Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

As a guy who travels between two worlds, Ren Zhong is of course very clear about the future technological development and industrial take-off posture of the world of Bright Sword.

He is a carrier of the world's scientific and technological knowledge and has a God's vision.

Although we still need to work hard on clothing and food at the beginning, we have now gone through this stage and solved most of the labor force liberated from agricultural progress, and have begun the path of industrial upgrading. For example, we have vigorously developed hot industries such as the steel industry, electronics industry, automobile industry, aviation industry, and shipbuilding industry. Therefore, we have made great efforts to promote various aspects and invested in these areas. Although it is difficult to go international, we have now broken through the blockade and achieved large-scale output returns.

The first industry to be affected is the steel industry. With the recovery of the entire world and the need for large-scale construction, the steel industry is a big industry that can make a lot of money at this stage.

The demand for steel is not only driven by the huge demand for domestic infrastructure, but also by the strong demand in the world steel market. The Rogue Eagle Steel Industry, which took off first during this period, has long been a pillar industry, with an annual steel output of over 100 million tons, creating a new peak in the development of the Rogue Eagle Steel Industry!

Under the strong push of Ren Zhong, Dongda Steel Industry has experienced more than ten years of rapid development, starting from the initial earthen blast furnace steelmaking, and later upgrading the open hearth furnace and converter. It has continuously expanded from 100 cubic meters and 500 cubic meters to large blast furnaces of 1500 cubic meters, rapidly completing the process of steel blast furnace technology from catching up to surpassing.

Now Dongda's national steel production capacity has expanded to more than 4000 million tons, providing strong support for domestic infrastructure construction and industrial product manufacturing. In terms of exports, the scale is also not small, reaching the export level of 500 million tons of crude steel.

For the older generation of steel workers, this level of development was something they could not even dream of more than ten years ago. China is now the undisputed second largest steel producer in the world. According to the previous naive concept, the level of steel production is roughly equal to the level of international strength ranking, because since World War I, steel content has been the most convincing indicator of a country's strength.

Guns require steel, cannons require steel, tanks require steel, and ships require huge amounts of steel!

The reason why the Japanese devils came up with such weird things as grenade launchers and Bean tanks was essentially because they lacked steel. They tried to save as much steel as possible and put it into their so-called Combined Fleet. After the Japanese devils emptied their nest eggs to build a Combined Fleet with a total tonnage of more than 120 million tons, they only started to think about attacking Pearl Harbor!
After all, at its peak, the total tonnage of the Combined Fleet's naval ships was 80% of that of the Rogue Eagle fleet.

For the Japanese who have always been confident, they feel that they can completely gamble on the fate of the country with such a small gap.

However, this is just a one-sided fantasy of those Japanese who have their heads filled with feces. In fact, in terms of steel production, in 1942, the annual steel production of Xiaori was 740 million tons, while that of Rogue Eagle was as high as 7910 million tons. This data clearly shows the huge advantage of Rogue Eagle in steel production, which is more than 10 times that of Japan.

In terms of industrial development, the gap between Xiaori and Rogue Eagle is huge, as if they are two different worlds. At the beginning of the Pacific War, the industrial output value of Rogue Eagle was more than 2000 billion US dollars, while Xiaori was only 90 billion US dollars. In terms of weapons production, Rogue Eagle can produce 4 aircraft, 2 tanks, and 250 major warships per year, while Xiaori's annual output of aircraft is only 11800, tanks 1080, and major warships 44. Such a huge gap is as far as the Pacific Ocean between them! It would be a miracle if the Japanese could win!

The outcome of World War II was ultimately reflected in production capacity. Whoever could form a real steel torrent would be the winner. Any conspiracy or trick would be vulnerable in the face of the general trend. Whether it was the successful sneak attack by the Japanese or the glorious achievements of Sandezi in the early days, they were all no match for the opponent's true foundation and strength.

Ren Zhong was very clear about this, and he also knew the outline of the future economic decisive battle. Therefore, in terms of steel blast furnace construction, he did not stop expanding production capacity during the Third Five-Year Plan period, but began to shift from the north and southwest of the country to the relatively resource-scarce south.

It is planned to select two port cities in the south to build two steel-making bases with a capacity of tens of millions of tons and large blast furnaces of more than 2 cubic meters. The iron ore and coal are planned to come from overseas. The two steel bases also mainly use oxygen top-blown converters as the technical route. While building mature large blast furnaces of 1000 cubic meters to 1000 cubic meters, the two steel bases are also responsible for the trial demonstration work of building new super-large blast furnaces of 1500 cubic meters and 2000 cubic meters.

Once the technology of these two types of blast furnaces matures, the subsequent steel production capacity construction will be transferred to this new type of extra-large blast furnace. Judging from the current development of blast furnace technology in the world, the largest blast furnace of Rogue Eagle Steel Plant has reached a level of more than 4000 cubic meters. The largest blast furnace they plan to build is Bethlehem Steel's L blast furnace, with a volume of up to 5860 cubic meters!
This volume almost reaches the pinnacle of blast furnaces. In the main world, even in the 2013st century, the largest blast furnace is only the 6000 cubic meter Gwangyang No. 1, which was renovated by Pohang in .

However, Ren Zhong is not prepared to compete for the first place in this regard. From a practical point of view, blast furnaces with a capacity of 2000 to 4000 cubic meters will be the mainstream steelmaking furnaces in the future. This size takes into account the characteristics of steelmaking efficiency and flexibility. It can be directly used to refine crude steel from iron ore, and it can also use crude steel to further refine special steels. At the same time, it can also better match the subsequent steel rolling links. The daily production capacity is on the scale of 1000 to 2000 tons. A million-ton steel plant can be handled by just three blast furnaces.

From a planning perspective, these two super-large steel bases in the south will be mainly export-oriented, so they are built in places with convenient sea transportation.

At the same time, in terms of overall scale, the plan for the next five years is to double the current steel production capacity to meet domestic demand, that is, to reach 5 million tons.

This data is close to the level of the current largest steel country, the Rogue Eagle, and is almost the same as the Northern Big Bear whose steel production capacity has exploded.

Of course, Dongda’s steel production capacity for domestic demand is not aimed at creating steel-powered weapons and equipment, but at development and infrastructure construction. Therefore, the site selection for steel plant construction is mainly based on the principles of iron ore production areas and main usage areas. New steel plants with a capacity of one million tons or above will be built in areas in China that are currently short of steel. This includes the construction of five million-ton steel plants in the Western Region Iron Mine as the main steel force for frontier construction.

In the vast frontier areas, the construction plan of 10 kilometers of railway network and 5 kilometers of highway network has been included in the national plan, and the construction of Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway is now underway on a large scale. Such a large-scale construction process will certainly not be completed overnight, but will be divided into five five-year plans for separate implementation. Along the course of the construction of these transportation trunk lines, the next step is large-scale urban construction and the construction of modern energy bases and agricultural bases.

There is a lot of land suitable for farming in the border area, but the natural conditions are harsh and it is not suitable for large-scale artificial cultivation. However, if a road network is built and mechanized farming is adopted, then this place will be one of the most reliable new granaries of Dongda. Moreover, although no one knows now that there are the best oil and gas fields underground in Dongda, Ren Zhong knows it!
Although there is no need to develop oil and gas fields here now, when the energy crisis breaks out in the future ten or twenty years, the oil and gas fields here will be the best trump card that Ren Zhong has left for Southeast University!

This is nothing. In the more distant future, under the new energy pattern, the border areas will be the best regions for wind power and photovoltaic power generation in the country. Under the condition of solving the construction of channels for power output, the energy output of the border areas will be endless. Facing the new era when new energy is gradually becoming the mainstream, this precious land will play a greater role.

Of course, he dare not say that these plans are arduous now. He just refers to the experience and lessons of the main world as much as possible in the construction of transportation infrastructure, and makes up for the shortcomings in future transportation construction in advance. For example, the Lanxin Line was planned as a double-track line in advance, but the first phase of construction is still a single line. However, the double-track design was considered in advance, so there will be no major twists and turns in the future, ensuring a smooth transition of the double-track construction. The first phase of construction standards are also designed according to the internal combustion engine method of 100 kilometers per hour, and space for electrification is reserved. After the speed is increased, the new electric locomotives developed later can fully reach the standard of 160 kilometers per hour.

These are all part of the domestic construction plan. Relying on the current huge infrastructure construction in the East and the first take-off of real estate, domestic steel consumption alone can support the digestion of new steel production capacity, not to mention that the heavy task will not only be considered domestically.

The demand for steel in the international market is growing as the global economy recovers. In Ren Zhong's main world, Xiao Rizi has taken over this market with his explosive production capacity. In this time and space, Ren Zhong certainly won't give Xiao Rizi this opportunity, and directly built two steel bases with a capacity of tens of millions of tons in the south to compete for the international market.

With the steelmaking technology that Dongda currently purchases from the main world, although it cannot compete with Rogue Eagle in terms of the largest blast furnace, in terms of production efficiency and steel quality, Ren Zhong's investment in steel smelting and steel rolling in the main world has reached hundreds of millions. Relying on a steel mill that he holds a controlling stake in, he continuously exports the main world's smelting technology to the world of Bright Sword.

Therefore, Dongda has not only built up such a large production capacity, but also has made leading technological improvements in steel varieties and quality. Coupled with cost advantages, the price of higher-quality steel is even better than that of its competitors. Under such conditions, Ren Zhong is well prepared to make a breakthrough in the world steel industry in this field!
Of course, Todai’s steel exports are not only in the form of raw materials, but also in the form of high-value-added industrial products such as automobiles and ships, allowing the steel to be sold at a higher price.

The plan was good, but after word got out about the scale of the construction, Ren Zhong didn’t expect to encounter a counterattack from the rogue Eagle Steel Trust.

"Our overseas ore-buying team encountered strong resistance in both Samba and Kangaroo countries. USS reached an exclusive agreement with three major local mineral suppliers, CVRD, BHP and Billiton, which directly ruled out the possibility of iron ore supply above one million tons. These three suppliers are the main suppliers in Samba and Kangaroo countries. Unless we look for more small and medium-sized suppliers, at least dozens or hundreds of them can meet our annual iron ore demand of up to 3000 million tons.

If this is the case, it will be difficult to guarantee the stability of our iron ore supply and our cost-price advantage. "Yu Zhaomin, executive secretary general of the Dongda Iron and Steel Federation, found Ren Zhong with frustration and reported to him.

Steel is one of the country's strategic plans for going overseas. The person who truly influences this plan now is Ren Zhong, the person with the highest authority.

Because from technology to market, no one knows better than Ren Zhong how to carry out this matter.

However, Ren Zhong felt a little headache when he heard the bad news.

He didn't expect that international competition would appear in front of him so soon, and this time it was not at the national level, but one of the world's top chaebol groups.

USS is a very powerful chaebol group in Rogue Eagle, monopolizing more than 65% of the steel market in Rogue Eagle. Now it has begun to purchase large quantities of iron ore from Todai, which obviously also feels threatened by Todai's new steel industry plan.

In fact, from their point of view, it is understandable that Dongda has a greater cost advantage, and the development of Dongda's steel industry must have been studied a lot by these top steel chaebol groups. Dongda's steel industry is completely different from the Northern Bear. The Northern Bear is obsessed with building its own steel torrent and does not seem to be interested in commercial competition, or it does not have that commercial gene.

But Dongda is different. Starting from the clothing industry, to the food industry, and now the automobile industry, its internationalization has been steady and competitive step by step.

Previously, the Todai steel industry had always been committed to meeting domestic demand. Although USS had little chance of entering the Todai market, it did not regard it as a competitor, so the two sides lived in peace.

But now it’s different. According to the internal planning of Dongda, two 2 million ton export-oriented steel bases are going to face the international market, directly snatching the food from their plates! This is a bit unbearable.

In terms of cost, this is a new rival that is stronger than the competitors on the European continent. Although they are still in the planning stage, USS believes that with the infrastructure construction speed of Tokyo University, it will definitely take off within five years. Therefore, we must be tough in the initial stage to nip this competitor, Tokyo University, in the bud. They need raw materials, so we must control the raw materials first!
After receiving the news, Ren Zhong didn't say anything. He didn't know the situation well yet, so it was difficult for him to speak. However, he returned to the main world to study the historical traces and compared it with the situation in the world of Bright Sword. He found that in 1956, the world's iron ore industry had not yet formed the "three giants" pattern that is well known today.

Although Samba's CVRD company has been mining iron ore for 12 years, its current scale is obviously much smaller than that of the main world and is still far from being an ore oligarch. BHP and Billiton are also developing independently. Although they are now important ore suppliers to Kangaroo Country, their market share is not as large as that of later generations.

RIO TINTO is still working hard in Europe and has not yet established a global business.

But even so, Ren Zhong found that it was difficult for outsiders to enter the international iron ore market.

Because most of the capital of these leading ore supplier companies also comes from Rogue Eagle and Continental.

This matter is really troublesome.

(End of this chapter)