Chapter 303 Lake Malawi Heavy Industrial Zone
About the city of Mombasa, the Austrian business delegation generally had a good impression. When investing overseas, the most important thing is stability, and East Africa is better. Stablize. Although in the opinion of the inspection team, the use of black people in East Africa is somewhat conservative, the size of East Africa itself is enough for them to invest here.
At present, Wolfgang, the leader of the inspection team, plans to invest in a few small factories in East Africa to test the waters first, and other members basically have the same idea. Because they are still skeptical about the politics of East Africa. The typical feudal monarchy system in East Africa coupled with the ultra-conservative style makes them somewhat worried about the business environment in East Africa.
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When Wolfgang and others were investigating in the north, no one paid attention to the eastern part of Lake Malawi in the south, which was planned to be developed by Austria.
First of all, the location is too remote, deep in the interior of East Africa. Although the Northern Industrial Zone is planned to reach the Great Lakes area, the unique advantages of the port of Mombasa are unmatched by those around Lake Malawi. The size of Mtwara Port is the only one in the south. It cannot be compared with Mombasa.
The traffic situation in East Africa shows that it is difficult for products produced in the region to be sent out by sea transportation. They can only rely on procurement from the East African government, which means that they are completely dependent on the East African domestic market for digestion and uncertainty. Too strong.
Secondly, the coal and iron resources that have been proven here cannot impress the Austro-Hungarian Empire and are not very attractive to investors. After all, the Balkan Peninsula is on the side, and there is no need to travel across the ocean to East Africa for development. In the case of investment, the Hechingen Consortium can only take over the project itself.
Finally, the positioning of East Africa near Lake Malawi is to develop heavy industry, which is also contrary to the Austrian idea. As we all know, light industry has the characteristics of small investment, short cycle and quick return on investment, which is unmatched by heavy industry. , so capital prefers investing in light industry.
So the industrial development near Lake Malawi can only be developed by East Africa itself, and the Hechingen Consortium has basically zero experience in this area. Although there are related industries in East Africa, they are still at the handicraft workshop stage.
Only the coal mining in Mbeya City has initially reached the level of some small-scale coal mining in Europe. Coupled with the previous replacement of relevant equipment, the current output is steadily increasing.
In the field of heavy industry, not to mention East Africa, even the European part of the Hechingen Consortium does not have much experience in this. At this time, it can only complete local investment by throwing money.
Fortunately, the Hechingen Consortium is now flush with funds. It made a huge fortune just by purchasing the bonds of the Franco-Prussian War. So Ernst used the old trick to acquire a small steel company in the Saarland region and It is packed and sent to East Africa.
This steel company originally relied on a small iron mine in the Saarland region to make its fortune. However, the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War interrupted the normal production order, broke the capital chain, and finally went bankrupt.
Ernst took advantage of the situation and took over this small and capable steel company. At the same time, he extended invitations to local workers who were temporarily unemployed at home. In the end, only more than a hundred employees were willing to leave the Saar region to develop in East Africa. Most of them Still German.
After three months of turnaround, the workers were basically in place. In order to improve the efficiency of iron ore resource development, Ernst simply purchased brand-new production equipment directly from Austria.
At the same time, Ernst acquired a steelmaking plant in Kafenberg, Austria. After the merger of the two companies, it was renamed the East African United Steel Company. This gave East Africa its own steel industry a difficult start. The Hechingen Consortium has also started to get involved in heavy industrial production from scientific research, light industry, shipbuilding, trade and other fields.
East Africa attaches great importance to the development near the Lake Malawi area. After all, this is the only area in Tanzania that has both coal and iron resources. Only with coal and iron can there be a foundation for industrialization.
Concerning the development of the Malawi Lake District, Ernst specifically had a phone call with Constantine.
Ernst: “The existence of heavy industry requires two conditions, one is the supply of raw materials, and the other is the support of sufficient national funds. East Africa already has this aspect, and the Lake Malawi region is in the hinterland of East Africa. , the environment is also relatively safe, so there is not much problem with investment and development. ”
Although there is Mozambique in the south of the Lake Malawi area, for East Africa, it can be completely ignored. If the Kingdom of Portugal itself, East Africa might pay more attention to it, but that's it. The size of East Africa has reached the level of Portugal itself. That is to say, capital is relatively weak compared to Portugal, but Portuguese capital is scattered in private hands, while in East Africa most of it is concentrated in government hands.
Constantine: “It is now certain that the Austrians are not interested in investing in the Lake Malawi region at all. Yesterday von der Leyen’s telegram made it very clear that even in the Northern Industrial Zone, they are not interested in investing in the Lake Malawi region. I am more inclined to invest in Mombasa and have little interest in the inland. If the development plan of Nairobi city were not very attractive, I would be indifferent."
Ernst: "I had expected this, but. Calculate It’s not a big deal. The Lake Malawi Industrial Zone is indeed inherently deficient, especially the transportation conditions in East Africa. We can only rely on ourselves to support its development. And since they have invested in Mombasa, as long as we provide them with convenience, they will be able to To make some money, they will gradually increase their investment in the northern industrial belt driven by profits."
Constantine: "What are your specific plans for the Malawi Lake District?" Ernst? : " The Malawi Lake District is positioned as a heavy industry base, but it can only meet the initial industrial development needs of East Africa. With the development of East Africa in the future, East Africa's heavy industry base will definitely move to the Matabele Plateau, so we must do a good job in the Malawi Lake District The purpose is to cultivate talents and technology reserves to lay the foundation for the future development of the Matabele Plateau. At the same time, the Malawi Lake District connects Tanganyika and Zambia. From here, it can better radiate to the inland areas and strengthen East Africa. The control of the inland relies on the heavy industry in the Malawi Lake District to develop related industries in the surrounding areas to promote inland development and reduce East Africa's dependence on coastal cities. After all, the coast is not a peaceful zone and may be threatened by the ocean at any time. The strength of our East African navy is not enough to deal with enemies at sea, so we must develop inland East Africa, even for security reasons.”
As mentioned before, the East African Army can get rid of the navy by ten blocks. Inland, the East African Army is not afraid of any challenges, but the situation at sea is complicated. Mozambique's maritime power alone is not weaker than that of East Africa, not to mention the maritime power behind it. Portugal.
Ernst: "Steel production is the most intuitive reflection of a country's comprehensive strength. Only by practicing self-sufficiency in steel production can East Africa be able to undertake more industries. The current difficulty in transferring the Hechingen Consortium to East Africa lies in Inadequate infrastructure and industry, if the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone is built, I will at least One-third of the consortium’s industries can be transferred to East Africa within three years.”
Heavy industry provides the main means of production with a material and technical basis, and the products of the Hechingen Consortium’s enterprises rely on Deutschland. Developed with Austrian heavy industry, components and technology come from both. Only if East Africa solves this problem first can it undertake the industrial transfer of the Hechingen Consortium.
The current foundation of heavy industry is the steel industry. Only when steel production increases can we be able to develop related industries.
Constantine: "In the final analysis, it is still a transportation problem. With transportation, everything will be more convenient. The railway construction issue should also be put on the agenda. I heard that the First Railway is currently progressing slowly. I don’t know what will happen. Cannot succeed.”
Ernst: "The main reason is that there are deficiencies in technology accumulation. Vienna Energy Power Company cooperates with Austria, but neither of them has sufficient experience and technology in wide-gauge locomotives, so they don't even have an experimental locomotive yet." Done, I will reconsider this aspect, anyway, the First Railway It was an experimental railway, but it was later overthrown and rebuilt.”
It’s not that the wide-gauge locomotives envisioned in East Africa cannot be built, but that even if they are built, they cannot be compared with other gauge-standard locomotives. In many cases, the technical first-mover advantage is indeed not that easy to solve.
Ernst does not intend to waste time on this. It is better to use existing railway standards. At least it can avoid many detours. The development of East Africa waits for no one.
However, this attempt cannot be said to be fruitless. In its cooperation with Austria, Vienna Energy Power Company has also explored many new technologies that can be applied to the East African Railway. At the same time, Vienna Energy Power Company has also learned about locomotives. With mature ideas in research and development, there will be no technical problems in realizing the localization of East African railways in the future.
The current advice given by various Austrian railway companies to East Africa is to directly adopt mature railway standards. In this regard, they mainly promote 1435mm, followed by meter gauge, and even 760mm. In this regard, they are all railways that existed in the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself. The track gauge and technology are also mature.
There was no uniform standard for railways in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so the suggestions given to Ernst were mixed, but they mainly recommended their own technology.
760mm Ernst intends to promote it. This narrow gauge is suitable for operation in mountainous areas and mining areas, and can be introduced into various mining areas in the current Malawi Lake District to increase the transportation capacity of coal and iron ore. However, the railway standards in East Africa mainly choose between 1435mm and above.
In this regard, there are three main types of railway gauges operating in the past that meet this standard. 1435mm is the standard gauge and operates in the most countries. 1524mm is mainly in Eastern Europe, Russia, Mongolia and other countries, and finally 1676mm, India, Argentina. , implemented in Chile and other countries.
1676mm and 1524mm are actually not the same. For example, Portugal’s 1665mm and Spain’s 1674mm are only slightly different, while 1524mm also has 1520mm.
Just like the meter gauge, some countries use integers, which are 1000mm, while others use 1067mm.
There are also alternatives to 1600mm rail which exist in Brazil, Australia and Ireland.
With the above railways, East African railways will not exist in isolation in the future, because there will always be countries with the same railway standards as East Africa.
The 2500mm railway gauge is too controversial. We are now soliciting your suggestions. The highest number will be adopted until July 24, 2023.
(End of this chapter)