When did China start making steel?

Northern Song Dynasty.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, my country's iron-making technology progressed and iron production increased significantly before a fundamental turnaround occurred. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the annual output of iron was as high as 8 million kilograms. This output seems to be a lot, but when converted into current units, it is only 4,000 tons of iron (our country's current annual steel output is 100 million tons).

But in ancient times, the national annual output of 4,000 tons of iron was already a very impressive figure. Calculated based on the manufacturing weight of iron pots at that time, if all the iron output in the Northern Song Dynasty in this year was used to make iron The pot can produce more than 1 million pots. With such an entry-level iron production capacity, it can not only meet the needs of weapons, armors, coins, Buddha statues, etc., but also serve the pots and stoves of tens of millions of civilians. ?

It was precisely because of the popularity of iron pots in the Song Dynasty that it effectively promoted the promotion of Chinese stir-fry methods in the Song Dynasty.

Extended information:

Ironware is an object made by smelting and processing iron ore. The emergence of iron tools brought about epoch-making progress in human history.

The oldest smelting iron tool unearthed in the world is the copper-handled iron-blade dagger unearthed from the tombs of Hittite ancestors in northern Turkey (Anatolia). The oldest smelting iron tool currently discovered in China is Two iron bars unearthed from the Mogou Siwa Cultural tomb in Lintan County, Gansu Province.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Ironware