Rise of the Argentine Empire

Driven by the demand from domestic manufacturing, Argentina's steel production has experienced tremendous growth, surpassing 1 million tons, 2 million tons, 3 million tons, and 4 million tons in just two years, with production increasing rapidly.

With the commissioning of several small and medium-sized steel plants north of Buenos Aires, as well as the No. 3 blast furnace at the La Plata Steel Plant, it is estimated that the capacity will reach 5.5 million tons by the end of this year, successfully reaching the level of the world's top 10.

The La Plata Steel Plant has become a giant steel conglomerate, serving as the pillar of Argentina's steel industry. To ensure production efficiency, San Jose is focusing on developing the steel industry and plans to further expand the La Plata Steel Plant.

The goal is to build this plant into a steel plant with a capacity of ten million tons, and to construct large blast furnaces and converters. La Plata is also one of the national railway hubs with well-developed sea transportation, making it perfectly capable of serving the entire country and for exports.

Meanwhile, Hans Steel Plant in Blanca City has become a new target for support, completing the evolution of Blanca City's steel industry and meeting basic needs.

Currently, domestically produced steel is also being exported in large quantities. The La Plata Steel Plant exports 800,000 tons of steel, mainly in the form of hot-rolled coils, cold-rolled coils, and rebar, which has a good effect on generating foreign exchange. The main export destinations are Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil.

The main raw material of Mefiro Tire Factory is Brazilian natural rubber. Rubber products are widely used in daily life, whether in household goods or industry. In addition, Blue Cloud Shoe Factory also uses Brazilian imported natural rubber.

San Jose intends to make Leidun Tractor Factory independent in order to accelerate its development. Currently, Leidun Industry is involved in a wide range of industries, and the number of factories is increasing.

Leidun Tractor Factory has fully recovered its costs and is generating profits. The diesel engines produced in cooperation with Argentina Diesel Engine Factory can already meet the needs. San Jose plans to introduce more production equipment to build this tractor factory into a comprehensive agricultural machinery manufacturer.

Argentina Diesel Engine Factory has already produced several domestic diesel engines: 3 models for fishing boats, 2 models for tanks, and 4 models for tractors, forming an annual production capacity of 18,000 diesel engines, mainly supplying the tractor factory. The production of marine diesel engines is also considered acceptable.

Leidun Motorcycle Factory is also developing well, but it has not yet recovered its costs.

The motorcycle factory now has its own engine production line. The Leidun 250 motorcycle produced has good performance and quality, but the price is relatively high. After all, for a little more money, you can buy a four-wheeled Ford car. The market scale is also limited. The factory is developing a cheaper alternative civilian version, with more fuel-efficient engines and cheaper raw materials.

Currently, Leidun Motorcycle Factory can produce about 2,000 motorcycles per year, mainly sold to the military, the police department, and for exports.

Leidun's third branch industry is Leidun Machinery Factory, which is now gradually expanding its production scale, realizing most categories from large-scale machinery imitation, machine tool production, to small-scale machinery equipment production. It is necessary to separate this factory into a heavy machinery factory and a light industry machinery factory. It is already profitable.

Currently, Argentina is completely self-sufficient in oil, but chemical products are limited, and it mainly exports crude oil. It now has two natural gas pipelines, and the country's power generation is also rapidly increasing. The hydropower stations and thermal power stations invested by the national 'First Five-Year Plan' and 'Second Five-Year Plan' have been successively established.

San Jose's plan to build an oil refinery is also to increase the added value of oil. Diesel, gasoline, and other petrochemical products are all good products.

The development of the steel and petrochemical industries has promoted the modernization and supply of fertilizers, pesticides, and machinery in Argentina, thereby increasing the growth of agricultural production.

With the complete harvest of autumn grains, grain production began to achieve positive growth again in '52, increasing from 14 million tons in '50 to 21 million tons, ranking sixth in the world. However, this has not fully reached Argentina's grain potential. With Argentina's agricultural talent level, an annual output of 100 million tons is entirely possible.

Currently, 90% of Argentina's land still does not use fertilizers, the breeding of improved varieties is completely insufficient, and the utilization rate of agricultural machinery is low. Basic three-year crop rotation is adopted, and the potential has not been fully stimulated, rather than fully modern agriculture.

San Jose plans to establish the Blanca City Land Reclamation Company to develop the abandoned farms around Blanca City and establish farm transfers, preventing these farms from being acquired at low prices.

During the spring plowing season in September and October, large-scale development of farmland around Blanca City will be carried out, which can also promote the sales of tractor factories.

The development of the tobacco industry is extremely astonishing. In less than three years, Argentina's tobacco industry has achieved a huge transformation from an importing country to an exporting country.

This is mainly due to the support project of Andes Cigarette Factory, with a one-time development in the mountains.

Andes Cigarette Factory formed a tobacco company, creating a brand matrix of more than a dozen brands from Spanish brands to English brands, and has entered 20 national markets. This year, it can bring San Jose a profit of 30 million US dollars.

The number of Andes Cigarette Factories has also changed from 1 to 5, completing the layout of the main cities in the three northwestern provinces. Global sales have exceeded 670,000 boxes, truly selling well globally. This is currently San Jose's second most profitable industry.

Argentina's tobacco planting area has increased from scattered thousands of acres at the beginning to 440,000 acres now, and has achieved large-scale scientific planting, becoming the largest tobacco planting country in South America.

These tobacco fields are basically distributed in the three northwestern provinces, and the tobacco planting industry has also become the part of Argentina with the highest degree of agricultural mechanization. Half of Leidun's tractors are supplied to the cigarette factory every month.

The Andes Cigarette Factory's own planting area is 200,000 acres, an increase of 110,000 acres compared to last year, driving 37,000 farmers. In the mountainous and hilly areas of the northwest, which are not suitable for planting food, tobacco is their way to get rich.

Under San Jose's instruction, some local small families and farmers have established tobacco planting cooperatives, introducing high-quality foreign tobacco planting.

Using fertilizers, establishing standardized planting methods, Oran headquarters has become the tobacco center of Argentina, and a tobacco research institute has also been established to develop more advanced tobacco and cigarette technology. Currently, the most advanced factory is Oran Cigarette Factory, with a large number of advanced manufacturing machines.

Not only cigarettes but also cigars and other high-end goods are available, developing various types of tobacco.

Although tobacco is harmful to people, it is not like flour. However, tobacco cultivation should be cautious and well-planned. It should not be planted casually, and fertile land should not be used to grow tobacco, which affects grain production.

Now, the scale of tobacco production is expanding rapidly, but management is still relatively extensive.

The next step is to prepare for the stage of scientific planting and breeding. The tobacco planting potential in the three northwestern provinces is over 1 million acres, through mountain development and terraced planting.

In addition to the Saint Martin ammonia fertilizer plant, there is also a potash fertilizer plant in the potassium triangle area. Recently, Thunder Mining also explored a small potash mine in Mendoza Province, producing Maya brand potash fertilizer. Nitrogen fertilizer is extremely important for tobacco production.

The booming "Made in Argentina" includes not only steel, chemicals, and tobacco but also textiles, fabrics, clothing, shoes, leather, motorcycles, tractors, machinery, fishing boats, small machine tools, automobiles…

Argentina is synonymous with good quality and low price. Utilizing the cheap domestic currency, labor costs are even only half of Brazil's, and the products are indeed quite good.

Originally, Argentina was not enthusiastic about exporting, but Saint Jose knew that export was the only way out for Argentine industry. The domestic market is not enough to support the completeness of industrialization, and occupying the entire South American market is only 150 million people.

Nowadays, Argentina participates in international competition through the export of industrial products, which is the way for healthy economic development.

Under the key support of Mayor Saint Jose, a large number of small clothing factories have been established in Blanca City.

A few sewing machines and a few workers make up a small clothing factory.

The sewing machines imitated by Leitun Machinery Factory are not expensive and can adapt to the production of many small orders.

Especially the export processing zone located in the free port area attracts many freelancers.

Because some current tax-free policies are very beneficial to exports.

…

The Southern Petroleum Company's Juan Nelson team went to Rome to discuss cooperation with the Italian National Energy Corporation.

And met with Enrico Mattei, the head of EMI.

Rome, EMI Headquarters,

"Hello, respected Mr. Enrico, I am Juan Nelson, the head of the Argentine Southern Petroleum Company, you can call me Juan."

Juan stretched out his hand and shook hands tightly with this legendary Italian figure with a pilgrimage mood.

This is his idol. Enrico's hair is a bit gray, but he is strong, energetic, and has a large build.

Argentina can learn from this legend and establish cooperation to break the Anglo-American oil monopoly.

"Hello, Mr. Juan, welcome to Rome."

Enrico was also very enthusiastic about Juan. This time, the Argentine consortium wanted to discuss an investment of 30 million US dollars, which is also a huge order for the current Italian oil industry.

He was quite curious about this emerging Southern Petroleum Company. When he received the cooperation notice last month, he thought it was a scam.

After all, the cooperation between Italy and Argentina is not too much, and he is quite skeptical that the Argentine people have a private company that can invest in the oil industry.

After investigation, he really paid attention to it. This oil company is completely a large consortium that has emerged in a short period of time, and it is investing real money.

It is impossible to see who is in control behind this complex consortium. Of course, the Italian intelligence agency does not pay much attention to Argentina.

It only knows that this consortium is quite low-key, cooperating with a mining company and an energy company. It is the first private oil company in Argentina and also has a military background.

"We hope that EMI can help us build an integrated refinery with a refining capacity of 2 million tons and an ethylene production capacity of 500,000 tons. It is an oil-chemical combined refinery that can not only produce oil products but also chemical raw materials. We need a complete set of technologies."

Juan said. This negotiation is not easy. This 2 million-ton refinery and 500,000-ton ethylene plant can directly send Argentina into the top ten petrochemical countries.

"Also, help us build a professional steel pipe factory for the localization of chemical equipment production, and help us build a 1,000-kilometer crude oil transportation pipeline with a designed annual oil transportation capacity of 10 million tons. We will provide the pipeline raw materials."

Italian special steel technology is good, but this strategic technology is difficult to export.

The crude oil transportation pipeline is to transport crude oil from the Patagonian Plateau to Blanca City to develop Blanca City's heavy chemical industry.

"This price doesn't seem to be achievable, and the raw material cost is not enough."

Enrico did a simple calculation in his mind and said euphemistically that it was basically impossible. Italy is also preparing to build a north-south crude oil pipeline, which requires huge investment. Adding a refinery and an ethylene plant, it is impossible to get it done for 30 million US dollars.

"The specifics can be discussed further."

Juan said that this price was indeed very difficult.

Ask for the sky-high price and bargain on the ground.

"An integrated refinery can be built, and technology can also be provided, as long as there is enough technical fee. We don't have an ethylene plant here."

"The steel pipe ratio technology for crude oil pipelines can be provided as an attachment, but we will not be responsible for construction."

"The price will be around 45 million US dollars."

For this crude oil steel pipe raw material ratio, it is not a big secret. The real difficulty lies in the industrial equipment for large seamless steel pipes, which cannot be compared with small-diameter steel pipes.

Enrico said a number.

"This seems to be too high. We have ethylene production technology, but we are not good at building ethylene production equipment. We can do an equivalent exchange, and we can offer a price of 40 million US dollars."

Juan said a more reliable number, which is almost Saint Jose's bottom line.

"This price is more reasonable."

"Then the specific details will be negotiated by the people below?"

"Okay, then happy cooperation."

After finalizing the general scope of cooperation, both of them breathed a sigh of relief.

Italy is also in urgent need of this order from Southern Petroleum, resisting the pressure from the United States and developing its own oil industry, cooperating with countries such as Egypt and Persia, and even the Soviets.

It would be great to be able to cooperate with Argentina.

As for future competition, Enrico doesn't care much. The world market is big enough, and it's okay to have Argentina as a helper.

Now it owes the Americans 700 to 800 million US dollars in foreign debt.

The Argentines are indeed rich and powerful. In fact, his goal was almost 38 million US dollars.

Enrico, who was in a good mood, found Juan, a young man, very pleasing to the eye.

He expressed his willingness to act as a bridge for the exchange of military technology mentioned by Juan.

"This is not a big problem. I know a few companies that can conduct technology exchanges."