Steel has always been a commodity of choice for China. Ambitions of former Chinese leaders concentrated heavily on steel production and China learned the hard way with the failure of the great leap forward, right before the cultural revolution. The government realized that steel produced by backyard furnaces were useless because the quality was so low. The call for integrated steel plant yielded Baosteel. Its location near Yang Tze river makes it easier to get the raw materials, to get water needed during the production (to cool the steel after the melting process requires lots of water), and to reach global market.