Chapter 303 Lake Malawi Heavy Industrial Zone

Regarding the city of Mombasa, the Austrian business delegation generally had a good impression. When investing overseas, the most important thing is stability, and stability is the best in East Africa. Although in the opinion of the inspection team, the use of black people in East Africa is a bit conservative, the size of East Africa itself is enough for them to invest here.

Wolfgang, the current 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.

…

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 region, 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 products produced in the region are difficult to transport by sea and can only rely on procurement from the East African government. In other words, they are completely dependent on the East African domestic market for digestion, which is too uncertain.

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, so there is no need to travel across the ocean to East Africa for development. If no one invests, then The Hechingen Consortium can only take over it themselves.

Finally, East Africa near Lake Malawi is positioned to develop heavy industry. This 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 capital. This is incomparable to heavy industry, so capital prefers it. Invest in light industry.

Therefore, 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 was now flush with funds, and it had 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 packaged it and sent it 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 opportunity to take over this short and capable steel company, and at the same time 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, and most of them were Germans.

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 Kafenborg, Austria. After the merger of the two companies, it was renamed the East African United Steel Company. As a result, East Africa's own steel industry had 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.

Regarding the development of the Lake Malawi area, 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. In addition, the Lake Malawi area is located in the hinterland of East Africa, and the environment is relatively safe. So there’s not much of a 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 prefer to invest in Mombasa. There is little interest in investment and inland, and if it weren’t for the attractive development plans of Nairobi City, I would be indifferent.”

Ernst: "I have expected this, but it is not a big deal. The Lake Malawi Industrial Zone does have inherent deficiencies, especially the transportation conditions in East Africa. We can only rely on ourselves to support development, and Since they have invested in Mombasa, as long as we provide them with convenience and make more money, they will slowly increase their investment in the northern industrial belt driven by profits."

Constantine: "What are your specific plans for the Lake Malawi region?"

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 be transferred to the Matabele Plateau, so Malawi What we need to do in the Lake District is to cultivate talents and reserve technology 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. Strengthen East Africa's control over the inland, rely on the heavy industry in the Malawi Lake District, develop related industries in the surrounding areas, drive 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. , and the strength of our East African navy is not enough to deal with enemies at sea, so we in East Africa must develop inland, 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 moving the Hechingen Consortium to East Africa lies in the lack of infrastructure and industry. , if the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone is built, I can transfer one-third of the consortium's industries to East Africa at least within three years."

Heavy industry provides the main means of production with a material and technical basis, and the products of the companies under the Hechingen Consortium are developed on the basis of German and Austrian heavy industry, with components and technology coming 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 whether it can 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 is an experimental railway, but it will be overthrown and rebuilt later."

It’s not that the wide-gauge locomotives envisaged in East Africa cannot be built, but that even if they are built, they cannot be compared with locomotives with other gauge standards. They also have many defects. The first-mover advantage in technology is indeed not that easy to solve.

Ernst did not intend to waste time on this. It was better to use existing railway standards. At least it would avoid many detours. The development of East Africa did not wait for anyone.

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 mature ideas for locomotive research and development. , there will be no technical difficulties 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. These are all railway gauges that existed in the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself, and are technically not All are 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.

Ernst intends to promote the 760mm. This narrow gauge is suitable for operation in mountainous areas and mining areas. It 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 is operated in the most countries. 1524mm is mainly implemented in Eastern Europe, Russia, Mongolia and other countries. Finally, 1676mm is implemented in India, Argentina, Chile and other countries.

1676mm and 1524mm are not actually the same. For example, Portugal’s 1665mm and Spain’s 1674mm are only slightly different, while 1524mm also has 1520mm.

For example, meter gauge, some countries use integers, which is 1000mm, while others use 1067mm.

There are also alternatives to 1600mm rail which exist in Brazil, Australia and Ireland.

Using 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 asking for your suggestions. The highest number will be adopted until July 24, 2023.