The background of the rise of modern steel industry in China and the reasons for its difficult development

In the second half of the 19th century, the Qing government developed modern military industry, made guns and warships, and imported a large amount of steel produced by western countries. 110,000 quintals (about 8,250 tons) of imported steel were imported in 1867, and 1.2 million quintals (about 90,000 tons) were imported in 1885, and 1.73 million quintals (about 130,000 tons) were imported in 1891, and the imported steel gradually took over the market of China, which made it difficult for the traditional iron industry to maintain its production. After the 1880s, China's government-run industry expanded from military to civilian industries. Due to the increase in steel consumption, the rise of modern mining and metallurgical industry became the need of the hour.

In 1871, Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau of the iron and steel processing technology was first used: the installation of cranes, casting large cylinders; the purchase of 3 tons of steam hammers, forging a large axle; the establishment of pulling the iron (steel rolling) plant, rolling the shipbuilding steel plate below 15 mm, and 6 ~ 120 mm round steel, square iron. 1886, Guizhou Governor Pan Wei founded Qingxi Iron Works, first with a furnace, and then from the United Kingdom to order the cooked iron furnaces 18, 1-ton Bessemer Furnace 2, plate rolling machine 1, rolling machine 13, installed in 1888. Ultimately due to the corruption of the Qing court, the lack of funds, iron ore and coal, and not good at business, no one proficient in technology, and stopped in 1893. This is an attempt to build a modern iron and steel mills. 1890, Shanghai Jiangnan General Administration of Machinery Manufacturing (referred to as "Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau" or "Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau") built China's first 3-ton steelmaking furnace, and then built a 15-ton steelmaking furnace (Figure 1). ). In the same year, Zhang Zhidong, Governor of Hubei and Guangdong Province, presided over the construction of Hubei Hanyang Iron Works and Daye Iron Mine, which was the first modern iron and steel joint venture in China and also in the Far East, and its completion marked the emergence of China's modern iron and steel industry. Before and after the First World War, in addition to the large development of Hanyeping, the iron and steel factories in Benxi, Anshan, Shanghai, Yangquan and Shijingshan also took off successively.

In 1915, "Benxi Lake Coal and Iron Joint Stock Company" started production, and by 1917, there were two 300-cubic-meter blast furnaces, and then increased the number of small blast furnaces (each furnace produces about 20 tons of iron per day) two, smelting high-quality pig iron. 1916, China and Japan jointly set up the "Zhenxing Iron Ore Co. In 1918, "Anshan Iron Works" was formally opened, with two 515-cubic-meter blast furnaces, and later built four coke ovens and one 693-cubic-meter blast furnace. 1917, Baojin Iron Works was established in Yangquan, Shanxi Province, with one small blast furnace producing 20 tons of pig iron per day. 1918, Shanghai and Xinghua Iron Works (present-day Xinghua Iron Works) were established in Shanghai. In 1918, Shanghai and Xinghua Iron Works (the predecessor of Shanghai Third Iron and Steel Works) established 2 small blast furnaces of 10 tons and 25 tons, 2 flat furnaces of 10 tons and one set of steel rolling mill. In 1919, Longyan Iron and Steel Company built Shijingshan Iron and Steel Works, and in 1920, the construction of No.1 blast furnace was started. After the establishment of the above iron and steel enterprises, the national iron production reached 430,000 tons in 1920, and the steel production was 68,000 tons. 1923, the Northeast Arsenal built an electric furnace, which was one of the early steel-making electric furnaces in China.

After the September 18th Incident in 1931, the Japanese imperialists occupied the northeastern part of China; after the July 7th Incident in 1937, they occupied the vast areas of northern, central and eastern China. They plundered the mineral resources of these areas. 1931, they started to operate the iron ore mine in Miaoergou, and built one 200-ton and 180-ton blast furnace, with an annual output of 130,000 tons of iron. 1933, Japan set up the Showa Iron and Steel Works in Anshan, and in 1935, the newly built first steel mill (with four 100-ton flat furnaces) produced steel, and in 1937, they built two 150-ton flat furnaces, and the second steel mill of the Showa Iron and Steel Works in Anshan, which produced steel, and the second steel mill of the Showa Iron and Steel Works in Anshan. In addition, Showa Steel's second ore dressing plant, the first rolling mill, large rolling mill, small rolling mill, sheet metal plant and No. 4 blast furnace were also put into production one after another, and in 1937, the output was 700,000 tons of pig iron, 500,000 tons of steel and 285,000 tons of steel. In Anshan area, in addition to the Showa Steel Institute, there are medium-sized rolling mill, seamless steel pipe factory, pipe casting factory, steel pipe factory, steel wire factory, galvanizing factory, refractory factory, machinery factory, plate factory, etc., also controlled by the Japanese imperialists. 1937, Beijing, tianjin, tangshan, yangquan, and other places also built or rebuilt iron and steel mills.

After the Republic of China, in the face of the operation situation of Han Ye Ping's "exhaustion and exhaustion, failure and failure", a number of articles have appeared to reflect on the reasons for the failure of Han Ye Ping, and have put forward a variety of different insights. Most of the researchers attributed the failure of Hanyeping to the internal mismanagement and domestic turmoil. Zeng Shuji, in his 1914 investigation report, attributed the main reasons for the failure of Han Ye Ping to "failure of terrain (referring to the location of the ironworks in Hanyang, which was too far away from the mines, the inconvenient transportation, and the high freight costs), failure of hiring, failure of management, failure of organization, and failure of opportunity" [35]. "Han Ye Ping Company Chronicle" that the Han Ye Ping Company no good results because "(a) for the law is not; (b) the shortcomings are very large, the plant and mine personnel are not not fraud, the director regardless of carry on; (c) the early iron prices are low, and subject to the Japanese hold, now the price increase by adding limited." [36] Wu Jingchao that the reason for the failure of Han Ye Ping is "poorly planned, improper employment, poor management, poor environment". [37] Obviously, all three attributed the main reason for the failure to the subjective aspects of the company. The analysis of the objective causes such as "failure of the encounter" and "bad environment" mainly refers to the domestic social order where "civil strife occurred from time to time" as well as to the ruling authorities at all levels at that time. "Subsidies are rare, but demands are endless". The argument has some basis and some truth, but its bias is also obvious. As the company's top management Li Weige insight into this issue, he emphasized the national sovereignty and industry standards on the negative impact of Han Ye Ping. He believes that any country's steel industry, have experienced a difficult start to the gradual development of the process, Han Ye Ping's early business mistakes are not terrible, the lack of funds, talent is not to be feared, the real impediment to the development of Han Ye Ping is the lack of national tariffs to protect the industry and the industry's production standards, "Han plant for more than a decade, sitting on these two major reasons, the day in the hardships and difficulties ".