SFS Chapter 689 Iron ore seems to be in short supply, how should the steel industry be structured?
Chapter 689 Iron ore seems to be in short supply, how should the steel industry be structured?
Zhang Chi's words were like a thunderclap, exploding in Luang Phibun's ears.
A fine layer of cold sweat instantly appeared on his forehead, and a chill ran down his back.
He certainly knew what role he played during that period, and the word "innocence" had nothing to do with him.
Zhang Chi's words, on the surface, were an assignment, but in reality, they were a warning and a reprimand.
If you cooperate, you will be a witness; if you do not cooperate, you may find yourself in the dock.
He immediately changed his tune, his tone becoming incredibly submissive:
"Rest assured, President, it is my duty to testify, and I will fully cooperate."
Regarding the Bangkok steel plant... it was my oversight; we really can't take too big a step. Every country has its own difficulties and plans, and I completely understand that.
When I get back, I will definitely try to calm the local people down and explain the situation clearly to them.
A smile finally appeared on Zhang Chi's face: "That's more like it. Ten thousand tons right off the bat is simply unrealistic."
"We can start by planning on a scale of 10,000 tons. Go and explain this to everyone properly."
He adopted a standard bureaucratic tone:
"It's not that the country doesn't care about Siam's development; Bangkok is a big city and needs steel, I admit that."
However, economic development must be conducted in an orderly and step-by-step manner.
The country's current priority is to ensure the development of key hubs such as Yangon and Sinchu.
Tell our fellow Siamese compatriots to be patient and wait a little longer; opportunities will come eventually. Don't rush.
After seeing off Luan Piwen, whose clothes were almost soaked with sweat, Zhang Chi rubbed his temples, feeling that dealing with these balancing techniques was more tiring than commanding a battle.
He picked up another briefing that had just been delivered.
Preliminary exploration report on the Perakanan iron ore deposit in Johor.
The briefing indicates that the mine's reserves are estimated to be between 4000 million and 5000 million tons.
This basically confirms the information in Zhang Chi's global mineral atlas from the system.
That atlas clearly showed the total iron ore reserves of the entire Malay Peninsula, which were approximately 100 million tons.
This figure is hardly substantial for a country aspiring to industrialization.
Looking at the world, apart from Australia, whose entire country is built on iron ore mountains, the United States has 140 billion tons of iron ore reserves, Russia has 290 billion tons, and India also has 140 billion tons.
However, Daxia, where the iron ore is of low grade and difficult to mine, also has heavy reserves of 200 billion tons.
In Southeast Asia, the heavens are really not cooperating.
The coal reserves are considerable, at 4 million tons, plus nearly 20 billion tons in Sarawak, Borneo.
Siam also has 15 billion tons of coal reserves, while Sumatra has even more, with nearly 300 billion tons.
It can be said that the land in Southeast Asia currently has no shortage of either coal or oil, two important energy resources.
Energy is not a problem, but this iron...
The reality is staring us in the face.
Besides the more than 100 million tons in the Malay Peninsula, the Bago region has about 100 million tons of reserves. Although there are nearly 2 billion tons of iron ore on Sumatra Island, the mining cost is extremely high, and it is difficult to expect much in the short term.
Looking around the vast territory of the United States of Southeast Asia, it is difficult to find any decent large iron ore deposits.
As industrialization deepens in the future and steel production capacity expands like a behemoth, the supply of iron ore could very well become the hand that strangles our necks.
Therefore, Luang Phibun's previous request to build a large-scale steel conglomerate in Bangkok concealed a fatal problem—Siam itself lacks large-scale, easily exploitable iron ore resources.
In the next four years, in addition to the large steel plants being built along the Irrawaddy River in several major cities in the Bago region, Zhang Chi plans to place all the newly built steel plants near traditional Chinese settlements on the Malay Peninsula.
He walked up to the huge map and looked at Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Johor Bahru and other cities in turn.
“This is the core base…” he muttered to himself.
To develop the economy and promote industrialization, resources must be invested in the most critical and reliable areas.
His power base stemmed from the support of the Chinese community, so the limited and high-quality mineral resources should naturally be prioritized for consolidating this foundation.
Establishing steel industry centers around Chinese communities in Peninsular Malaysia would not only yield economic benefits quickly, but would also substantially strengthen the core ethnic group's cohesion and dominant position.
This is not out of narrow-mindedness, but a cold and realistic political choice.
Siam’s interests need to be appeased, but its core interests must be firmly held in our own hands.
He picked up a pen and began making annotations on the report.
However, approving Luang Phibun's request does not mean completely ignoring Siam's development needs.
The population, market, and stability there are also part of the overall strength of the United States of Southeast Asia.
We need a path that can meet local steel demand without jeopardizing our core resource strategy.
Zhang Chi's thoughts drifted in another direction—scrap steel.
He clearly remembered that before the war, the Japanese imported a large amount of supplies from the White Eagles, besides oil, and piles of scrap iron.
These seemingly discarded materials, after being remelted in electric furnaces, were transformed into high-quality steel, which was eventually used to build the invaders' warships, tanks, and cannons, becoming accomplices in their evil deeds.
A line of thought gradually became clear.
Compared to the traditional, lengthy steelmaking process, recycling scrap steel is undoubtedly a shortcut to a shorter process.
Traditional steelmaking is like cooking a complex and elaborate meal:
First, you need to find suitable ingredients – high-quality iron ore.
These ores need to go through multiple washing and cutting processes, such as crushing, screening, and beneficiation, to remove impurities.
Then it is fed into the tall "steamer"—the blast furnace, where it is added along with coke (obtained from the dry distillation of coal) and fluxes such as limestone. At a high temperature of over 1500 degrees Celsius, a complex chemical reaction takes place.
The combustion of coke provides heat and acts as a reducing agent, reducing the iron oxide in the iron ore to liquid pig iron, while impurities and limestone form slag that floats on top.
This process is extremely time-consuming and energy-intensive, and produces pig iron with a very high carbon content, which is brittle and hard.
That's not enough; the pig iron also needs to be transferred to another "frying pan"—a converter (or open-hearth furnace).
High-pressure oxygen is blown into molten pig iron, and the oxidation reaction vigorously burns away excess carbon and other impurities such as silicon, manganese, phosphorus, and sulfur. Only by adjusting the composition can we finally obtain the "finished product"—molten steel—that meets the requirements for both strength and toughness.
The entire process has extremely high requirements for iron ore resources, coking coal quality, equipment scale, and process control, and involves huge investment and a long construction period.
Electric furnace smelting of scrap steel is more like a highly efficient process of reheating in a boiler:
Its main "ingredients" are scrap steel acquired from abandoned cars, dismantled ships, obsolete machinery, and war wreckage.
These scrap steels are then fed into an electric arc furnace powered by electricity.
A powerful electric current is passed through the huge graphite electrode, which generates a violent electric arc with the furnace charge. The temperature can easily reach over 2000 degrees Celsius, which is enough to quickly melt scrap steel into molten steel.
Since scrap steel is already in a metallic state and its composition is relatively stable, the smelting process mainly involves adjusting the alloy composition and removing small amounts of impurities such as oxides generated during the melting process.
Compared to the blast furnace-converter process, it eliminates a series of complex upstream processes such as coking, sintering, and blast furnace ironmaking, resulting in significantly reduced energy consumption, relatively smaller equipment investment, faster construction speed, and relatively less pollution in the plant area.
It does not rely on primary iron ore; its core strength lies in a stable power supply and a source of scrap steel.
Zhang Chi was well aware that the demand for steel in major cities was an objective reality.
Whether it's port infrastructure, building new buildings, or paving roads, a large amount of steel is needed.
The next 20 years were a period of rapid development after the war. However, the current situation cannot be solved by distant water, and Siam definitely needs sufficient steel production.
Bangkok is a port city with well-developed transportation, so developing the scrap steel smelting industry seems like a perfect fit.
He saw further ahead: the war was over, the massive war machines of the White Eagle, John and other countries were about to stop running, and tens of thousands of warships, planes, tanks and cannons would be phased out.
The price of scrap steel on the international market will inevitably fall to an astonishing low.
This presents an excellent opportunity for large-scale acquisition and reserves.
Following this line of thought, another related industry—the shipbreaking industry—naturally comes to mind.
This is also an industry with considerable economic benefits and the ability to absorb a large amount of labor.
The US Navy has built so many 10,000-ton ships and auxiliary aircraft carriers, which will eventually have to be recycled for profit.
The decommissioned 10,000-ton ships, aircraft carriers, and even old battleships were towed to the Gulf of Bangkok or other suitable ports in Siam, where workers, armed with torches, dismantled them like a skilled butcher.
The huge steel plates that were dismantled were themselves high-quality scrap steel and could be directly fed into the electric furnace.
The ship's equipment, copper wire, non-ferrous metals, and other materials can all be sorted and recycled, and are quite valuable.
With its relatively low labor costs and well-developed port conditions, Southeast Asia is fully capable of securing an important place in the highly competitive international shipbreaking industry in the future.
"Okay, let's do it this way." Zhang Chi clapped his hands, his mind suddenly clear.