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

The next day, at Laiyang Steel Plant.

Qin Chuan yawned repeatedly, his eyes bloodshot, but he still had to force himself to stay alert.

“Mr. Babich, this is our steel mill.”

Qin Chuan explained, "Currently, the main work of the steel plant is to recycle steel, smelt it, roll it into steel plates, and then make it into gas cylinders. The batch of steel we bought from the Nikolayev Shipyard can be put to good use."

It truly makes the best use of resources, even skipping the process of putting them into the steelmaking furnace!

Those ship steel plates with similar thickness go directly into the rolling mill, becoming steel plates of two and a half thicknesses, and then they are cut and stamped.

This is incredibly efficient to manufacture!

Although the production line was a bit rough, it was usable, and the workers were working enthusiastically, appearing to be quite skilled.

Babich sighed with emotion: "The Nikolayev shipyard has all sorts of equipment that could easily manufacture gas cylinders. Once they're made, they could be sold to Europe, and the crisis would be over. But no one thought of making this thing!"

People who grew up under a planned economy are used to following the established order and don't know how to find their own way out.

Even if a shipyard wants to grow and expand, it will only think about continuing to build ships, and will never think about manufacturing gas cylinders.

"Yes, knowledge is power, and creativity is wealth. We even have idea companies here that make money by giving people ideas..."

After the meeting yesterday, Qin Chuan was sent back overnight.

He must take good care of Babich, make him feel the warmth of home, and make him fall in love with the East, so that he will never want to leave.

As for his requests, the military naturally agreed to them all. Even when he later asked the military to coordinate machinery and equipment, he was promised that he only needed to stay at the steel plant and wait.

Although it was another long night of running around, thinking about what I gained... it was worth it!

At this moment, Qin Jianguo and others were still directing the transfer of steel on the beach. There were troops on guard, to see who would dare to steal it!

Moreover, the thought that this land would belong to his factory in the future filled Qin Jianguo with a happy smile.

The factory not only survived, but also grew and expanded in just a few months!

Some are happy, some are disappointed; some make money, some are destitute.

Dongfeng Machinery Plant.

"Director Yang! Director Yang! Section Chief Guo is back!" Pan Yuncai, with his pointed mouth and monkey-like face, shouted.

Guo Qing returned on his motorcycle.

The factory's 212 motorcycle has already been sold. When Guo Qing goes out to do business, he can only ride a motorcycle, a Jialing 50, which was the most popular motorcycle in the 1980s, but now it looks a bit shabby.

"Old Guo, how's it going?"

"The firecrackers are a one-off business. It's not just us; several factories that made imitations of firecrackers also lost a lot of money! A while ago, they sold their firecrackers to Laiyang Steel Plant for 80 cents a pound."

"Director Yang, how about we sell to Laiyang Steel Plant? That way we can lose less money. Eighty cents a pound isn't bad," Pan Yuncai suggested.

"Hmph, even if our factory goes bankrupt, we won't let them get away with it at Laiyang Steel Plant!" Yang Zhanfu gritted his teeth in hatred: "We'd rather rust here than sell these steel pipe rockets to them as scrap metal!"

"The price of scrap iron on the market has fallen to four cents a pound," Guo Qing said with a gloomy expression.

"What?"

"Some time ago, Qin Chuan went abroad and brought back a ship full of scrap iron, which is said to be tens of thousands of tons."

Tens of thousands of tons? That's enough for a small steel mill to use for one or two years!

With the arrival of this batch of scrap iron, the market for scrap iron is no longer tight, and the price has naturally dropped!

The price of their rockets has dropped from 80 cents to 40 cents, meaning the price has been halved!

Snapped!

Yang Zhanfu slammed his hand on the table: "Damn it, God is blind! Why should those opportunistic, swindling people make big money, while we honest people are driven to the brink of despair!"

"Yes, it's so unfair!"

"I think we should write a letter of denunciation. Their scrap metal has an unknown origin and there's definitely something wrong with it!"

"Yeah, they might even be stealing from the railway!"

Yang Zhanfu shook his head. A letter of denunciation? Would it be of any use?

Even if you report it to higher authorities, they can't send a working group down. In the end, they'll still have to come to Yang County to investigate, which is like asking someone to investigate themselves.

They did it before, but it all fizzled out.

"I do have an idea!" Guo Qing said.

"What?"

"They sell gas cylinders to customers, right? Let's get a few and send them to the relevant departments in China for testing. As long as they get a substandard test report, the customers will definitely give up on buying gas cylinders from their factory!" Guo Qing had been thinking about this all the way, and now he finally came up with a brilliant idea.

"That's right, let's do it this way. Even if we don't have the capacity to produce gas cylinders, we can't let them make money at the Yang Factory! Nobody wants the rockets we produce, and their gas cylinders will be stuck with them!"

This would not benefit Dongfeng Machinery Factory at all, but they would be satisfied as long as they saw Laiyang Factory suffer!

This kind of thought process becomes all too common once human nature begins to become distorted.

In short, if I'm not having a good time, I won't let you have one either!

"However, we need to find someone they don't know. Who didn't show up when they came last time?"

Pan Yuncai readily agreed: "Me! I can pretend to be a middleman dealing in gas cylinders, but buying gas cylinders costs money..."

Yang Zhanfu gritted his teeth: "We'll sell all our rockets, even if we have to sell everything we own, we'll ruin their Laiyang Steel Plant!"

I was so angry back then that I didn't sell it for seven or eight cents, but now I'm selling it for four cents. I just can't swallow this anger!

……

At the same time, in the north, at the Harbin Boiler Factory.

"What? We got our hands on an aircraft carrier boiler?"

Yu Hongxin, the head of the technical department, said excitedly, "Then what are we waiting for? Get them to our factory right away, and we guarantee to complete the mapping and replication task!"

Deputy Factory Director Guo Xiangyang said with a helpless expression, "We did manage to get it, but we paid for it."

"Of course I know it costs money; there's no such thing as a free lunch. But this money is well spent. Our Bingcheng Boiler Factory is the most professional and suitable for this job. Hurry up and transfer them to us!"

The Bingcheng Boiler Factory was one of the 156 projects that year, and it can be said that it grew up in tandem with the nation's industry.

In August 1952, the Central Financial and Economic Committee decided to import technology from the Soviet Union to establish a power equipment plant, namely a boiler plant, a steam turbine plant, and an electric motor plant, in Harbin. After these three plants were established, China had complete power production equipment.

Boilers generate steam, which drives steam turbines to run, and then drives electric motors to generate electricity. The equipment in power plants all over the country is waiting for Harbin!

Afterwards, the Bingcheng Boiler Factory continued to grow and expand, producing not only boilers for power generation but also boilers for ships; the boilers for the Type 051 destroyer were all manufactured by them.

Logically speaking, this aircraft carrier boiler should be their only option.

"You still don't understand. This boiler was acquired by a private enterprise in China. So, if we want it, we have to buy it from this private enterprise."