The Luzhou Steel Mill was a medium-sized steel plant. Its order for 8,000 tons of scrap iron was processed using one medium-sized electric furnace and one medium-sized converter.
A medium-sized electric furnace had a maximum smelting capacity of 50 tons per batch, taking two to three hours per run.
The medium-sized converter was more efficient, though it required other raw materials mixed in proportion; handling the same 50 tons, each blow in the converter took only 30 to 40 minutes.
With both furnaces running around the clock, in just 15 days the 8,000 tons of scrap iron were converted into 7,000 tons of steel, with a 10-percent loss, which fell well within the normal range.
As for whether there were odd fractions or if any leftover amounts were held back, nobody bothered to quibble over such details.
Barely ten days after this smelting run was completed, Li Jianjun brought back another massive shipment: 15,000 tons of scrap iron and 5,000 tons of construction steel.
The director of the steel mill beamed from ear to ear.
When Zhou Zhengming came to inspect the work, he repeatedly praised Dongshan County for providing their meals, and the entire factory was grateful to Dongshan County.
Meanwhile, at the Fifth Machinery Factory in Dongshan County, the factory director sought out Executive Deputy County Magistrate Guan Fei with a proposal to expand the factory and increase hiring, arguing that otherwise they simply could not fulfill the tasks assigned by higher authorit…
Chapter 525