Chapter 389 The initial trial of the petroleum derivatives industry
"Okay, there is a lot of farmland over there in Kwai Chung. In the future, with the permission of the Hong Kong government, it can be converted into industrial land." Wei Zetao paused and asked again Said: "Yang Sheng, in the spinning industry, although there are many such factories in Hong Kong today, they are actually just processing, and all core raw materials are imported."
"The raw material for spinning is cotton. With chemical fiber?" Yang Wendong asked again.
Although I am not very familiar with the textile industry, as someone who has experienced the teachings of the Internet, I can understand a little bit about many things.
“Yes, it’s cotton and chemical fiber, but high-end clothes may also include wool, duck down, etc.” Wei Zetao continued: “These two materials cannot be produced in Hong Kong, and cotton is naturally mainly from From the Mainland, among the materials that Hong Kong imports the most from the Mainland, apart from daily food, the second most important item is cotton;
Chemical fibers are mainly imported from Japan. Currently, there are only a few countries in the world that can produce chemical fibers on a large scale, and Japan is the cheapest. "
"It is impossible for us to do these two things with cotton. This is a matter of agriculture. Yang Wendong paused and said, "So you want Formosa Plastics to produce chemical fiber?" ”
When it comes to agricultural manufacturing, he will not participate for the time being. At present, he has no ability to guarantee that overseas agricultural investment will have a safe environment. After all, he is not an American capital; and even if there is no problem with safety, It’s too bad to invest in agriculture at this time.
In the 1960s and 1970s, there were various golden opportunities. There are too many problems, and it is not worthwhile to invest capital in land. It is better to wait until there is too much money in hand and no direction to invest, and then consider investing in land to preserve value.
Wei Zetao nodded and said: "Yes, Wang Yongqing is now. He was preparing to double his plastic production capacity, so he took this opportunity to build another chemical fiber production line.
In this way, it will be much easier for us to enter the spinning industry in the future, whether we open a factory in Wanwan or Hong Kong. Even if we do not make this investment, Formosa Plastics will not lose money in making chemical fibers. Today, Hong Kong’s demand for chemical fibers The amount is enough to support a medium-sized chemical fiber factory. ”
“Can they make chemical fiber? "Yang Wendong asked again.
Wei Zetao said: "I'm not sure about this. I have to communicate with Wang Yongqing, but they are all petroleum derivatives, so there should be no problem;
And Wang Yongqing is very ambitious. He is no longer satisfied with the Hong Kong and Bay markets, and is working hard to export to Southeast Asia. Now let him do one more business, and we will provide financial and even order support. He is sure Will be interested. "
"Okay, then you can discuss it with Wang Yongqing. "Yang Wendong nodded in agreement.
...
In the following days, work continued, life continued, and nothing big happened.
The entire Changxing Group is already a very large ship. When running at high speed, it can already move forward smoothly. Even controlling the direction is operated by professional managers.
As for the boss Yang Wendong, he only needs to decide the direction within a period of time, and then refuel at the right time.
Such a ship, even if Yang Wendong doesn't care about it one day, will move forward with overwhelming force. All the sailors, captains, captains, etc. on the ship have become a community of interests.
...
A week later, Wei Zetao and Zheng Zhijie came to Yang Wendong's office again.
Zheng Zhijie opened a map and said: "Yang Sheng, I have chosen three more suitable locations in Kwai Chung. Look, they are all on the edge of Kwai Chung town."
< br>Yang Wendong took the map, looked at it for a while and said: "These areas are not very large, tens of thousands of square feet. Are you planning to build industrial high-rise buildings?"
The land price in Hong Kong is not cheap. In this case, It will inevitably affect industrial costs, but the existence of industrial buildings will lead to the sharing of land prices among many industries, and ultimately they will be able to compete with other places overseas;
The same is actually true for Changxing Industrial. In the industrial park, various equipment is placed on the first floor, and above are assembly or other workshops that do not put much pressure on the ground, thereby reducing costs.
In addition to Honor Electronics’ TV and transistor production lines!
But such a problem has led to the fact that the main industries in Hong Kong are mainly light industries. If you want to enter higher-end industries, you will face the problem of not having enough land, because it is basically impossible to put high-end production lines. up in the air.
Zheng Zhijie nodded and said: "Yes, it's not that I want it to be like this, but after I negotiated this matter with the Hong Kong government, they asked us to build a high-rise building instead of using a large area to build a one-story workshop. Unless It can be the same as the production line of Honor Electronics, with evidence of special requirements.”
The Hong Kong government is not a fool, and will also approve land based on demand.
Land sales are one of the core sources of fiscal revenue for the Hong Kong government, and the location and size will inevitably be determined based on actual demand.
Manufacturers often don’t go overboard and just give it a try, but if they are obviously hoarding land or there is no sufficient reason, they will definitely not give too much land.
"Well, okay, this is not urgent." Yang Wendong didn't care.
In the early days, he wanted to use industrial development to hoard land first, but now that his scale is large and land prices are still high, it doesn’t matter whether he wants to acquire other land unless it is necessary. .
By 1967, people were selling buildings even in Central... By that time, there were more opportunities.
"Okay." Zheng Zhijie then asked: "Yang Sheng, which of these three pieces of land do you think is suitable?"
Yang Wendong looked at Wei Zetao and asked: "Old Wei, what do you think?"
Wei Zetao pointed to a red circle and said: "I think this location is okay, with a total of 68,800 square feet. We can build a large 10-story industrial building, and warehouses and the like can also be put in.
In this way, no matter how fast the ready-made garment industry develops in the future, the factory area will not be a problem, and the location will be closest to the seaside of Kwai Chung. When the time comes, sea transportation will be possible, but it is the farthest away from the town of Kwai Chung..."
< br>"Are you worried that you can't recruit people?" Yang Wendong asked.
Wei Zetao said with a smile: "It's not that serious. The textile factory does not have high requirements for people. We can just build a dormitory.
I just think that this may not be in line with the group's strategy." "That's okay. Yang Wendong smiled and said: "The group will choose the best location to build the factory, mainly to consider future real estate income.
But the core is the demand of the factory itself. With this demand. First, otherwise it will not work even if we build a factory in Central.”
Although real estate is very important in the future, the current core is to do a good job in manufacturing. Of course, Central is just an example, and it is not possible in reality. .
Wei Zetao said with a smile: "Then choose this location. I will discuss it with the Hong Kong government later and optimize the transportation aspect."
"Okay, let's confirm the location again." Yang Wendong continued: "I will discuss it with Yiyi later. After all, she is currently in charge of the clothing industry."
The core of Changxing Group's many industries was built by Yang Wendong in the early days. However, as the group gradually became a consortium, the group itself They will also try to expand into other industries. This is a characteristic of large groups or consortiums. When the scale becomes large, they will decide to engage in many industries.
The textile industry is one of them, and Su Yiyi is in charge. If the scale can become larger and larger in the future, it will also become one of the core industries of the consortium.
It is not just the textile industry, there are other industries as long as someone is willing to do it and can do it well. That will eventually be funded by the main group; and once these industries have reached scale, they may help each other, become entangled, and ultimately promote each other, similar to Japan's super consortium in the future.
"Okay." Wei Zetao continued: "A few days ago, I also went to Wanwan to discuss chemical fiber matters with Wang Yongqing. He did not agree on the spot. He just said that he would do an investigation first, from the technical and market aspects. , Let’s see if it works.”
“There should be no problem in the market. The global textile industry is developing well. In terms of technology, it depends on him.” Yang Wendong nodded.
When the entire Asian economy began to take off, the first thing to develop was food, clothing, housing and transportation. The cost of housing and transportation was too high and required government operations. Food and clothing was much simpler, so these two markets definitely developed rapidly. , even the mainland, which will be reopened in the next ten years or so, will be the most successful in these two industries in the early stages.
"Yes." Wei Zetao paused and then said: "But I feel that Wang Yongqing seems reluctant. Although there is a market, this should not be within his plan."
"Wang Yongqing probably does have his own ideas." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "If it doesn't work, at worst we will invest in other chemical plants in Wanwan. There is no shortage of such factories in Wanwan."
There are so many things to make money in this world, and a company cannot make everything. A capable leader will generally have his own development steps.
Wang Yongqing's ability goes without saying. In this case, even if he is his major shareholder, he may not be willing to disrupt his own steps to cooperate with him every time. After all, he is not his own subsidiary.
“Yes, if Hong Kong wasn’t suitable, I would have wanted to invest in Hong Kong.” Wei Zetao said with a smile.
Yang Wendong thought for a while and said: "Actually, that's not necessarily the case. When Hong Kong has enough water, we may actually have this opportunity."
In the previous life, Hong Kong did not have any oil derivatives. Industry, but Singapore, which is about the same size, has an oil industry, so in theory, Hong Kong can also do it;
However, Singapore has its advantages, but Hong Kong is still a little different. How to operate it specifically will have to wait and see later. If it doesn't work, you can also invest in Singapore. Anyway, Singapore will be established next year.
At the beginning, there was a lot of waste there, and the Li family was also looking for international capital investment. It happened that they could make huge profits in Singapore early, and in time for the beginning of the real estate crisis in Hong Kong, a large amount of funds could be mobilized to leave. , everything is a perfect match.
Wei Zetao thought for a while and said: "According to my inspection of the Formosa Plastics factory, in addition to water, it also needs electricity and people, and it must also be on the seaside to facilitate drainage and various transportation."< br>
"Well, this is indeed the case in heavy industry." Yang Wendong nodded and said: "People are easy to deal with, just go to Wanwan to dig, and then train internally; for electricity, negotiate with China Electric Power, they should not disagree "
Wei Zetao said with a smile: "In this case, Hong Kong can indeed make plastics, as long as there is no longer water shortage, but even if there is not much water now, we can try it. "
< br>
"Do you want to do it now?" Yang Wendong somewhat understood what Wei Zetao meant.
Wei Zetao nodded and said: "Yes, but my idea is that we start with a small one and study it carefully. It is similar to an experimental nature to see if we can really build a petroleum derivatives industry in Hong Kong. Success;
We have previously judged what problems we will encounter in this process based on some knowledge, but if we don’t do it ourselves, we will never know.”
“ That’s okay, try investing on a small scale, just It doesn’t matter whether we make money or even lose a little, it won’t affect our fundamentals.” After thinking about it, Yang Wendong agreed: “But if it succeeds, or learns some experience, it will be more beneficial to us. .
Even if it is ultimately determined that it fails and Hong Kong cannot do it, then it has eliminated the possibility. It can also give us complete peace of mind and focus on financial investment to control this industry in the future, or invest overseas. .”
"What you see on paper is only shallow, but you know that you have to practice it."
This sentence is a summary of the wisdom of the ancients, and it is also applicable in modern times, let alone the complex petroleum derivatives industry. Even when we first made sticky notes, we encountered many problems in the later production process that we had never thought of in the early stages. Friends who have been in factory management must also be very experienced in this regard.
Now that I have abundant capital, it is a safer way to do a preliminary test. Large companies usually do this. Once it is confirmed, they will either give up if it doesn’t work, or continue to increase investment if it works.
"Just..., Yang Sheng, I asked some professionals that even a small investment in this industry requires at least hundreds of thousands of dollars." Wei Zetao said: "It starts with a small one, and then... We need to build some infrastructure equipment for imported oil. This is how Formosa Plastics came over. Wang Yongqing invested US$500,000. "A few hundred thousand US dollars is not much," Yang Wendong asked: "But how can we import naphtha directly from Hong Kong?" Imported naphtha.”
Hong Kong imports oil from overseas every year. The operation of a city must require oil. The largest merchant is Mobil Oil;
However, what is imported is diesel, gasoline, aviation oil or ships for consumption. Heavy oil is used, while naphtha is needed to refining plastics.
Although they are all petroleum derivatives, the gap is very large. Even a kind of naphtha can produce different plastics through different processes.
“This can only be imported from Wanwan, and Formosa Plastics also imports it every year. We can just buy part of it.” Wei Zetao said again: “But the problem is that this small-scale oil delivery , ordinary ships definitely don’t do it, so we can only rely on our own Changxing Shipping. ’
PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)