Chapter 445 The final crazy boat buying
In late July, Yang Wendong once again came to the Keelung Shipyard in Wanwan;
At this moment, in front of the dock, two large oil tankers were parked in the water. On the hulls, there were a large number of red cloth flowers wrapped around them.
"Hello, Mr. Yang." Director Zhao from Keelung Shipyard came to greet him with his men.
"Director Zhao, hello." Yang Wendong also shook hands and said.
Director Zhao then said: "Mr. Yang, thank you very much for choosing to cooperate with our Longi Shipyard. Today is the handover ceremony of your two new ships. We will go to the top now."
"Okay." Yang Wendong said with a smile.
Under the leadership of Director Zhao, several people first took advantage of the time to go around one of the ships. Yang Wendong, Zheng Yuhua and several captains from Changxing Shipping also had a preliminary understanding of the ship.
Then several people went to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony next to the dock. This was the first time that the Wanwan shipbuilding industry produced an oil tanker of more than 50,000 tons. It also attracted the attention of many local media in Wanwan, including TV stations.
Faced with reporters' filming, Yang Wendong was also normal.
In the early days, he was still more concerned about hiding his photos, but now as the scale of the industry becomes larger and larger, there are too many reporters and people interested in this aspect, which also makes it difficult to spread the photos because there are no The few times I took photos with the Hong Kong Governor, it was hard to refuse.
This in itself is also an inevitable price for the industry to grow too big. In the previous life, around the 21st century, who in the world did not know the appearance of Bill Gates? Although Yang Wendong is still far less famous than Gates today, the truth is the same.
After the ribbon-cutting, the two ships sailed to Hong Kong under the attention of reporters. This is also a routine transaction. The ships need to be transported to Hong Kong and then pass double inspection by the government and customers before the transaction can be officially considered a deal
After the ship went away, Yang Wendong and others arrived at an office building inside the Keelung Shipyard.
"Yang Sheng, this is our unique tea in Wanwan. Please try it." Director Zhao said with a smile.
"Thank you." Yang Wendong also said politely, then tasted it and said: "The tea tastes pretty good."
When he first time travelled, he didn't actually know much about tea. After all, he didn't have this habit in his previous life, so he drank it. But in the past few years after traveling, he drank a lot of tea, so he knew a little bit about it. You can tell the difference between good and bad when you taste it.
Director Zhao smiled and said: "Then I still have a few kilograms of tea here, so I will give it to Mr. Yang."
"Thank you very much." Yang Wendong agreed. He naturally didn't need to be polite with a small gift.
This is not an officialdom. In a shopping mall, if bosses give each other gifts, they have to accept them. This can actually build good relationships.
However, this is only suitable for private companies with sole proprietorships on both sides. If it is a listed company or a company with shares, or has some financial relationship with the government, you need to be cautious.
"Yang Sheng is so polite." Factory Director Zhao added: "I would also like to thank Yang Sheng for placing an order with us in Wanwan this time, otherwise I don't know when we will have a breakthrough."
Yang Wendong asked: "Director Zhao, has Keelung Shipyard received an order for a 50,000-ton oil tanker from another company?"
Large oil tankers are a very high-risk commodity, because once an oil tanker leaks oil in the sea, the ship owner behind it will suffer heavy losses or even go bankrupt; although the Maritime Convention has also tied up the rights and interests of the ship's client. , but no matter what, the shipowner's losses are also very large.
Therefore, it is difficult for a new company to obtain customers for tankers in new areas. Just like the C919 aircraft in the previous life, its development is also very slow.
Director Zhao replied: "Not yet. It is estimated that customers in the market want to wait for the two oil tankers in Yang Sheng's hands to operate for a period of time and then see the results."
"Absolutely." Yang Wendong added: "Even on my side, in the early stages of operation, we only dare to take some short-distance routes, and additional manpower will be invested to avoid special situations."
Even with Yang Wendong's financial resources today, he would not dare to take a gamble, so he must avoid some large risks in the early stage, such as not going to some economically developed sea areas, not going to far seas, and not going to areas with bad weather. Try to avoid problems while making it easy to remedy them in a timely manner even if they do occur.
Director Zhao said: "That's good. In addition, I can also send a group of engineers to station on these two ships for a long time. If there are any problems, the technicians can also communicate easily."
"Okay, no problem." Yang Wendong naturally agreed.
The other party's purpose must also be to collect ship data, which will also facilitate the optimization of subsequent ships in the future. This is normal. Although the shipyard will conduct testing before delivery, it cannot spend a long time and energy. Just like a car, testing Wouldn't it become an old car if there were too many? And the company doesn’t have that much energy.
Many car brands, before launching new cars, will sell the cars to their employees at a low price and let them drive them slowly. This is good for everyone, as long as there are no major quality problems.
"Thank you." Director Zhao said with a smile.
Yang Wendong said again: "Director Zhao, if I say that I still want to place an order with you, what discounts will I get?"
"Do you really mean what Mr. Yang said?" Director Zhao asked with some shock in his eyes.
"Of course, but it also depends on the price." Yang Wendong confirmed.
Director Zhao pondered for a moment and said: "Mr. Yang, if you can continue to place orders, then I can guarantee that the current price will be the same as before; you also know that the market price of ships has increased a lot in the past two years, and even steel It’s also gone up a bit. If I use the original price, it’s already a huge discount.”
"Well, let me discuss it internally." Naturally, Yang Wendong would not agree now, so he continued: "In terms of quantity, what is your production capacity and speed?"
Director Zhao was stunned for a moment and asked: "How many ships does Mr. Yang want to buy?"
"My idea is 10 ships, but I don't know if you can have enough docks here? And the time for each ship." Yang Wendong said with a smile.
It is now the middle of 1965, and the Middle East crisis is less than two years away. What he wants to do is to lock in some future ships from the shipyard, even if they are from the Gulf.
Of course, this is also because historically, the shipbuilding industry in Wanwan has taken off since the 1970s, and there have never been any major problems. Otherwise, even if he wanted to support the Chinese shipbuilding industry, he would not dare to make such a fuss. The risk is too high.
"10 ships?" Director Zhao's face changed a little, and after a while he said: "Mr. Yang, to be honest with you, our Keelung Shipyard currently only has two such ships, but if you really place such a large order, Then I can plan to apply for two more docks.
However, shipyard construction also takes time, so based on the rate of one ship per year, it will take almost 4 years to complete delivery. The first few ships will be delivered as soon as one is completed. "Four years, that's okay." Yang Wendong said: "Director Zhao, although I am the owner of the company, I can only make such a plan. In the follow-up, you still need to negotiate with Ms. Zheng." ”
Even if the boss can really make a decision, he usually won't make it in front of outsiders, because once he says it, it's hard to go back on it, because it will affect his personal credibility.
But if you are a subordinate, as long as you don't sign the contract, you can change your opinion the next day just by saying "The boss {the board of directors} disagrees".
"Of course." Director Zhao looked at Zheng Yuhua and said, "Ms. Zheng, please take care of me. We also hope to cooperate with Changxing Shipping again in this cooperation." ’
Zheng Yuhua said with a smile: "Okay, I will officially issue a purchase plan in the future."
"Okay, that's it." Yang Wendong said: "Director Zhao, I hope we can cooperate for a long time in the future."
"Me too." Director Zhao quickly stood up and said.
Hong Kong is now Asia's largest gathering place for shipping kings. It is also a large trade transit center and export base. The demand for ships is very high;
If Wanwan wants to focus on developing the shipbuilding industry, it must capture this nearest market that is mostly Chinese. Changxing Shipping is a very suitable company. It has abundant funds behind it, and once it confirms that there are no problems with its ships, it will That will inevitably bring more Hong Kong customers.
After leaving the Keelung Shipyard, a group of people from Changxing Shipping came to a nearby hotel. Next to a beach, Yang Wendong, Bai Yujie, and Zheng Yuhua sat together.
"Sister Zheng, are the banks in Japan unwilling to give us a credit limit?" Yang Wendong asked while drinking tea.
Zheng Yuhua said: "It's not that they won't give the quota, but they won't give 65% or even higher. They think our current debt in the Japanese banking industry is too high, at least until our fleet has been operating for a period of time. Time will be considered.”
"Well, it seems that it is a bit difficult to order Japanese ships again." Yang Wendong nodded and said.
Many times, just knowing the future may not be of much use. If you want to maximize your profits, you must use leverage to amplify the funds in your hands through banks.
He has been operating like this in the past few years, which has made him the largest ship owner in Hong Kong in a few years. However, bank leverage also has limits. It is useless to believe in your own future judgment. Other banks do not believe it, and banks There are also risk management and control rules in place.
This is like playing futures. Even if you know that a stock will plummet, you can't do dozens of times of leverage when shorting, except in some online novels
Zheng Yuhua continued: "Another reason is that Japanese shipyards are very busy nowadays, including other Hong Kong shipping kings and European and American companies placing orders in Japan. They don't want to be too busy now, and they must be looking for businesses with less risk to cooperate."
"Then forget it this year." Yang Wendong paused and said, "We will operate with peace of mind for one or two years. After the follow-up funds have improved and some additional loans have been repaid, we will then consider buying ships from Japan. Now we will first settle the issue in Wanwan. Just the shipyard.”
In today's era, ships make money just like a broom sweeps away gold. Naturally, everyone comes to order ships. There is no shortage of orders for shipyards, so they naturally pick and choose. This is also the case with Wanwan Shipyard, because there is no guarantee based on experience. Others dare not place orders.
"Okay." After Zheng Yuhua agreed, he said: "Yang Sheng, in fact, if you want to order ships, there is another place, and that is Europe."
"Europe? I'm afraid the price of ships in Europe can be sky-high, right?" Yang Wendong said with a smile.
Nowadays, he has only purchased a luxury cruise ship from Europe once, and that was because Japan did not produce such a thing.
Zheng Yuhua replied: "Yes, it is very expensive, but there are still many shipyards in Europe today, and many shipping companies buy from them. The fundamental reason for this is Europe's internal protection policy, that is, only ships purchased by Europe. to operate within Europe”
"Then if I buy a boat, can I get business from Europe?" Yang Wendong asked with a thought in his heart.
If you want to be a global shipping king, you cannot only do business in Asia, but also do business in Europe, America, South America and even Africa;
Zheng Yuhua said: "Yes, I have been in contact with many European airlines over the years, and they are also happy to rent Hong Kong ships. Compared with some shipowners in Europe and the United States, our Hong Kong shipowners are much cheaper and our services are also very strong. .”
"What about finance?" Yang Wendong asked again. Naturally, he was a little excited,
It was originally inconvenient to buy ships in Japan and could only be purchased in Wanwan, but Wanwan has limited production capacity. Before the Middle East crisis, it could only give itself 500,000 tons of ships. It is impossible to expand further, but in Europe, Maybe it's also a breakthrough.
Historically, the biography of Bao Yugang once clearly described that when Bao Yugang went to the French shipyard to place orders or receive ships in the late 1970s, the Minister of Commerce personally accompanied him. That is enough to show that even around the 1980s, Bao Yugang A shrewd shipping king like Yuoka would go to Europe to book ships. This was certainly not because French ships were cheap, but because they were profitable.
Zheng Yuhua said: "These are basically supporting services, which are similar to those in Japan, but we still need to talk with them;
But one thing is that the ship trade between Europe is mainly for freight, not oil, so we can only buy freighters in Europe. ”
"There are already a lot of container terminals in Europe, so just buy container ships directly." Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said: "It just so happens that European shipbuilding companies have more experience in this area."
Containers were born in the United States and were gradually promoted. Therefore, the European and American shipbuilding industries were among the first to develop container freighters. They even had many patents, forcing small Japanese shipbuilding companies to purchase them.
"Okay, then I will arrange for someone to contact the airlines and shipyards in Europe." Zheng Yuhua said.
"Thank you for your hard work. I'll leave the affairs of Wanwan and Europe to you. Let me know if there is any progress." Yang Wendong said again.
The Middle East crisis is coming in two years. It is uncertain whether I will be able to order a large number of ships from Japanese shipyards in two years. Therefore, this operation may be the last time to purchase additional ships before the Middle East crisis. .
In fact, such expansion is not normal. Even Bao Yugang, who has HSBC behind him, could not compare with Changxing Shipping in its initial expansion.
"Yang Sheng is so polite. This is what I should do." Zheng Yuhua said with a smile.
Yang Wendong added: "We will continue to acquire some other suitable second-hand ships, as long as they are not too dilapidated. We cannot make much profit on these ships, but we will not lose money either."
According to the current freight rate, this is indeed the case, but in two years, it will be completely different. By then, an old ship can make back its investment in one year.
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(End of chapter)