Great Power Industry: You're a private company building an aircraft carrier?

Starship Corporation gave its presentation for another half hour before it was the other companies' turn.

"We don't have much to report from Factory One. Everything is proceeding according to plan. Our profit for the year is approximately..." Qin Chuan's father said, glancing at Max. He was clearly still not used to the presence of foreigners in the meeting room.

"Dad, just tell me."

"Yes, the profit for this year is about eight billion."

"Wow, so many?" someone exclaimed in surprise.

Qin Jianguo glanced at the surprised people and added two words casually: "US dollars."

The largest steel mill in the East is Baosteel, and even they only make a profit of three or four billion RMB a year. How can Laiyang Group's steel mill be so profitable?

Max found it unbelievable. In the US, a steel mill of this size would be lucky to make a profit of $100 million! How did they manage to do it?

Of course, it's because of the availability of inexpensive raw materials, advanced smelting technology, and the ability to produce many special steels!

"Dad, tell me more?"

"Well, let me explain in more detail. Our Plant 1 has a small production capacity, so we mainly smelt special steels. By the way, we recently overcame the difficulties in producing high-speed railway bearing steel and exported it overseas. This bearing steel is worth three million US dollars per ton. We can only sell a few hundred tons a year..."

Bearing steel!

Bearings are needed to connect various rotating parts with stationary parts. Their working conditions are extremely complex. Whether it is roller or ball, rolling or sliding, the rotating parts are required to have a very low coefficient of friction, low vibration, low wear and low heat generation.

Once the bearing starts rotating, high-frequency stress will occur between the inner and outer bushings and the rolling elements. Due to the small contact area, the pressure on it is also very large. Under these conditions, the bearing is prone to stress fatigue, cracks, and ultimately bearing damage.

In addition to these basic requirements, bearings may have special requirements, such as resistance to high and low temperatures, corrosion resistance, and even antimagnetic properties. In short, the requirements are very high.

The East produces a significant amount of bearing steel, ranking third in the world. However, it produces almost exclusively low-end bearing steel, while the West has a near-monopoly on high-end bearings.

High-end bearing steel requires further removal of internal impurities, and the uniformity of carbide morphology must also be good. Due to foreign monopoly, the price of high-end bearing steel imported from the East is outrageously high!

On a high-speed train, a toilet can cost tens of thousands of yuan, which is indeed an exaggeration, but a bearing can cost tens of thousands of yuan, which is not far off.

Now that Laiyang Group has overcome this technical hurdle, it means that if Dongfang wants to build high-speed railways in the future, it will also have its own bearings!

“How is that possible? The West already has its own bearing steel production capacity, why would it come to purchase products from the East? Take SKF for example, it is a world-leading bearing manufacturer with an almost monopolistic market share in high-speed rail!” Max said.

That's the effect we wanted! You were so cool just now, now watch how we subtly show off!

Qin Jianguo was very pleased with himself, but said aloud, "Really? We didn't know that. Ever since we developed bearing steel, SKF has been coming to us with orders for fifty tons a year. We didn't take it seriously because that order wasn't even enough for one furnace of our production capacity. Later, they increased it to one hundred tons, and we reluctantly agreed to produce one furnace for them every year."

"How did you do that?" Max's eyes widened.

"Well... let's not waste meeting time on this. If you want to know, I'll tell you about it during lunch."

You've been talking for so long, but most of it was just bragging. Look at me, I'm afraid of wasting everyone's time!

Qin Jianguo was very pleased with himself at this moment.

Manufacturing advanced bearing steel is no easy task, as it involves four main factors: the content, morphology, distribution, and size of inclusions in the steel; the content, morphology, distribution, and size of carbides; central porosity, shrinkage cavities, and central segregation; and the consistency of bearing steel product performance.

These are all very difficult tasks, mainly in terms of improving purity. Domestically, we know that it can reach 30 ppm, while internationally, good steel is 8 ppm, and high-end bearing steel needs to reach 5 ppm. However, the products of Laiyang Group have already reduced it to 3 ppm!

Moreover, it also contains a certain amount of rare earth elements, making it even more effective. When the Swedes tried it, they found it to be better than their own steel, so they naturally began to purchase steel from the East, thus continuing to dominate the bearing industry.

Fifty tons would have been enough for them, but since they insisted on selling a hundred tons, they ended up squeezing out their own country's high-end bearing steel companies! The whole operation was exactly the same as how they squeezed out pen tip steel companies back then.

"Hmm, with this kind of product, there is hope for our independent high-speed rail in the East. By the way, have we started building high-speed rail yet?" Qin Chuan was very interested in these things.

“It’s only been introduced from abroad, and the relevant departments in China are still too slow. However, we can’t get involved in this industry,” Zhu Lijun said.

Many departments are monopolistic. Even if Laiyang Group sees that the relevant units are making too slow progress and wants to establish a high-speed rail company, the railway authorities will not approve. What will happen to the railway authorities' own CNR and CSR?

Therefore, these are things that the relevant departments can only address through their own efforts!

Qin Chuan nodded: "Yes, that's true. We've provided the foundation, now it's up to them. But... with high-end bearings, there's a new industry we can get involved in."

What industry?

"Wind power generation."

In later times, large trailers were often seen on highways, towing something that looked like a big knife. The convoys often consisted of ten or more vehicles driving together, which looked very spectacular.

Those are the blades of a wind turbine.

The power company leader actually doesn't like wind power generation because it's difficult to connect to the grid.

Ordinary thermal power plants, once started and successfully connected to the grid, require no further attention. The generators will continuously supply electricity to the grid and deliver it to users.

Especially with AC power grids, grid connection is not something that can be done casually. The waveform of the generator must correspond to the waveform of the power supply network. If the peaks match the troughs, the entire power grid will burn out! This is a problem that the West has encountered when it uses medium-voltage AC power supply systems on warships.

Of course, Dongfang's power transmission technology is the best in the world. It already has ultra-high voltage power transmission and even a DC power transmission system, so the grid connection problem can be solved.