Chapter 672 Opportunities in Crisis (Second update, please subscribe)
In fact, industrial transfer must be carried out no matter what.
Facts speak louder than words. Even if you try every means to stop it, you can't stop the market's choice. The market is the most cruel and also the most real.
With the development of the economy, Nanyang people will not and cannot engage in low value-added jobs, such as the production and manufacturing of the simplest affordable clothing. Relying on garment manufacturing, toy manufacturing and other such industries, Nanyang will always It is impossible to develop into a modern power that can compete with, or even keep pace with, the United States and the Soviet Union.
“Some jobs are bound to be eliminated with the progress of the times. This is an inevitable trend in historical development. Just like the internal combustion engine eliminated the steam engine, the internal combustion engine will eventually be eliminated. After all, the oil price is too expensive..."
Although the words stopped suddenly, no one responded to him in the empty study room.
Stand up from the large teak desk, cross the room, and walk to the glass window on the south wall In front of you,
If you observe it from the street of the official residence, people can't actually see the office behind the hidden garden. Even so, the windows have been equipped with 20 cm thick bulletproof glass to prevent The sniper attempts to shoot from a distance.
At the same time, Li Yian stood inside and could only see the scenery of the mansion garden. However, Li Yian, who was staring out the window, felt that he could see the prosperity of Chang'an.
You can see the pedestrians and vehicles passing by in Chang'an Central Business District.
vehicle!
"Oil prices...Wuling Bingo's orders have exceeded 150,000 vehicles!"
Li Yian said to himself,
150,000 vehicles!
This is the number of orders Wuling Motors has received so far!
This number far exceeds the company's initial forecast. To a large extent, they underestimated the Nanyang automobile market. When they introduced automated production equipment from Detroit, the planned production capacity was only 300,000 vehicles.
The production in the first year was only 100,000 units!
So much so that the orders for "Bingo" have now been scheduled for next year, but even so, the orders are still increasing. After all, a car costing 500 yuan a car is not affordable for most Nanyang families. burden.
As for using a car, it is not a burden. Oil in this era is cheap - only US$1.7 per barrel. Even because oil is extremely cheap, Li Yian is not even willing to allow oil companies to expand production capacity.
There is no way, because the reserves of oil are limited. Nanyang currently has enough oil, but in the future it will definitely need to import a large amount of oil. After all, tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of cars are there.
That day is not far away. After all, with the popularization of automobiles, every household in Nanyang will definitely have a car in the future. In at most ten years, Nanyang will become a country on automobile wheels. Perhaps in less than ten years, Nanyang will change from an oil exporter to an importer.
So now, Li Yian is more inclined to improve and develop the petrochemical industry than to exploit oil. After all, the more oil is extracted now, the more it will be imported in the future. And oil will be more valuable in the future.
Especially during the several oil crises in the 1970s - such as the outbreak of the Fourth Middle East War, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) declared an oil embargo and suspended exports in order to attack its rival Israel and countries that support Israel. causing oil prices to rise. At that time, the price of crude oil rose from less than $3 per barrel in 1973 to more than $13.
The increase in oil prices greatly increased the international balance of payments deficit of Western developed countries, ultimately triggering the largest economic crisis in the post-war world.
Throughout the 1970s, the economic recession caused by expensive oil shrouded the entire Western world like a nightmare. Productivity growth in all industrialized countries has slowed significantly, or even gone negative.
Thinking of the oil crisis that would hit all industrialized countries twenty-three years later, Li Yian's brows knitted together. He stood by the window and frowned, thinking,
"Oil, oil... …”
Actually, he didn’t care much about the changes brought about by the oil crisis in the Middle East. After the oil crisis, huge amounts of wealth poured into the Middle East. As if overnight, the oil-producing countries in the Middle East transitioned from abject poverty to poverty. The sudden wealth gave rise to the so-called "Middle East tycoon". From then on, the Middle East tycoon has simply become synonymous with the rich.
But that's not important.
What he is concerned about is the economy of Nanyang.
In another world, during the oil crisis, Germany and Japan, which had the strongest economic growth after the war, both fell into economic recession. Japan's economic growth rate that year was -3.25%! What about Nanyang?
In the future oil crisis, what will Nanyang's economy look like?
“This is the real choke point!”
Muttering to himself like this, Li Yian had an idea in his mind - now , immediately establish oil reserves.
"You can take advantage of the current low prices to build oil reserves first, just like the United States... No, it should be like the United States in the future."
It was the oil crisis that led the United States and major Western countries to start building oil reserves. "Strategic Petroleum Reserve", although at the initiative of the United States, 13 countries gathered in Washington and established the International Energy Agency to coordinate oil allocation issues among member countries when emergencies cause oil supply interruptions.
However, the two oil crises that followed successively proved that oil reserves can only meet temporary emergencies and cannot solve the root of the problem at all.
After all, in the face of the oil crisis, the total amount of oil reserves established by various countries is extremely limited, although it can relieve the pressure within a certain period of time.
However, the role it played was very limited and it did not fundamentally solve the problem.
"What is the root of the problem?"
Li Yian asked and answered himself.
“It’s oil!”
Oil!
Oil is a mineral product, and like all mineral products it has its own price. This price is basically controlled by two factors: one is the necessity of this mineral in the world's economic and industrial development; the other is the rarity of this resource.
Oil is a very common mineral resource. It is distributed in many countries around the world, but its distribution is highly concentrated, such as the Persian Gulf region, North America, the Mexican coast and Lake Maracaibo region, the Volga-Ural region and Siberia region, the North Sea region of Western Europe, and the Mediterranean Sea of North Africa. Along the coast...
It is its concentration, especially in the Middle East, that gives oil the possibility of being monopolized. As a result, the Fourth Middle East War gave the oil-producing countries in the Middle East the option of "using oil as a weapon".
This also triggered the world economic crisis in the 1970s, triggering the Great Economic Recession throughout the Western world. This economic competition has lasted for more than ten years.
It was also from that era that the tycoon countries in the Middle East rose. It was not just the tycoons who rose, but also a series of issues such as religious expansion.
Although these problems seem far away from Nanyang, is it possible for Nanyang to stay out of the oil crisis twenty-three years later?
Obviously it is impossible. Nanyang's economy will be highly tied to European and American countries in the future. There is no choice. After all, Nanyang is a "country based on trade" and is highly dependent on the markets of developed European countries. When developed countries in Europe and the United States fall into economic recession, it will inevitably hit Southeast Asia's economy hard. This is why Japan was most seriously injured in the first oil crisis - its economy relies on the European and American markets.
"Even if we build oil reserves, we cannot stay away from the crisis. Oil crisis, oil crisis..."
Li Yian was pacing back and forth in the office like this. , everyone who knows him knows that this is his habit when thinking about things.
“Crisis, crisis is yes, but it is also an opportunity, just like Japanese cars! Wasn’t it the oil crisis that opened the door to the US market?”
The oil crisis has greatly affected users' car buying preferences and habits. Japanese cars have begun to be favored by consumers for their fuel-saving, economical and cheap characteristics. Japanese cars also ushered in the trend of going global. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the oil crisis, Japanese cars eventually became an important part of the global automobile industry. The economical and fuel-saving characteristics of Japanese cars have made them popular around the world, and they have opened up the U.S. market that advocates high horsepower. Coupled with the cost reduction brought about by lean manufacturing, Japan's total automobile production exceeded 11 million units in 1980, surpassing the United States to become the largest automobile producer and exporter.
Later, after Japan's semiconductor and home appliance industries declined, the automobile industry became crucial to Japan and even became Japan's largest pillar industry.
Isn't this the opportunity brought by the oil crisis? ?
(End of this chapter)