Showa Steel Works

The Shōwa Steel Works (昭和製鋼所, Shōwa Seitetsusho^?) was a Japanese government-sponsored steel mill that was one of the showpieces of the industrialization program for Manchukuo in the late 1930s.

Shōwa Steel Works began as the Anshan Iron & Steel Works, a subsidiary of the South Manchurian Railway Company in 1918. The city of Anshan in Liaoning was chosen for its proximity to the Takushan iron ore deposits and rail works at Mukden. The company used low grade iron; in 1934 it mined 950,000 tonnes. In 1933, after a reorganization, it was renamed the Shōwa Steel Works.

Shōwa Steel produced pig iron and steel, and the steel mill was soon surrounded by a large industrial complex of other factories to produce a variety of metal products. Sumitomo Steel Pipe established a plant to produce steel pipes, and Manchurian Roll Manufacturing Company to produce steel mill rolls. To feed the furnaces, coal mines were established at Fushun, 35 kilometers to the east, which also led to electric power plants, coal liquefaction plants, cement works, brick kilns. By the end of the 1930s, there were over 780 Japanese industrial plants in Fengtian province.

In 1937, under the direction of the Kwangtung Army, Japanese industrialist Yoshisuke Aikawa organized a holding company called the Manshu Jukogyo Kaihatsu KK ("Mangyō"), a Manchukuo zaibatsu with major shareholdings in the South Manchuria Railway, co-owned by Nissan and Manchukuo. The new zaibatsu invested heavily in Shōwa Steel, and took a controlling interest.

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