Chapter 2414
Although the delivery period claimed by Zhang Tiangui sounds very long, it is not an exaggeration for the shipbuilding industry of this era. Starting from the payment of a deposit and the ordering of a ship, the shipyard needs to formulate a shipbuilding plan, prepare materials, prepare the slipway, lay the keel, and Each link of the hull construction, launching and outfitting, sea trials, delivery and acceptance takes a certain amount of time. Although the Yugong-class sailboat Liang Liping plans to order has a mature construction plan, which can save a lot of preliminary preparation work, the construction cycle of such a large sailboat is inherently long, not to mention eight ships are ordered at one time. Sanya Shipyard simply has no time to spare. Without so many slipways, construction can only be carried out in batches, and the construction period will naturally be extended.
Liang Liping actually knew all these situations, but Sanya Shipyard is the shipyard with the strongest technical strength in Haihan. The Yugong-class sailing ship was born here, so it also has the richest experience in building this kind of cargo sailing ship. Although the cost is higher than that of other local shipyards, Liang Liping certainly hopes that the cargo ships she spends a lot of money to order can receive reliable quality assurance.
But now it seems that the three key factors of shipbuilding location, cost and delivery time cannot reach a balance that satisfies Liang Liping. If she wants to ensure that the shipyard can deliver these cargo ships in the shortest time, she must pay attention to the other two factors. Compromise on conditions.
Yu Feng did not intervene on this issue because it was not his professional scope. It was Liang Liping who dealt with shipbuilding, shipping, and logistics every day. It was also Liang Liping who made the decision on the formation plan of the entire shipping company, and has already made plans for this. Having done a lot of preliminary work, he believed that his wife could make an accurate judgment on the current situation and choose the approach that was most beneficial to him.
Zhang Tiangui saw that Liang Liping was still hesitant about his suggestion, so he continued: "If Director Liang agrees with the practice of subcontracting shipbuilding orders, then I recommend you to the government offices in Danzhou, Haikou, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, and Zhoushan All shipyards can build Yugong-class cargo sailing ships. As for delivery and acceptance, the shipyard can also arrange for the ship to be shipped back to Sanya for delivery.”
Liang Liping asked bluntly: "But if I place an order with these shipyards by myself, the cost should be slightly cheaper than that of Sanya Shipyard, right?"
"It's probably 10% to 15% cheaper." Zhang Tiangui frankly admitted Liang Liping's statement: "But you can't just look at the price. For the shipbuilding orders subcontracted by Sanya, the future maintenance and repairs will also be carried out by Sanya Shipyard. You have to be responsible to the end. But if Director Liang goes to these shipyards to place orders on his own, then Sanya will have no corresponding responsibility. This is not my arbitrary decision, but the regulations of the Ministry of Shipping, and all shipyards follow this. . If the cargo ships ordered by Director Liang are intended to run routes other than Sanya, then you can choose the nearest shipyard based on actual arrangements. But if Sanya is the home port, I suggest that it is best to place the order at Sanya Shipyard. Then subcontract it out.”
Zhang Tiangui's words have already made it very clear. The price difference charged by Sanya Shipyard is to bear the cost of after-sales maintenance in the future. If Liang Liping feels that Sanya Shipyard will not need to repair and maintain these ships in the future, then there is indeed no need to place an order here.
However, both Yu Feng and Liang Liping work in Sanya, and the shipyard company planned by Liang Liping also uses Sanya as its home port to conduct business. Naturally, the future repair and maintenance needs of the ship must be taken into consideration. It seemed that in order to shorten the order delivery time as much as possible, she could only compromise on the price and the shipbuilding location.
However, Liang Liping did not agree with the plan proposed by Zhang Tiangui, but carefully inquired with him about the situation of various government-run shipyards to confirm that these shipyards had the ability to build Yugong-class cargo sailing ships.
Zhang Tiangui understood what she was worried about and said that the corresponding quality requirements and shipbuilding schedule would be written into the contract, so there was no need to worry about other shipyards not being able to deliver qualified cargo ships on time. To put it bluntly, if such a situation does occur, Sanya Shipyard will also assume corresponding responsibilities and provide compensation or other forms of compensation to the ship owner.
After hearing this explanation, Liang Liping felt that such conditions were acceptable, so she spent some time confirming with Zhang Tiangui how to subcontract the eight ship orders to ensure the fastest delivery time.
After roughly discussing these details, Zhang Tiangui asked Liang Liping when she planned to sign a formal shipbuilding contract. After all, the shipyard would not officially start the relevant processes until her shipbuilding payment was in place. Liang Liping said that he still needs to visit officials from other relevant departments before he can determine whether the shipbuilding plan needs to be changed. News will be available within two or three days at the earliest.
The next person Liang Liping wants to meet is Schneider, who is in charge of finance and trade. The next day, when she met Schneider, Yu Feng couldn't leave because of the on-site production work at the factory, so he didn't follow her.
The purpose of Liang Liping's appointment with Schneider was to use the couple's dividend shares as collateral to obtain a loan from Haihan Bank to build a ship and start a shipping company. To this end, she also prepared a business plan in advance to cope with Schneider's review.
Schneider patiently read Liang Liping's plan and nodded in approval: "This plan is very professional, but if you want to run this company, it means leaving your current position. Am I right to understand this?"
Liang Liping's current job is under the Ministry of Commerce. Schneider can be regarded as her immediate boss, so it is natural for her to ask about this matter. Liang Liping did not deny Schneider's interpretation. She nodded and said: "After the company opens, I will definitely not be able to continue working in the Ministry of Commerce, at least not in a full-time position. But I have been waiting for more than ten years, and I must do something. That’s why I made the decision to come here.”
"I must say, this is really a big loss for the Ministry of Commerce. From an official perspective, I am very reluctant to let you resign." Schneider paused and then said: "But from a personal perspective, I will still congratulate you. Take this step bravely. After so many years, many people have forgotten their original intention of coming to this world, and are content with enjoying themselves and are unwilling to work hard anymore... I am very happy to see people like you standing up and doing it. Something that only us time travelers can do.”
Liang Liping didn't expect Schneider to have such a high opinion of herself, so she quickly said a few words of humility, thinking that today's matter should go more smoothly than she expected.
But Schneider immediately changed the subject and said: "Although you have resigned from public office, the Ministry of Commerce will still assign personnel to supervise your shipping company. This is also for your own good."
Liang Liping nodded and said, "I understand this rule." Not all private commercial institutions must be supervised by the Ministry of Commerce, but if they want to take over official business, they must have the corresponding qualifications, and accepting official supervision is a necessary condition. one. It is probably difficult for Liang Liping's shipping company to obtain enough freight business from the private sector when it first opened, so it is likely to have to rely on the government to provide some supportive business, and some corresponding conditions must be implemented. Liang Liping was originally a practitioner, so she naturally understood what Schneider meant.
Schneider added: "Your husband is in Tiandu all year round, and you usually have to take care of your family and children, so both of you may not be qualified for long-term business trips. Your shipping company can take care of your destination. Part of the business is entrusted to the Ministry of Commerce, which can avoid a lot of unnecessary trouble.”
When Schneider read the plan, he keenly noticed some weaknesses, such as the staffing of professional staff. Based on Liang Liping's current conditions, it would be difficult to recruit enough professional business personnel to set up offices overseas in a short period of time. It may not even be possible to recruit all the required crew members, and the couple would not be able to leave for a long time. Sanya is busy dealing with various affairs. In this case, entrusting part of the business to the Ministry of Commerce is probably the best solution.
As for loans, the preferential conditions provided by Schneider also reflect the tendency of supporting private entrepreneurship. The interest rates are low and the repayment period can be flexibly adjusted. If the shipping company is in good operating conditions, it may only take one or two years to repay these funds. .
The conditions given by Schneider were actually in line with Liang Liping's wishes. Doesn't she know where her shortcomings lie, in terms of capital, personnel, and management methods? These problems are difficult for her to solve on her own. The reason why she dares to start a business under such conditions is that she relies on business. The vast resources the Ministry can provide it. After the establishment of this shipping company, it still had to rely on the Ministry of Commerce to operate for a long time to a certain extent, so that Liang Liping had buffer time to solve all aspects of problems.
"In addition, I suggest that you start contacting businesses now to see if it is possible to undertake some long-term and stable freight business, such as the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of Agriculture. They have a large amount of goods to be shipped in and out every year. As long as you separate a little, it will be enough for your eight ships." Schneider continued to suggest to Liang Liping: "Although these departments will be a little slower in collecting payments, fortunately the business is stable, and you basically don't need to as long as you can receive it. Worried about losing money.”
When Liang Liping heard what he said, she remembered that when she was sailing out to sea the day before yesterday, she had heard Lu Zhanpeng suggest using Miaoli, Taiwan as a freight destination. She wanted to take this opportunity to hear the views of Schneider, a professional, so she mentioned what Lu Zhanpeng said at that time. The proposed plan was stated, but she did not mention Lu Zhanpeng's name specifically out of caution to avoid unnecessary complications.
After hearing this, Schneider asked: "You didn't agree to the other party at that time because you thought that the local freight volume was not enough to support the establishment of a dedicated freight route?"
Liang Liping frankly admitted Schneider's speculation and said that the local development process does not seem to be ideal. If a special route is to be established, the shipping company will have to make some targeted modifications to the cargo ships and provide specialized training for the crew. These additional investments may not be earned back.
Schneider smiled and said: "It seems that you haven't found anyone who really knows the local development situation to provide resources!"
Liang Liping heard that there was something in his tone and quickly asked him for the reason.
Schneider said: "The oil production area in Miaoli has not been operating satisfactorily. A large part of the reason is that the local transportation problems have not been well solved. This has slowed down our industrialization process, so the executive committee is prepared to There are already preliminary plans to fundamentally solve the local transportation problem.”
Liang Liping was not an outsider, so Schneider revealed a little about the development plan to him. Miaoli has dozens of square kilometers of coastal plains, and the local water system is developed. The soil of these alluvial plains is very fertile, and is very suitable for agricultural development, growing food and various cash crops. Therefore, the Executive Committee is planning to take advantage of this period of time when a large number of refugee populations can be obtained from the north to introduce immigrants to Miaoli.
Of course, this is only one of them. The executive committee’s real plan is to build a transportation channel from Chusangkeng Oilfield to the coastline. The current idea is to lay rails and build a railway. However, because the traffic length of this route may exceed 40 miles, and relevant departments are still demonstrating its feasibility, the Ministry of Construction has sent specialists to Miaoli to conduct on-site surveys of the local environment to formulate corresponding construction plans. But whether it is building a road or a railway, the construction of this land channel to open up the oil production area will definitely start this year.
In addition, the cargo terminal located near the coast is also part of the related projects. Liang Liping has already heard from Lu Zhanpeng about the terminal. Once this channel is built, the 40-50 mile journey from the coast to the oil production area can be shortened by more than half. Coupled with the large number of refugees that are about to move to the area for resettlement, local freight demand will definitely be much greater than it is now. Of course, whether the transportation volume of petrochemical products will increase depends largely on whether relevant departments can achieve breakthroughs in oil extraction and refining technology.
Schneider said: "The news you got is indeed correct. There is currently no stable demand for shipping in the local area, but this also means that there is no competition. Those who start first may have the opportunity to dominate the local shipping business."
After talking to Lu Zhanpeng last time, Liang Liping also went to understand the relevant situation and raised questions: "As far as I know, the current local oil production is still very limited, and the refined oil after refining is It’s even less, maybe ten tons a month. Is it really necessary to build dedicated roads and docks?”
Schneider said: "Miaoli's oil production is indeed very low, but this is the only oil field we currently have the conditions to exploit. The petrochemical base planned by the Ministry of Industry has been prepared for several years, but many large equipment are difficult to transport through current transportation methods. To reach oil extraction areas, road construction is a must. Besides, after these infrastructures are completed, they will not only be used to transport petrochemical products, but also local agricultural products and forests, which will definitely be cost-effective in the long run.”
(End of chapter)