Chapter 1071 End of the Plan
The importance of East Africa to Germany is self-evident. As Germany’s mortal enemy, France can be said to be the country that understands Germany best at present. This understanding goes deep into the German economy. Military, political and other fields.
As Germany's main supplier of cotton, rubber, sugar, and various mineral resources, East Africa can cause negative changes in the relationship between East Africa and Germany, which will severely damage Germany's economy and industry.
Of course, it is obviously impossible to destroy the relationship between East Africa and Germany easily, and the French government can only try to do it slowly.
……
Time flies to the beginning of 1910, which also means that the East Africa Plan has officially come to an end.
While countries around the world, especially Germany and France, are paying special attention to East Africa, the East African government is also speeding up its review of the construction achievements of its own plans.
East Africa wants Germany, France and other countries to win over East Africa and give more chips that are conducive to the development of East Africa. Therefore, they are happy to see the competition between Germany, France and other countries. From the beginning, Enns The special and East African governments are firmly on the Diaoyutai.
So compared to international disputes, East Africa pays more attention to the development of its own industry and economy.
Similar to the First Five-Year Plan, most of the projects in the East Africa Plan were basically completed ahead of schedule, and some projects exceeded the schedule, while only a few projects were not completed.
At present, the plan completion rate has exceeded 97%, and East Africa will make corresponding adjustments to its domestic industry according to specific conditions and start preparing for the third five-year plan.
Luo Song said: "At present, my country's annual steel production has exceeded 10 million tons, second only to the United States and Germany in the world. The specific number of steel production last year was 10.87 million tons. The steel production targets for the plan period have been achieved.”
In 1909, U.S. steel production reached more than 25 million tons, ranking first in the world. In fact, U.S. steel production was even higher in 1908, reaching more than 26 million tons. However, the Due to the impact of the economic crisis, it has now declined.
In 1909, Germany's steel production reached more than 13 million tons, ranking second in the world. In 1909, the combined steel production of East Africa and Germany was not as much as that of the United States.
British steel production continues to remain at a level of more than six million tons. As early as the beginning of the East Africa Plan, the annual British steel output was more than six million tons, and there has been basically no progress in recent years.
France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire have made greater progress, with steel production exceeding three million tons and two million tons respectively. France has successfully pushed Russia down and is in the fifth position in the world. Russia's current annual steel output is slightly lower than France, but It is also around three million tons.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire squeezed out Belgium and ranked seventh in the world. It also won by a slight advantage. Belgium’s steel production has reached nearly two million tons, which is greatly related to the iron ore resources of Belgium’s Congo colony. relation.
In addition to importing iron ore from the mainland to the colonies, Belgium also established steel plants in the Belgian Congo. A large part of the orders came from East Africa and were exported to the western and northwest regions of East Africa.
There are many colonies similar to the Belgian Congo, especially Canada, a British colony. India's steel production has developed greatly. In fact, there was also South Africa in history. After all, South Africa had abundant coal and iron in its previous life. Mineral resources, and now these resources mainly serve the East African countries.
However, even if Britain's colonial steel production is included, it will not exceed 8 million tons. Except for Canada and India, the steel production of other colonies is almost negligible.
Australia's conditions are good, with abundant coal and iron ore resources, but now Australia still acts as the "prison" of the United Kingdom. Its development is far inferior to Canada, which is next to the United States. Its population shortcoming is particularly obvious.
At present, the steel production in East Africa and Germany are not much different. During the Third Five-Year Plan period, the East African government is very confident that it will surpass Germany in steel production.
“my country’s steel industry has not only achieved breakthroughs in output, but also formed multi-core development advantages, forming numerous steel production bases in the central, eastern, western and southern, northeastern and other regions.” “Cabinda has formed , Mogadishu and other emerging steel industry cities have provided a basic guarantee for the construction of our country's industry and infrastructure."
"The output of special steel has increased significantly, manufacturing for our country's military industry. Shipbuilding and other industries provide basic conditions, and at the same time greatly increase the international market of my country's steel, forming a number of competitive steel varieties for export. ”
"In the same period, my country's coal production increased by nearly 200 million tons, reaching the world's top level."
At the same time, East Africa's local coal production ranked fourth in the world, after the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
It is worth noting that the United Kingdom ranks second in the world in coal production, surpassing Germany and East Africa, but its steel production is far behind Germany and East Africa.
The reason for this difference is not only the relatively backward steel smelting technology in the UK, but also the higher proportion of domestic coal energy in the UK.
Especially in Germany, the United States and East Africa, which have begun to use electricity on a large scale to replace coal as factory power, East Africa has gone a step further, with oil, natural gas and electricity all increasing significantly.
Many factories in the UK still use steam engines as power, and European and American countries have heating and fuel needs in winter, so their coal's status in their country's energy sources is higher than that in East Africa.
As a tropical country, East Africa has no winter in most areas of the country, so there is no need for winter heating. In terms of fuel, East Africa is also relatively diversified. In addition to coal, it also includes plant straw, electricity, natural gas, etc. When the way.
Plant straw is mainly used in rural areas, while electricity is mainly used in some household appliances, the most typical ones being rice cookers and water heaters, and natural gas is also widely popularized in many cities.
So in East African energy, the status of coal is declining faster than in other countries. The most important thing is the popularization and promotion of electricity and natural gas.
At the same time, fuel also involves areas such as travel and agriculture, such as railway locomotives. European and American countries still mainly use steam locomotives, while East Africa already uses diesel locomotives.
Of course, the coal mining volume in East Africa has not been greatly negatively affected by the decline in the status of coal. The coal mining volume is still rising year by year, and is expected to completely exceed the 200 million tons mark this year. The demand for metal smelting, power generation, etc. is relatively strong. In addition, East Africa itself We are in a stage of rapid population growth, so the demand cannot be small.
“my country’s steel industry and coal mining industry are closely related. The breakthroughs in both steel and coal output indicate that East Africa’s industrial strength has further improved among the world’s major countries. From a total perspective, my country’s industrial volume is already second only to The United States and Germany. ”
“This also reflects the problem of my country’s low industrial output. Based on my country’s steel production, my country’s industrial volume should not be weaker than that of Britain and France, but its industrial output is far less. It is expected that, especially in light industry, although great progress has been made during the plan period, the gap with European and American countries is still relatively obvious.”
It is not just East Africa that faces this problem, but also the United States and Germany, but the size of the U.S. economy is still there. It is large and has the most complete industrial system, so the problem is not serious. However, East Africa and Germany are different. The industrial scale of Germany and East Africa is definitely larger than that of Britain and France, but there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of profits.
Germany’s main response is to develop the financial industry. After all, German industry is subject to local restrictions compared to the United States and East Africa. The types of mineral resources are certainly not as rich as those in East Africa and the United States, and the total mineral output is not as large as those of the two countries. However, the United Kingdom and France Although the mainland area is not too large, it has overseas colonies.
As for East Africa, it should continue to intensify its efforts to transform and upgrade its light industry, and at the same time develop mid-to-high-end products to increase industrial added value, thereby increasing the country's overall industrial output value.
(End of this chapter)