is much better than that of the Soviet Union.
Although the Soviet Union made a lot of profits in the first two five-year plans, World War II directly dealt a devastating blow to the Soviet Union. When the war ended, the Soviet Union's originally poor light industry could be said to be basically finished, and the cities were bombed. It was in 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 Soviet Union's two five-year plans were offset by World War II. On the other hand, the United States made a lot of money through the two world wars.
So if East Africa led by Ernst wants to take advantage of the major development opportunities of the world war, East Africa itself must not be involved in the vortex of the war.
Based on 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" in East Africa. As for the previous industrial plans, in the absence of major historical opportunities, the industrial plans must not be too radical.
Therefore, it is unrealistic to expect steel production to surpass Germany during the Second Five-Year Plan. East Africa still needs to set reasonable industrial development goals based on its own conditions. However, the First Five-Year Plan has not yet ended, and Ernst naturally does not want to dampen the enthusiasm of government personnel.
The overall progress made in the First Five-Year Plan is still very huge for East Africa. This is mainly because the industrial level of East Africa was previously low, so there is a lot of room for progress. However, we must not be too optimistic because of this.
(End of this chapter)