While Antonio was thinking about the Dutch next door, a piece of good news in Rome also spread among the government.
The news that a large iron ore has been discovered in Libya has been confirmed by professional explorers to be true. Moreover, the iron ore in Sabha is more than 100 million tons and has a mineable reserve of 380 million tons. Why is this not a big deal for Italy?
Excellent news.
Of course, the discovery of this large iron ore is not just good news. It is located in the hinterland next to the desert and nearly 500 kilometers away from the coast. The transportation link is not easy.
There are also different opinions within the government on whether to mine it. The main reason is the cost issue, because according to the opinions of experts from the Ministry of Transport, if you want to mine this iron ore, you must build a nearly 800-kilometer-long iron ore.
Load-carrying railway.
The construction of such a long railway will be a huge investment for Italy. In particular, desert railway maintenance costs are high, which will also push up the selling price of iron ore. Although there is also the advantage of lower open-pit mining costs, according to
Professionals estimate that the price of iron ore that eventually arrives in China will not be much lower than that of iron ore purchased from Germany, and can only be 15% lower at most.
After working so hard and spending so much money, we can only achieve this in terms of price. It is normal for many people to have different opinions on this.
Because it's very simple. The cost of building a standard-gauge load-carrying railway across the desert for 800 kilometers is between 90 million and 130 million lire. The reason why the gap is so big is mainly due to the fact that the railway includes sand prevention forests on both sides.
In addition, because it is located in a desert terrain, annual maintenance costs will be higher than other railways, requiring at least 6 million lire per year.
Taking into account the current load capacity of trains, one heavy-duty train can now pull up to 400 tons of goods. Calculated with three trains departing per hour, it is only 14,000 tons per day. Of course, this is an ideal situation, and 10,000 tons can be transported per day.
The cargo, even if it is very good, can be regarded as a model for Italian railway operation. Due to maintenance and other reasons, the load-carrying railway cannot carry such a large volume unless it is double-tracked, but this will further increase the cost of railway construction.
Assuming that this railway transports three million tons of iron ore every year, the railway transportation cost per ton of ore alone will cost 5.1-5.8 lire (locomotive maintenance, coal burning and other expenses).
If you add shipping, loading and unloading and mining costs, it will directly push up to about 38 lire per ton. The current average price of iron ore purchased by Italy from abroad is 42 lire. Take the same type of Luxembourg Class II iron ore in Sebha
Take iron ore as an example, the price per meal is 42.8 lire.
"This saves 4.8 lire per ton, which is only more than 14 million lire for three million tons per year. After deducting the investment in railway construction and iron ore mining, it will basically take 20 years to recover the investment."
In the palace, Carlo, who had just returned from his honeymoon, listened to the Prime Minister's report on the costs and benefits of iron ore mining.
After the Prime Minister finished speaking, Carlo spoke. "Indeed, the return on investment is too low, but the government cannot use the return on investment as the main basis. The mining of Sabha iron ore will have a huge impact on the development of Villa.
The promotion effect. Moreover, this can also provide thousands of local jobs and benefit at least tens of thousands of people. This is something your government also needs to consider."
Yes, in Carlo's view, the emergence of the Sebha iron mine is a perfect match for the development of southern Italy. The coal mines in Kosovo and the iron ore in Libya at least have the industrial foundation of southern Italy in place.
With the emergence of heavy industry, although the development of southern Italy cannot be said to catch up with that of the north, it will not pull down too much. Capital is all profit-seeking, and they will very consciously invest around the steel industry. After all, every copper plate
Worth their calculations.
And those who only know how to calculate returns are short-sighted and have no overall perspective. They have no idea what this means for Italy. At least Italy will not be choked by raw materials in the steel industry.
Although there was no embargo at all in this era, the influence of later generations' thinking made Carlo not want Italy to be in any danger of being stuck.
"It is precisely because of knowing this that the veteran has pushed hard for the government to develop iron ore in Libya. We cannot always rely on foreign iron ore to develop the steel industry, even from allies."
Prime Minister Depretis had already anticipated Carlo's words. After many years of getting along with him, he knew the king's thoughts. It can be said that compared with other countries, this monarch is the most concerned about the development of the kingdom.
Of course, he is also a strong monarch, but at present, it seems that a strong monarch is still very beneficial to the development of Italy and can speed up the processing of various affairs. And most of the decisions Carlo made later proved to be correct. This point
It is very important, because if the monarch makes a mistake, the consequences will be very bad.
The Prime Minister's answer made Carlo very satisfied. Italy spends a lot of money on purchasing raw materials every year. Since there are domestic resources, why not use them? At least it can drive employment and develop the country's economy.
"So where did your government choose the location of the steel plant?"
Now Carlo is concerned about another issue, which is the location of the steel plant. This issue is equally important, because it can directly provide thousands of jobs for the city where it is located, and it can also promote the development of the city. As for the big problem in later generations
Environmental issues, in this era where national strength is measured by steel, simply do not exist.
Faced with Carlo's inquiry, Prime Minister Depretis immediately said, "Our government plans to build three steel plants in Naples, Palermo and Taranto..."
Although the Prime Minister talked about building three steel plants, Carlo knew that there must be a priority.
"So how did you arrange it?"
"Of the three places selected by our government, Naples has abundant water resources and is also the largest city in the south. Building a steel plant in this city can further accelerate the development of Naples. Therefore, we have prepared for Naples to produce 200,000 yuan in the near future.
tons of steel smelting plant, with a long-term construction plan of 600,000 tons, which mainly produces pig iron and low carbon steel. And Palermo
Since we are located in Sicily, we have prepared a steel construction plan of 150,000 tons in the early stage and 300,000 tons in the long term. Its production is mainly pig iron and low carbon steel, and also takes into account medium and high carbon steel. As for Tabuto,
It is planned to build a special steel smelting plant, mainly producing high-performance steel for military use, and its production capacity is also the lowest. The initial target is 30,000 tons, and the long-term plan is 50,000 to 80,000 tons."
After listening to the Prime Minister's words, Carlo thought for a while and then said, "Change the steel development in Palermo and Naples, and focus on the development of Palermo's steel industry."
There is a reason why Carlo said this. Sicily has a large population. If there are not enough jobs, then this birthplace of the Mafia may really have to vigorously develop the Mafia.
Carlo has always been very concerned about Sicily, because the relationship between man and land is very tense. Sicily has always been a large immigrant population. With the development of Italy, Sicily has become a little more peaceful in recent years, but he does not think that this is enough.
.
After hearing Carlo's prompt, the Prime Minister also took this into consideration and did not raise any objection.
So the development of the Italian steel industry in the next five to eight years was decided by them.
Of course, in order to develop the steel industry, the Italian government needs to invest a lot of money.
It is estimated that the Balkan Railway, as well as the just-decided Libyan Railway, plus three steel production plants, will require the government to invest at least 340 million liras.
This is a big burden for Italy.
For this reason, Carlo is also under great pressure, but perhaps we can take this opportunity to do something that has been pending for a long time.
