Chapter 1084: Chapter 93: End of the Plan
The importance of East Africa to Germany is self-evident. As Germany’s arch-enemy, France can be said to be the country that currently understands Germany the best, with this understanding deeply penetrating Germany’s economy, military, politics, and other fields.
East Africa serves as Germany’s major supplier of cotton, rubber, sugar, and various mineral resources. If the relationship between East Africa and Germany can experience negative changes, it would severely impact Germany’s economy and industry.
Of course, attempting to disrupt the relationship between East Africa and Germany is clearly not easily achievable, and the French Government can only proceed gradually.
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As time swiftly moved to early 1910, it also meant that the East African plan officially entered its final stages.
At a time when countries around the world, especially Germany and France, are paying close attention to East Africa, the East African Government is also accelerating the summary of the construction achievements of its national plan.
East Africa is eager for countries like Germany, France, and others to offer more development advantages favorable to East Africa in order to win East Africa over. Thus, it welcomes the competition among Germany, France, and other nations. From the beginning, Ernst and the East African Government have remained like a fisherman quietly observing.
Therefore, compared to international disputes, East Africa focuses more on the development of its own industry and economy.
Similar to the First Five-Year Plan, most projects under the East African plan have been completed ahead of schedule, and some projects have exceeded the plan’s goals. Only a very small number of projects have not been completed.
The completion degree of the current plan has exceeded ninety-seven percent, and East Africa will also make corresponding adjustments to its national industry according to the specific situation and begin preparations for the Third Five-Year Plan.
Rousong said: "Currently, our annual steel production has exceeded ten million tons, ranking only behind the United States and Germany worldwide. Last year’s specific steel production was ten million and eighty-seven thousand tons, achieving the steel production target during the plan period."
In 1909, the U.S. steel production reached more than twenty-five million tons, ranking first in the world. In fact, in 1908, the U.S. steel production was even higher, reaching more than twenty-six million tons, but due to the impact of the economic crisis, it has since decreased.
And in 1909, Germany’s steel production was also as high as over thirteen million tons, ranking second in the world, and in 1909, the combined steel production of East Africa and Germany was still less than that of the United States.
The UK steel production continued to maintain a level of over six million tons. As early as the start of the East African plan, the UK’s annual steel production was over six million tons, showing almost no progress over the years.
France and Austria-Hungary have made significant progress, with their steel production exceeding three million tons and two million tons, respectively. France successfully pushed Russia down, taking the fifth position in the world, while Russia’s current annual steel production is slightly less than France, but also around three million tons.
Austria-Hungary pushed Belgium to the seventh position worldwide, also winning by a narrow margin, with Belgium’s steel production approaching two million tons. This is significantly related to the iron ore resources of the Belgian Congo.
In addition to importing iron ore from its homeland, Belgium also established steel mills in the Belgian Congo, with a large portion of orders coming from East Africa, exporting to East Africa’s west and northwest regions.
There are many colonies similar to the Belgian Congo, especially British colonies like Canada and India, which have seen significant developments in steel production. Historically, there was South Africa, as the previous life saw South Africa possessing abundant coal and iron ore resources, which are now primarily serving East Africa itself.
However, even adding the steel production from its colonies, the UK will not exceed eight million tons. Apart from Canada and India, the steel production from other colonies is almost negligible.
Australia has decent conditions, with abundant coal and iron ore resources, but it still largely serves as Britain’s "prison," with development far inferior to Canada next to the U.S., especially noticeable is its population shortage.
Currently, East Africa’s steel production and Germany actually don’t have much difference. By the time of the Third Five-Year Plan, the East African Government is confident of surpassing Germany in steel production.
"Our steel industry not only achieved a breakthrough in production volume but also formed a multi-core development advantage, with numerous steel production bases formed in central, eastern, western, southern, and northeastern regions."
"Emerging steel industrial cities like Cabinda and Mogadishu have been established to provide a basic guarantee for our country’s industrial and infrastructure construction."
"The production of special steels has greatly increased, providing fundamental conditions for our military manufacturing, shipbuilding, and has significantly enhanced our international steel market, forming several competitive steel varieties for export."
"At the same time, our coal production increased by nearly two hundred million tons, reaching world-class levels."
During the same period, East Africa’s domestic coal production ranked fourth globally, just behind the United States, the UK, and Germany.
It is worth noting that the UK itself ranks second in the world in coal production, surpassing Germany and East Africa, but its steel production is far inferior to Germany and East Africa.
This difference is caused by several reasons. Besides the UK’s relatively backward steel smelting technology, it is also because of the higher proportion of coal energy in the UK itself.
Especially as Germany, the United States, and East Africa have started to replace coal with electricity on a large scale as a source of factory power, East Africa has gone a step further, with petroleum, natural gas, and electricity all significantly improved.
By contrast, many British factories still use steam engines as power. Coupled with the European and American countries’ demand for heating and fuel in winter, the position of coal in their national energy is higher than in East Africa.
As a tropical country, most of East Africa does not have a winter, and thus there is no need for winter heating, whereas, in terms of fuel, East Africa is quite diversified. Besides using coal, it also includes plant straw, electricity, natural gas, and other methods.
Plant straw is mainly used in rural areas, while electricity is primarily applied to certain household appliances, with the most typical examples being rice cookers and water heaters, while natural gas has been widely popularized in many cities.
Therefore, in East African energy, the status of coal has declined faster than in other countries, with the most important factors being the popularization and promotion of electricity and natural gas.
Fuel also involves travel and agriculture, such as railway locomotives. European and American countries still mainly use steam locomotives, while East Africa has mainly shifted to internal combustion locomotives.
Of course, the coal mining volume in East Africa has not been significantly negatively affected by the decline in coal’s status. The coal mining volume continues to climb year by year, and it is expected to completely break through the two hundred million ton mark this year, with strong demands in metal smelting, power generation, and other needs. Furthermore, with East Africa itself in a stage of rapid population growth, the demand is naturally substantial.
"Our steel industry and coal mining are closely linked, with both steel and coal production breaking through, indicating East Africa’s industrial strength among the great powers has further improved. In terms of total volume alone, our industrial volume is second only to the United States and Germany."
"This also reflects the problem of our lower industrial output value. Based on our steel production, our industrial volume should not be weaker than those of the UK and France, but our industrial output value is far below expectations, particularly in the light industry sector. Although there has been tremendous progress during the plan period, the gap with Europe and America is still quite noticeable."
This is not only a problem faced by East Africa. The United States and Germany also face similar issues. However, the U.S. has a larger economic scale and the most complete industrial system, so the problem is not as prominent. For East Africa and Germany, though, their industrial scale certainly exceeds that of the UK and France, but there is still significant room for improvement in terms of profits.
Germany mainly addresses this through the development of financial industries since its industry is relatively limited by domestic conditions. The variety of mineral resources in Germany is certainly not as rich as those in East Africa and the U.S., nor is the total amount as much as in the latter two. While the UK and France, despite having smaller domestic areas, have overseas colonies.
As for East Africa, it should continue to focus significantly on transforming and upgrading its domestic light industry while developing mid-to-high-end products to enhance industrial added value, thereby increasing the overall industrial output value of the country.
