Expansion using higher quality steel?

[Guest]

I would welcome your comments on the following. I have been merrily researching all wares associated with producing higher quality steel, i.e coal, iron ore, chemicals and ofcourse steel. I am now in a position to produce at a quality of 5, not massive but a start. My question is should I produce all my steel at that quality, and use for expansion, or mix my production and continue to produce q0 for expansion purposes (producing both q0 and q5)? There is the obvious point of higher production costs, but does that outweigh the convenience of producing all my steel at the same quality?

A compromise maybe to produce all mining wares at the higher quality level and use that to produce both q0 and q5 steel. Or I have also considered producing all my steel at a high enough quality so I can sell at higher than 135 and simply buy the required amount of q0 steel off the NPC. My only question on that is would I be able to sell around a 100,000 higher quality steel each day?

For information I would be using the higher quality steel for wardrobes and electronic goods, albeit on a small scale.

Thanks

BK

[Guest]

My opinion: buy Q0 steel from NPC for expansions and produce only high quality steel and only for sale.

[Guest]

If you produce a steel that can be sold higher than 135, you should definitely produce all your steel in that quality.

Dedicating part of your production power to Q0 steel worth only 135 would actually make you loose money. So you're better off producing everything at max quality, and buying the Q0 from the NPC, for your own needs.

However, if you have trouble finding customers, or if you have to fall back on the market rather than contracts, you can temporarly settle for using your own production to expand. Ultimately, it's what you're already doing by selling higher Q; simply, you make it a longer chain involving other players' money which you put back into the steel NPC.
But such situations should only be temporary. Because if you're having trouble finding regular high Q steel customers willing to pay really more than 135 and making it worth your while, you should obviously settle for another production branch altogether.