African Entrepreneurship Record

East Africa's shipbuilding industry started in the 1970s and has developed to a good scale today. Of course, East Africa is relatively biased, and the proportion of military shipbuilding in this field is obviously too large.

Among East Africa's civilian ships, the import proportion exceeds 60%, including Britain, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, and even the Netherlands and Italy.

An important reason for the huge proportion of imports is the inherent deficiency of the development of East Africa's shipbuilding industry at that time. At that time, the main ports in East Africa were concentrated in the coastal areas of Tanzania and Kenya in the past, and Mozambique and Angola had not yet been included in the East African territory.

In this case, the number of ports in East Africa is quite scarce, and the progress of East African roads and railways was very backward at that time, and inland resources were difficult to develop and utilize, so many raw materials relied on imports.

Therefore, the shipbuilding industry in East Africa at that time was really "better to buy than to make", and in the absence of good seaports, East Africa naturally could not afford to build more shipbuilding companies. At that time, the most developed shipbuilding center in East Africa, namely the port areas such as Bagamoyo City, could only meet the needs of the navy first. Under this general trend, the military shipbuilding industry in East Africa developed by leaps and bounds, while the development of the civilian shipbuilding industry lagged behind.

At the same time, this also caused the civilian shipbuilding industry in East Africa to be forced to move to Zanzibar Island and Pemba Island at that time. These two islands are quite important to East Africa. In addition to serving as a maritime barrier, they have a large number of ports. In addition, the shipbuilding industry in East Africa at that time relied on imported raw materials. The shipbuilding industry in the two places developed rapidly.

Of course, in the 1990s, the situation also changed. First of all, Angola and Mozambique were incorporated, and East Africa obtained a large number of excellent seaports or undeveloped bays.

Secondly, the basic transportation conditions in East Africa have developed to a certain extent, especially the railway construction, which has basically achieved coverage of the East African coast.

The development of inland industry has further provided conditions for the East African shipbuilding industry. Apart from other things, the rise of inland shipbuilding industry in the Great Lakes region and Lake Malawi Industrial Zone almost occurred at the same time as the rise of regional cities.

The number of ports has increased, inland resources have been developed, the industrial base has been relatively complete, and transportation between the coast and the inland is no longer a problem. In this case, the basic conditions for the localization of East African shipbuilding industry have been met.

So Ernst said: "Emerging cities such as Luanda, Benguela, Cabinda, Beira, Maputo and others have the conditions to develop the shipbuilding industry. Their regional conditions are superior. Through the road and railway system, the allocation of national resources is realized. It is the initial goal of the development of my country's shipbuilding industry to vigorously develop my country's shipbuilding industry and increase the localization share of my country's civil shipbuilding industry to at least 50%. "

"Before 1900, the total tonnage of our civil ships should at least exceed one million tons, so that we can barely compete with the world's maritime powers."

At present, the total tonnage of East African civil ships is close to 700,000 tons, while Germany is close to 2 million tons, and above Germany are the United States, France, and the United Kingdom.

The current tonnage of civilian ships in East Africa has just exceeded the level at the beginning of Germany's unification, while in 1871, the total tonnage of German merchant ships was about 640,000 tons.

In terms of quantity alone, East Africa has lagged behind Germany for nearly 20 years, not to mention other countries with more developed marine transportation industries.

Of course, the development of the US shipbuilding industry is quite peculiar. In the last prosperous period of the sail era, that is, in the 1840s and 1950s, the US shipbuilding industry was the world's number one, far exceeding its former colonial master Britain. However, although the US shipbuilding industry was also improving afterwards, the speed was obviously behind that of European countries.

And this is the impact of new technology on the US shipbuilding industry. Before that, as the New World, the United States had a large amount of forestry resources, which was undoubtedly a very significant advantage in the sail era.

However, with the application of steel in the shipbuilding industry, the US shipbuilding industry was quickly defeated by the European shipbuilding industry and fell into a state of sluggishness.

In fact, the current situation of the US shipbuilding industry is similar to that of East Africa, mainly relying on imports from Europe. Of course, this is the situation on the surface.

In fact, the reason why East Africa relies on imports is very different from that of the United States. One of the important reasons is that the shipbuilding industry in East Africa started too recently.

East Africa was founded when steel ships were emerging, and it did not even catch up with the last glory of the sail era. This led to the fact that when the East African Navy was first established, it had to patch up the antique warships of the Sultanate of Zanzibar and continue to use them.

Then, in the 70s, East Africa introduced a large number of personnel, technology and equipment from Europe, and the modern shipbuilding industry in East Africa began to take off.

Therefore, even if East Africa tried its best, it would not be able to reach the same level as European countries in a short period of time. Moreover, at that time, East Africa's investment was mainly in the development of inland areas. In addition to the military shipbuilding industry, the civilian shipbuilding industry did not receive much attention. Of course, for an emerging country in East Africa, the development of the civilian shipbuilding industry in East Africa is also outstanding in the world.

But this achievement is based on the huge scale that has gradually accumulated in East Africa. This is true for all walks of life in East Africa. As East Africa's territory has exceeded 10 million square kilometers and its population has exceeded 70 million, a large number of cities and rural areas have emerged, and government tax revenue has skyrocketed. With the support of these factors, even industries that East Africa did not pay attention to at the beginning have achieved leapfrog development.

The most typical example is the textile industry. The textile industry in East Africa is completely supported by the vast population market, and the textile industry has not been the focus of industrial investment in East Africa before. The same is true for the civilian shipbuilding industry, which is positively correlated with East African immigrants and trade scale.

Therefore, the shipbuilding industry in East Africa started late and developed rapidly, but there is still a long way to go to surpass the European average, but it has been showing an upward trend overall.

Compared with its four or five decades, the US shipbuilding industry is undoubtedly declining. This is easy to understand. How glorious the United States was in the sail era, which means that it is more difficult to transform in the new era of shipbuilding.

Moreover, the shipbuilding industry is a high-input industry with slow results, which is not cost-effective for American businessmen. It is better to invest in industries that are quick to see results and require less investment. After all, the US government's intervention in the market is weak. Of course, the US government is not completely ineffective.

In fact, with the rise of the free trade proposition in the United States, the United States has further increased its attention to the navy. In the future, the US military shipbuilding industry will enter a stage of rapid development, which is almost in line with the current expansion of the US Navy.

After all, in 1890, the United States had already surpassed Britain in terms of total industrial output value, so the change in the situation prompted the United States to exert its strength in the navy. After all, at this time, the United States had formed a product advantage over other countries, and it needed naval power to guarantee its own interests in the commodity market.

At the same time, the monopoly of traditional colonial powers such as Britain and France must also be broken by military competition. Although the United States does not have this courage, it is always preparing.

Of course, these are not important to Ernst. For Ernst, the shipbuilding industry in East Africa must not follow the path of the United States. It is understandable to attach importance to military shipbuilding, but civilian shipbuilding is equally important. Without the support of civilian shipbuilding, the military shipbuilding industry will not go far. After all, it is difficult for the military shipbuilding industry to directly generate economic value.

And the long-term investment in supporting the shipbuilding industry in East Africa naturally cannot rely on private capital. Only the continuous support of the East African government can make it last for a long time.