KaohsiungCity is an important industrial city in Taiwan. With Taiwan’s pioneering steel companies like China Steel, Teng Eng Iron Works Company Ltd., Ta Jung Steel, Lung Chenf Steel, Kao Hsing Chang Iron & Steel, and Tung Ho Steel rising from the city, Kaohsiung is indeed the breeding ground for Taiwan’s steel industry.
A century ago, Da-Go（the old appellation for Kaohsiung）was still a small fishing village. It lacked resources of energy, and there were no minerals in the place. How did it develop into the top industrial city in Taiwan? Looking at its historical process, we find two relevant aspects; one is the development of the KaohsiungHarbor, and the other is the policy of the government.
In 1895, Taiwan was ceded to Japan. The railway connecting TainanCity and Da-Go opened in 1900, which marked the first step of Da-Go’s modernization. The first stage of modern construction of Da-GoHarbor started in 1908 and catalyzed the great change of the place. However, at the time, the development of the harbor was to meet the ends of sugar trade.
In 1901, the Japanese enterprise Mitsui & Co., Ltd. set up the first modern machinery plant for sugar production in Taiwan, named ”Taiwan Sugar Cooperation”（now run by the Ministry of Economic of Taiwan）. It is the beginning of the first wave of industrial revolution in Taiwan in the 20th Century. The profitable sugar business became the mainstay for the Japanese colonial government in Taiwan. In 1919, the parties related to sugar factories around the country initiated the first steel factory in Taiwan, the Da-Go Steel Factory. The purpose of establishing the plant was to maintain and produce the sugar-making machineries. With Da-Go Steel Factory, the steel industry of Kaohsiung inaugurated. In early 20th Century, Kaohsiung gradually developed into an important industrial city in Taiwan. In attempting to extend power to the South-Pacific region, Japanese government made plans such as ”industry in Japan; agriculture in Taiwan” and “industry in Taiwan; agriculture in South-Pacific” in the early colonial period in Taiwan, and Kaohsiung was one vital port for Taiwan’s industry.
In 1940, Teng Eng Iron Works Company Ltd. opened its steel factory in Kaohsiung. It is the first private-run steel factory in Taiwan. The plant takes waste steel as raw material and uses electric furnaces to forge iron. It was once the top steel factory of the country, with its production occupying half of that of the entire country. At the time, there was such saying as “in the north, there is Ta-Tung【note】; in the south, there is Teng Eng”.
The Pacific War broke out in 1941. The U.S. army bombed the KaohsiungHarbor violently. In 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender. The sunken ships inside the KaohsiungHarbor amounted to one hundred and seventy-eight. The harbor was full of holes and hollows made by the bombing, and became lifeless. In 1946, the salvage of the sunken ships began. In 1947, the historical phase of KaohsiungHarbor being the “kingdom of ship deconstruction” initiated along with the institution of “Regulation on Ship-Salvage” and ”Executive bylaws of Ship-Salvage”.
After the sunken ships are taken apart, the remnants like waste steel, old ship-boards, waste iron, waste copper and machinery parts become the resource of steel industry. Therefore, the relation between ship deconstruction and steel industry is very close. In 1953, Taiwan’s Executive Yuan and Government listed Kaohsiung city as an important site for industrial development. In 1960, the seashore industrial area was set up, along with the steel-making plants with their production line. The need for waste steel thus increased, and the ship deconstruction companies provided ample raw materials for the steel industry.
From 1946 when the ship deconstruction industry in Kaohsiung started, to 1965 when the Government enacted the “Subsidiary method in support of processing imported waste ships”, and began to deconstruct imported waste ships, the city proceeded to make a record in 1973 for taking down the most amount of ships in the world.
In 1975, the SecondHarbor was completed. It is capable of holding big ships carrying more than one hundred thousands tons of mineral or of coal. It encouraged the change and growth of the steel industry. China Steel started its operation in 1977, whereas the traditional private companies of ship deconstruction also evolved into production-lined smelting plant for imported minerals, and into steel factories equipped with arc furnaces. Large-scale steel factories such as Sheng Yu Steel Co. Ltd., Yieh Hsing Enterprise Co. and Yieh Loong Enterprise Co.（now Chung Hung Steel）opened successively, and their production changed from the previous domestic-oriented tendency to that of export business. The development of KaohsiungHarbor and the policy of the Government have created KaohsiungCity into Taiwan’s city of steel. （text by Hsu Ling-Ling）
【note】Ta Tung company was founded and headquartered in Taiwan in 1918. It is a worldwide enterprise in the design and manufacturing of a vast array of digital consumer products.
