The Industrial Giant Reborn

In the next two days, Chen Zhiwen met with the leaders of the Shanghai Municipality many times, many of whom he knew, and everyone mentioned the matter of the Midea Gigafactory intentionally or unintentionally, but everyone knew the appropriateness. Because at present, it is not the time for cities to compete with each other. What the Shanghai Stock Exchange is doing is to increase its impression points before settling on this super project.

On the third day, Chen Zhiwen was invited to the Baosteel factory in Baoshan District, Shanghai.

"This is Baosteel. It feels really grand." Still in the distance, Liu Xiaoli sighed as she saw the steel forest outside through the car glass.

"Of course, how can a factory built with US$8 billion not be big?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"Eight billion U.S. dollars?" Liu Xiaoli was surprised when she heard this figure for the first time. She has seen a lot of the world in Hong Kong this year, but even the largest listed company in Hong Kong has a current market value of less than 3 billion. The most valuable building in Central is estimated to be only US$500 million. Even Midea's annual turnover is only US$3 billion, but it has already become one of the top ten electronics companies in the world.

"Heavy industry cannot just look at input. It drives the overall economy of a country. Don't calculate it with simple numbers." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said.

If it were him personally, even if he only needed 800 million US dollars, let alone 8 billion US dollars, he would not be able to invest in heavy industry. From a personal point of view, it would be more cost-effective to do some low-tech businesses, such as real estate, finance, or taking advantage of the prophetic advantage. Develop the electronics industry, then have capital, and then invest in future retail giants to slowly control the daily necessities industry chain. This is the most cost-effective and has the highest returns. When these industries develop to a very high level, it is unlikely to double again. After the growth, we can then invest appropriately in some more "heavy" industries, such as the automobile industry.

But even the automobile industry is still far behind the steel industry. However, the mainland government is very far-sighted in terms of foresight. No matter how high the cost, it must develop heavy industries, including steel, chemicals, petroleum smelting, etc., which is also true. It is because these industries began to prepare in the 1970s, and only after they matured in the 21st century can the economic development of the mainland government create a miracle of continuous growth.

Otherwise, around 2000, if the country did not have enough steel, oil smelting technology, and the most basic chemical industry, the economy would have been crushed by Europe and the United States easily. As long as there is not enough steel, even the most basic highways will not be able to develop, let alone the automobile industry and the shipbuilding industry. Without Baosteel, these very large industries would not have the opportunity to develop. .

Of course, technology can develop, but raw materials are still stuck. This cannot be changed. This has also been a problem that has plagued the mainland for 20 years. But fortunately, there is more than one supplier, and the combination of various geopolitical factors finally made it through. Hard times.

However, Chen Zhiwen also knew that this project had been deceived a lot by Japan and Germany, but there was no way. All countries refused to sell advanced steelmaking technology, so Baosteel had no choice but to build it.

Soon, the car arrived at the door of Baosteel, where a group of people were already waiting at the door to receive it.

"Mr. Chen, welcome to Baoshan Iron and Steel Plant." After Chen Zhiwen and others got off the bus, a man of about 50 years old headed by the reception team walked over and said with a smile.

Director Ma next to him quickly introduced: "Sheng Chen, this is Mr. Li Ming, the current director of Baosteel."

"Hello, Director Li." Chen Zhiwen also shook hands politely. Being the first factory director of Baosteel is not an ordinary person. You must know that this factory is directly managed by the central government, giving it the most important step in the reform and development of the entire mainland. In the future, I will also cooperate with him for a long time. .

"I have long heard of Mr. Chen's reputation in Hong Kong. What he did in Hong Kong also brought glory to us Chinese." Li Ming said with a smile. He used to work in Yanjing and often heard about things in Hong Kong. After all, Hong Kong's return can be said to be one of the biggest things after the reform. Almost the entire country's resources need to cooperate with this matter.

As for what is happening in Hong Kong, many leaders in Yanjing are also paying close attention to it. A lot of British capital in Hong Kong has become a headache for the mainland government to a certain extent and needs to be handled with caution. However, when Chen Zhiwen acquired Land After that, British capital in Hong Kong kept a low profile. Moreover, the acquisition of giant British companies by Chinese capital has also increased the self-confidence of all Chinese people. On this issue, Chen Zhiwen can be said to have indirectly helped the mainland government. Although he did not mean this himself, the result is this. In addition, Chen Zhiwen also invested a lot in Yanjing, so naturally the entire Yanjing leadership had a favorable impression of him.

"That's right. I won't allow British businessmen to continue to be arrogant over the Chinese people in Hong Kong." Chen Zhiwen also said with a smile. He has nothing to do about ZZ, but he can still give the British capitalists a fight, especially Land, itself. It's so high-quality, but the management is like shit. At the same time, the major shareholder Yihe has no equity. Not to mention him, even people like Li Jiacheng and Bao Yugang will definitely take a bite without hesitation if they have enough capital. Go up.

Of course, the fact that Chinese capital is able to do such a thing is actually influenced by the mainland. After the 1970s, the mainland had good relations with the United States and Europe, and became one of the five permanent members. Coupled with the reform, this naturally made Hong Kong British There is a lot of pressure on the government and the British government behind it.

HSBC's friendship with Li Jiacheng in its original history was actually just to place bets on both sides. If the mainland's influence had not increased, why would HSBC need to do this? You must know that before the 1970s, Chinese capital could only choose factories, shipping and other industries that had little conflict with British interests. Some people chose banks, but they were still harvested invisibly later.

"Haha, Mr. Chen said it well. The Chinese nation does not seek hegemony, but at least we must live fairly in this world." Director Li Ming laughed and said, "Come in, everyone."

"Okay, thank you." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Coming to Baosteel is actually just for Chen Zhiwen to take a look, and Baosteel and even Shanghai are actually an opportunity to show his strength. Li Ming and a group of Baosteel leaders took Chen Zhiwen around the entire steel plant. When they arrived at a workshop, they were introduced, but for safety reasons, everyone only looked down from the high floors outside and inside the workshop, and did not really get close to the production line. At present, Baosteel has not started large-scale construction and is only debugging and trial production.

This was also the first time that Chen Zhiwen knew how iron ore was turned into steel, and then into various styles of steel.

Afterwards, everyone came to a large conference room in Baosteel, where various fruits and drinks were already prepared.

"Director Li, at present, Baosteel can produce steel materials for automobiles, such as car bodies or steel materials that can be used for automobile processing." After some small talk, Chen Zhiwen suddenly asked.

This time when I came to Baosteel, in addition to the iron ore cooperation, the most important thing was that the Yanjing Jeep factory also urgently needed further localization.

This is not only a requirement of the central government, but also a requirement of Chen Zhiwen. He is not one of those car brands who only want to export auto parts to the mainland and earn profits from it. Even Volkswagen actually had this idea in the early days.

The biggest benefit of localized parts production is that it can immediately reduce a lot of costs, especially for some large and heavy parts, such as car skeletons, surface iron sheets, seat frames, chassis materials, etc. The price itself It is not cheap in the United States. It requires long-distance shipping to the mainland. With tariffs, the cost can triple. If some small parts and electrical components with technical content cannot be produced domestically first, there is no rush. , but these big items are the most urgent needs.

Even with Hutchison Whampoa's massive investment in local auto parts companies, the number of parts on the car is still far behind. Today, a large number of Yanjing Jeep parts are still mainly imported, although this is currently allowed in China. The operation is not long-lasting, and the cost is extremely high, which also results in the domestic sales of self-produced jeeps not being very good. Although they are much cheaper than the original imported vehicles, hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in the factory. If there is no Sales volume simply cannot make up for the loss, let alone the next expansion and the planned introduction of a sedan production line.

Among them, the first and most important step is to be able to purchase suitable steel from the local area. This can greatly reduce costs and domestic selling prices, thereby increasing sales, and then proceed to the next step of localizing parts. In the end, it can reduce costs to the greatest extent, and be the first to occupy the domestic market, thereby building a reputation, and even be the first to establish nationwide sales channels and after-sales services, etc.

"In fact, we have plans to produce steel for automobiles, but the output is not large yet, and there are many kinds of steel requirements for automobiles. We also need time to gradually overcome the difficulties and reproduce them," Factory Director Li Ming replied.

"Okay, as long as it can be produced, I will arrange for Yanjing Jeep to purchase steel from Baosteel." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. As long as it can be produced, it is not a problem. Even if it cannot meet all the needs now, it may be solved one by one.

At present, the steel used in Yanjing Jeep is imported, while the steel used in the local Jeep 212 produced by the joint venture is all domestically produced, but it cannot meet AMC's requirements at all. Considering the low price, that's it. After all, In the domestic market, it is currently difficult to be the same as abroad. As for the quality problems of the Jeep 212, all customers have assumed that it is normal and can be repaired.

"No problem. The use of steel in the national automobile industry is also one of the original purposes of Baosteel's establishment." Director Li Ming said.

Before the 1980s, although there were cars in China, life and quality problems always troubled everyone. The quality of steel was one of the main problems. When Baosteel was founded, it had the purpose of producing steel for cars. However, the problem It is impossible to solve it all at once, it will take a lot of time to overcome the problem.

"Mr. Chen, we invite you here this time just to discuss Baosteel's purchase of iron ore from your Christmas Creek Iron Mine in Australia. What do you think?" A deputy factory manager next to Li Ming The chief, after receiving the instruction, asked with a smile.

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