Chapter 725 The Rise of Steel

"There is nothing impossible!" Zhou Bai said proudly, "We invested heavily in the steel industry last year. The steel plants in Baotou, Qian'an, Wuhan and Ma'anshan have expanded to a scale of one million tons per year. Qidu, Laiwu, Jinan, Handan, Jiuquan, Shijingshan, Xuanhua, Taiyuan and other places are also built or renovated at a scale of 500,000 tons.

The rest of Liuzhou, Shaoguan, Xiangtan, Panzhihua, Wuyang, Lueyang, Shuicheng and other places are also planning to build new steel plants, not just in Kunming.

The twenty sets of 800 cubic blast furnaces and four sets of 1,000 cubic blast furnaces we introduced from Germany and the United States have been placed in place. Another 30 sets of 500 cubic blast furnaces have been gradually in place. The scale of electric furnace steelmaking in Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places has also been expanding. Last year, the scrap steel purchases from the United States and other places alone exceeded one million tons.

Although the production capacity of iron smelting and steelmaking in some areas has not yet been fully utilized, the output of more than a dozen steel plants has exceeded 5 million tons."

It's really no problem. In the past two or three years, Meng Xiang has been importing steel equipment from Germany and the United States. The equipment exchanged for a lot of arms has been installed, and the restriction is only human factors.

If it weren't for the limitations of China's steel workers and engineers, and there were too few technicians, the equipment would have been running at full power long ago.

Since the beginning of the European War, all kinds of technicians from the Czech Republic, Belgium, Poland, France and even Germany have come to China. The United States spares no effort to attract high-end talents, but Americans are still very reluctant to those ordinary technicians who may grab jobs from their own workers.

What China lacks is the basic workers. Although the high-end lost to Americans in the talent plunder in Europe, the middle- and low-level talents have robbed a lot. In addition, the Jews who are not popular all over the world, the foreign population in China has exceeded 3 million at this time.

Although there are less than 800,000 talents among these foreigners who have fled with their families, it is these people who consolidated the industrial cornerstone of the early days of China and cultivated nearly 10 million rigorous technical workers for China.

Over the past three years, the 1.5 million steel workers who have gradually grown up can already take on the steel industry in China.

It is the various talents of China that have gradually grown up and made up for the shortcomings of talents in various industries. This is why China's steel industry has accumulated strength and created a miracle of nine times the steel output in one year.

"So, it does not include the steel output of Siberia?" Li Zongren couldn't help but feel moved after hearing Zhou Bai's introduction and asked. You must know that the Pioneer Army quickly occupied Siberia, which made the Soviets not have time to destroy most of the factories there. At least Li Zongren knew that the Soviet Union's Magnitogorsk Steel Plant near the Ural Mountains was relatively complete and fell into the hands of the Pioneer Army.

This factory, which was the largest steel joint enterprise in Russia in later generations, is now one of the largest large steel plant in the Soviet Union. In 40 years, the steel production reached 1.63 million tons.

After the Pioneer Army suddenly airborne and took over, it basically suffered no major losses. I heard that the blast furnace has been repaired and is ready to resume work.

"Not included!" Zhou Bai said with a smile, "The production capacity of several steel plants we have received in Siberia and Central Asia exceeds 4 million tons. Although some have been destroyed, we will repair them in this winter, and a large number of professionals will also rush to receive and be familiar with the relevant operations. It won't take long to resume production. Although it cannot be restored, it is no problem to increase the output by 2 million by the end of the year, and maybe there will be more.

In addition, in our previous action, we also received a batch of steel industry equipment from areas west of Ural and other regions, intending to expand Siberia's production capacity. The production capacity of newly built steel enterprises and expanded steel enterprises in China will continue to expand. Although we dare not say that they doubled, it is absolutely no problem to surpass the Japanese in all respects."

"More than the Japanese?" Lin Sen took another breath.

When he was studying in Japan, he was impressed by the Japanese's steel factory chimneys. He once envied that China would one day reach the Japanese steel industry level, but he did not expect that this day would come so quickly.

"The Japanese are getting less and less iron ore, and they do not produce iron ore locally, so it is easy to surpass them!" Zhou Bai smiled.

Last year, the United States blocked the Japanese economy, cutting off the Japanese's export of scrap steel, which cut off the largest source of Japanese steel production. The Japanese could not obtain iron ore from Huaxia Daye and other places, and the steel production did not reach the historical high of more than 6.8 million tons. After increasing the plunder of the puppet Manchukuo, the steel production was only more than 5 million tons.

Because the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea areas were blocked and harassed by the Pioneer Navy, it was difficult for the Japanese to transport a large amount of iron ore back to their homeland, so they had to transport a blast furnace and steelmaking equipment from the local area to transport it to the northeast.

I had long received Meng Xiang's instructions that the Chinese underwater assassins in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea generally did not intercept cargo ships transported from Japan to the Northeast. Just as the Japanese helped Zhang Xueliang and his son build the cornerstone of the Northeast industrial institution for easy acceptance, Meng Xiang also had this idea.

The Japanese successfully placed the equipment in Anshan and other places, expanding the production capacity of Anshan and other places, making the production capacity of Anshan Iron and Steel historic breakthrough of 1.5 million tons. A large number of weapons production equipment were also manufactured nearby in the puppet Manchukuo area, and the finished products were directly armed in the puppet Manchukuo training troops. This also further expanded the industrial scale in Northeast China.

However, the Japanese steel output has not increased much, but China has no corresponding information, only last year's output value data exceeding 6 million, so it is just said to catch up. However, this year, although it is impossible to explode significantly, Zhou Bai is definitely confident that he will surpass the Japanese.

"The Japanese now occupying the South Ocean, and they may get more iron ore from there. For example, from Myanmar, the Philippines and even from India, I heard that the Japanese army is heading towards India!" Long Yun restrained his surprised expression and brought the role of the vanguard army more and more.

Meng Xiang heard this and sneered in his heart. Southeast Asia is now very rich in resources, but not iron ore. Large-scale iron ore resources have not been discovered yet. Although there are some small iron ore in Myanmar, Thailand and other places at this time, they are simply not enough to cope with large-scale mining and production.

The super iron ore in Australia has not been discovered, and India has a relatively rich iron ore resources and is also famous in this era. This has indeed become a reason for the Japanese to move westward.

Without iron ore, there would be no enough steel to produce warships, artillery, tanks, guns, etc., and there would be no industrial food. Even if the oil fields in Nanyang that once produced more than 10 million tons per year and supplemented the industrial blood, the steel skeleton would still support the increasingly huge ambitions.

After measuring the difficulty of China and India, the Japanese decided to seize India first and obtain iron ore.

As the New Year begins, three Japanese divisions have already been on the Indian border.

But the Japanese seem to have overlooked a problem: their transportation capacity is really unable to support long-distance transportation.

In particular, the American submarine forces that are vigorously expanding have already included their transportation lines as their primary target.

This method of imitating the Germans' blockade of the British was very effective. In later generations, the Americans relied on the submarine force and the cooperation of the air force to leave a large amount of oil stranded in the South China Sea but could not be transported back to the mainland, resulting in a disastrous defeat.

Now the Japanese have added another iron ore with a huge transportation volume, and they have to cross the Strait of Malacca, which is easily attacked. They also have to face double interception from the United States and China, and they may die even worse by then.

"Their ore cannot be transported much. According to the current transportation capacity of the Japanese, the iron ore obtained by long-distance transportation is not as good as those of us who have newly put into production of several steel plants. It is absolutely no problem to surpass them." Zhou Bai said confidently.

He has also estimated the production capacity and transportation volume of the Japanese, which is no less than the industrial trains that China has started. With more talents, major steel mills still have more room for improvement.

"The Japanese no longer have that opportunity!" Meng Xiang sneered in his heart. As long as the Japanese cutter hit the ox leg, it would be a pity to throw it away. The vanguard army will soon go south to pick fruits, so how could it be the Japanese turn to slowly develop with peace of mind? However, such high-level meetings are not confidential, and neither Meng Xiang nor Zhou Bai will easily reveal their plans to march south.

...

Sure enough, the next day, the headline of China's steel production exceeding 5 million tons appeared on the headlines of many newspapers.

"Historical breakthrough! We have tied Japan, surpassed France, and can even challenge the British Empire." The title of Ta Kung Pao was very sensational.

After France was occupied by Germany, steel production plummeted. It fell from nearly 10 million tons in 30 years to more than 4 million tons in 40 years. This old empire, which is still a giant in the hearts of the people, was surpassed by China, making the people ecstatic.

The steel listed on the strategic material list in this era means strength, and the rise of China's steel industry means the rise of China. Although it is much worse than the UK's output of more than 13 million tons, the Chinese have secretly automatically ranked China's position among the top five in the world, and even ranked in the top three.

"The Japanese? How strong can they be when we beaten to the point of being beaten to the point of being disguised? The Russians are also our defeated generals. Even the British are already in the Dusk Empire!"

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Chapter completed!