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

"Director Qin, the direct reduction ironmaking process is the most advanced ironmaking method at Kobe Steel," translator Pan Yang boasted again. "It's especially suitable for countries with underdeveloped industries and energy shortages. Mr. Ishino Hiroaki's willingness to pass on this technology to you is like a windfall. What are you waiting for..."

Ishino Yutaka rolled his eyes at him, and Pan Yang immediately shut up.

Qin Chuan shook his head: "Mr. Shi Ye, our factory uses the American short-process steelmaking method. Our raw material is scrap steel, not sponge iron. For us, this technology is meaningless."

The crisis of overcapacity in the steel industry is not unique to China; it exists all over the world.

In the 1980s, blast furnace ironmaking plants in the United States began to experience a crisis. In the 1990s, the model of using electric furnaces to melt scrap iron and make steel became popular. It does not require coke or iron ore, has a shorter process, and is more efficient. Steel mills that are still profitable today are all using this method.

However, this method requires large quantities of scrap steel, which is unsuitable for some countries with slow industrialization, such as Laiyang Steel Plant, which faces difficulties in acquiring scrap steel. So what can be done in this situation?

Kobe Steel invented a new technology: instead of using coke in the blast furnace, ordinary coal was used to directly smelt iron ore into sponge iron, which was then directly used as raw material for steelmaking and fed into the steelmaking furnace.

This method is good, but Qin Chuan doesn't need to worry about the source of scrap steel, so why bother with the direct reduction iron smelting method? If we run out of scrap iron, we can just bring back a few abandoned ships from abroad. We won't have to worry about that for the next ten years!

After saying that, Qin Chuan gave Ishino Hirotoshi a meaningful look: "Moreover, your direct reduction iron smelting method is not mature and has serious technical defects."

"What did you say?"

Pan Yang objected: "You young man, you really don't know your place! Your small private steel mill dares to question a Fortune 500 steel company? What qualifications do you have? It's common knowledge that our country's technology is backward. Not to mention various high-performance steels, we can't even produce steel for a small ballpoint pen tip. This direct reduction ironmaking process is even worse..."

"You know it's our country?" Qin Chuan rolled his eyes at him. "Hearing you talk like that just now, I thought you were a complete sheepdog."

Sheepdog? What does that mean?

Qin Jianguo and the others didn't understand, while Pan Yang's face turned bright red: "You, you, you're talking nonsense! I..."

"Mr. Qin, are you aware that our direct reduction iron smelting method has flaws? What are those flaws?" Ishino Hirotoshi's expression turned serious.

"Your technology cannot completely reduce coal; it also requires a certain amount of natural gas, right?"

Hiromitsu Ishino was utterly shocked.

Using coal for reduction is the most suitable method, since it has the lowest cost. However, Kobe Steel did not master this technology until 96 and is now worried about the raw material problem for direct reduction. Unexpectedly, a young man in front of me has exposed the problem!

“Ishino-kun, don’t listen to his nonsense,” Pan Yang said. “Our steelmaking technology in the East is nowhere near that of the island nation. We can’t even produce steel for a ballpoint pen tip…”

"What if we could actually produce it?" Qin Chuan rolled his eyes at Pan Yang again: "A tiny ballpoint pen tip steel, and you think it's something special?"

When talking about the backwardness of the country's industry, some people always bring up the small ballpoint pen. If they can't even make this thing, what high technology are they talking about?

Are you kidding me? It's not that we can't do it, it's that we just look down on this market.

China is the world's largest producer of ballpoint pens, producing 38 billion pens annually, but how much steel does it require? A mere 1,000 tons! For any steel mill, that's too small a scale to even consider this market.

That's why it's monopolized by Switzerland and the island nation, relying on the technology passed down from their ancestors. Now, since this guy keeps clamoring, let's forge one!

"Are you kidding me? You think a small steel mill like Yanggang Steel Plant can produce steel for ballpoint pen tips?"

"What's so difficult about that? We can start the furnace and smelt one batch right now. If we can't smelt it, we'll sell the scrap steel to Kobe Steel for a thousand dollars a ton. But if we can smelt it..."

Qin Chuan glanced at the translator: "You just lie down on the ground and bark like a dog, shouting 'You're a sheepdog' ten times!"

Pan Yang clenched his fists, almost ready to fight Qin Chuan to the death, but Ishino Yutong readily agreed: "Okay, it's settled then!"

Even if he lost, he'd just be like Pan Yang barking like a dog; if he won, he could buy back the steel at a reasonable price! Of course, Ishino Yutaka agreed.

Hearing his agreement, Pan Yang puffed out his chest: "Alright, it's settled then. Humph, I don't believe you can refine it!"

Qin Chuan smiled and said, "Let's go to the steelmaking furnace!"

Recently, the factory has been manufacturing gas cylinders, using readily available marine steel plates. If the thickness is not suitable, they are rolled onto a steel rolling mill, and the resulting plates are qualified. Therefore, the electric furnace that was previously used to melt scrap iron has been idle.

Since I'm just killing time anyway, I might as well forge a batch!

Qin Jianguo strode after him and whispered, "Xiao Chuan, are you sure you can do it? I heard that a ballpoint pen tip looks like a small ball, but it's actually quite difficult to make!"

"What's so difficult about it? It's just a bit harder, easier to rotate, and requires higher precision during machining. By the way, Jianshe, take your Audi and go out to buy some things. If you can't get them, go to the Navy and ask them for help..."

Countless short essays describe the steel tip of ballpoint pens as something miraculous, making people believe that this thing has a high level of technology.

That's right, it needs to prevent the ink from drying and condensing on the surface, and it needs to rotate freely using the friction on the paper surface, so there are some special requirements, but that's about it.

It's just a small steel ball. At first, tungsten carbide was used, and later stainless steel was used. The only difference is that some special elements need to be added. The firing order cannot be messed up, and each firing temperature must be controlled properly. That's all.

"So what raw materials will we use?"

Laiyang Steel Plant only has scrap steel, and the content of various metals inside this scrap steel is uncertain, which results in the quality of steel produced in each batch being different.

Only the most experienced master craftsmen can carefully control the quality of steel through precise matching; otherwise, they can only smelt ordinary steel and cannot smelt advanced special steel.

Now that Qin Chuan has so casually agreed to their request, what's next?

“Take those 38-millimeter-thick steel plates, remove the rust from the surface, and then throw them into the steelmaking furnace.”

What?