African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1112: Chapter 121: Steel

The connection between civilian shipbuilding and military shipbuilding industries is close, yet there is a significant difference between the two. For example, in the previous life of the United States, its shipbuilding industry developed in a relatively distorted manner.

Aside from the age of sails, the U.S. civilian shipbuilding industry lagged behind Europe for a long time, but its military shipbuilding industry was exceptionally strong. This situation persisted until the 21st century, until the revival of the Far East Empire in the early 2020s. Unlike the U.S., which only had a very developed military shipbuilding industry and a woefully underdeveloped civilian shipbuilding sector, the Far East Empire showed an unstoppable momentum in both military and civilian shipbuilding.

As a result, the later large-scale ship manufacturing in the United States almost entirely relied on military orders to survive, while its original technical advantage in military shipbuilding was difficult to maintain due to monopolies and other reasons. In essence, military shipbuilding and civilian shipbuilding should develop in coordination.

At the current stage, besides the United Kingdom and Japan, most of the world’s naval powers face similar problems, with the United States and Germany being particularly prominent.

As for Japan, its shipbuilding industry development relies entirely on low labor costs and a militaristic development model, with the quality of life for Japanese shipbuilders being lower than that of the East African black slaves, to put it harshly. Of course, Japan’s shipbuilding industry also has serious problems, primarily resource constraints.

Ernst: ”The growth prospects in the field of civilian shipbuilding are vast. Our country still has many shortcomings in civilian shipbuilding. For instance, with the development of the oil industry and the automotive industry, our demand for oil is increasing rapidly. Overseas oil imports are an important supplement to our oil needs, and the transportation of strategic materials like oil largely relies on marine transport. Therefore, developing relevant transport ships is a necessary demand for our country.”

Currently, the oil consumption in East Africa is massive, and the orders from important oil-producing countries like the United States and Russia are increasing rapidly every year, making it the largest oil-consuming country in the world.

Of course, for energy security considerations, domestic oil extraction in East Africa has taken the main position. The production from oil-producing areas such as the Great Lakes Region and Lake Turkana can basically meet domestic needs. Moreover, the oil exploration work on the West Coast is progressing smoothly.

However, the most important factor to address East Africa’s energy security concerns is to quickly resolve the war in the Beibu Gulf territory (United Arab Emirates). Completely controlling the Beibu Gulf territory can significantly alleviate East Africa’s future energy production pressure.

From the relationship between the oil industry and shipbuilding industry, one can also see the great promotion of new industries for East African development, and new technologies and industries can also open up new markets.

Kerishawn, Director of the Shipbuilding Industrial Bureau, said: ”Our country’s support policy for the civilian shipbuilding industry has always greatly advanced, and shipyards are also increasing the application of new technology and materials, creating huge demand for our industrial development and stimulating the development in fields such as heavy machinery manufacturing, the steel industry, and communication technology.”

”Since the launch of the Three-Five Plan, our shipbuilding industry has undergone a new round of technological innovation. Each shipyard actively promotes technology research and development, making significant breakthroughs in ship power fields such as steam turbines, steam engines, and internal combustion engines, while actively constructing large docks and slipways to accumulate advantages in building large ships.”

In the early 20th century, ship power mainly relied on steam engines. In this respect, those with profound technology accumulation naturally held the discourse power, namely the British, which was a shortcoming for the shipbuilding industries in other countries worldwide.

The East African Shipbuilding Industrial Bureau hopes to surpass Britain in the ship propulsion systems by eventually applying steam turbine and internal combustion engine technologies.

In other areas, East Africa actually has certain advantages in the shipbuilding industry, such as in materials, communication, etc.

In terms of materials, the relationship between the shipbuilding industry and steel production is close. Material changes have become an important influencing factor in the maritime strength development of various countries worldwide. For instance, America once surpassed the United Kingdom based on the rich forest resources of the American continent, becoming the number one power in the shipbuilding industry during the age of sails.

However, with the application of steel in shipbuilding, the United Kingdom quickly reclaimed the world’s number one position, extending its global supremacy to a certain extent.

As of now, the shipbuilding industry is almost tied to the steel industry. The shipbuilding industry is a major consumer of steel, so the development of the steel industry has a huge impact on the shipbuilding industry. The lower the production cost of the steel industry, the relatively lower the production cost of the shipbuilding industry.

During the Second-Five Plan, the steel production in East Africa already exceeded 10 million tons, comparable to Germany. During the Three-Five Plan, East Africa’s steel industry production plan was to reach at least 20 million tons by 1915.

This goal is not difficult to achieve for the East African Government, which already has relatively rich experience. Optimistically, it is estimated that the steel production in East Africa can reach at least 23 million tons by 1915.

The background of the rapid increase in steel production is the rapid development of the contemporary East African industry. The emerging industries nurtured in the last century have already begun to exert strength. Along with the leap-forward development of East African industrial scale during the One-Five Plan and Second-Five Plan periods, the demand for steel in East Africa is increasingly strong.

Apart from the industrial development factors, the population of East Africa is still in a phase of rapid growth, and population growth itself can lead to a large consumer market.

Moreover, during the Three-Five Plan period, large engineering constructions in East Africa still maintain a high level, and large projects such as the national canal plan of East Africa, as well as urban development construction, railway, highway, and other transportation construction, all have a great promoting effect on the steel industry.

During the Three-Five Plan period, the goal for East African steel production is to completely surpass Germany, becoming the world’s second-largest steel producer, second only to the United States. This matches the current population, industrial scale, and economic situation of East Africa.

At the same time, East Africa has more prominent development in special steel production. The military manufacturing industry, automotive industry, shipbuilding industry, etc., have all put forward higher demands on raw materials such as steel.

In fact, the development of the East African steel industry today has reached the ranks of world-leading powers in terms of both scale and quality, as an important industrial development indicator of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Steel production can significantly reflect a country’s industrial level. In terms of steel production, both the total amount and per capita in East Africa have reached the standards of an industrially strong nation.

The reference object for the overall East African industrial goals is primarily the United States and Germany. Among them, the United States is of the greatest reference value to East Africa, including in many areas such as steel production, railways, and shipbuilding industries. The East African Government will consider U.S. industrial production data as an important benchmark.

Of course, the shortfall in East African industry is still significant compared with other industrial powers in the field of light industry, mainly reflected in the disadvantage in international market competition. This is also the main reason why the Three-Five Plan emphasizes the development of light industry.

If East Africa can make up for the shortfall in light industry, East African industry can be considered perfected, and the gap with industrial nations like the United States will be reflected in fields such as finance and services.

Returning to the topic of shipbuilding, Ernst said: ”The development of the shipbuilding industry requires rich technical accumulation and a long investment cycle. Currently, countries are focusing their efforts on developing the navy. Our civilian shipbuilding industry has certain advantages. We should use this window of opportunity to realize leapfrog development in civilian shipbuilding and actively collaborate with many emerging industries domestically, achieving breakthroughs in safety, practicality, comfort, etc.”

”As for the navy, the military shipbuilding industry should focus on researching and developing emerging ship technologies, including breakthroughs in technologies such as aircraft carriers and submarines, further pursuing quality development.”

In fact, the current naval arms race among various countries is seriously over-budgeted, as could be seen from the Washington Naval Treaty after World War I in the previous life. In reality, the navies of various countries are largely developing passively. East Africa, having temporarily freed itself from the naval military race, should devote more energy to economic development.