20 years of restarting life

Chapter 3607: Idle Man
In China and Southeast Asia, many economic phenomena can be well explained using Zhao Chang'an's time machine theory.

Just like the West, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, which are currently ahead of China in terms of economy and civilian technology, there are examples like Qi Peng sending students abroad to work, Bao Zhixuan bringing back beauty and plastic surgery techniques from Seoul and profiting from importing cosmetics from Seoul, and Liu Mingxiong, Mai Guixue, and Lang Ruping acting as international brokers to earn profit margins.

This includes importing large-screen TVs from overseas, which also followed this direction and shortcut. It involved small investment, quick and large profits, and very low risk, as long as you had access to permits or ways to source the goods.

Small businesses like Bao Zhixuan's, with limited import volumes, use a piecemeal approach, completing imports through mail or airport delivery.

These actions are fundamentally different from the very generous investment attraction policies implemented in various regions.

Many foreign companies that invest in China initially pour money in, and it takes a long period of losses before they can slowly turn a profit.

For example, it would be impossible for these foreign companies to get a share of the pie, especially in Southeast Asian countries where local economic protectionism is still quite severe.

Especially for a company like 1nm, which has some money but no other technology, the most appropriate approach is to first slowly integrate and penetrate into non-critical economic sectors.

This requires sufficient funds, patience, and time.

In the morning, accompanied by Xia Wenzhuo, Zhao Chang'an visited the palm oil refining plant. To his surprise, although the company was not large, its level of modernization was not low. It could easily outperform most ordinary prefecture-level oil plants in China.

This company also built a crude palm oil and crude palm kernel oil primary processing plant on the northern border, purchasing palm fruits produced by local farmers and smallholders for primary pressing and oil refining.

Then the company transports the crude palm oil and crude palm kernel oil, which have already undergone preliminary processing, from the northern border in tank trucks. After removing free fatty acids, natural pigments, and odor impurities, it becomes salad-grade refined palm oil for sale.

However, Xia Wenzhuo was clearly not satisfied with this, nor was he satisfied with just these purchase volumes. Instead, he planned to add palm oil purchases and primary processing capacity from Johor near the border with Sing Tao, while also upgrading the technology of the companies there.

Based on refined palm oil, a third refining process is carried out, including fractionation and technical treatment, to form palmitic acid, palm slurry oil, and palm stearin, which are the three downstream products in the palm oil industry chain.

Palm oil can be used as an edible oil. It is a pale yellow liquid at room temperature and can be blended well with vegetable oils to make vegetable salad oil.

Palmitoleic acid has a wide range of applications as a food additive, cosmetic ingredient, and in some chemical and pharmaceutical fields.

Palm stearin can be used as a raw material in industries such as shortening, margarine, and soap.

After inspecting the company's factory in Changsha, it was already noon. The group had lunch at the company's canteen and then left. "Let's go take a look at the other side of the sea."

Xia Wenzhuo said to Wang Meihong.

The car drove along the western coastal highway and arrived at a cape in a few minutes.

The group got out of the car, and the sea breeze blew in from the west. Across a wide ocean channel, Zhao Chang'an could see a large green palm forest on the other side.

Palm oil, along with soybean oil and rapeseed oil, is known as one of the world's three major vegetable oils, with a history of consumption spanning thousands of years. It is the world's most productive oil-producing plant, accounting for over 30% of global oil production. Each hectare of oil palm produces five times more oil than peanuts and nine times more than soybeans. In Malaysia, mature oil palm yields an average of 4.5 tons of crude palm oil per hectare annually. Since 1997, global palm oil production has exceeded 10 million tons, and last year, in just five years, it surpassed 23 million tons. Of this additional 13 million tons, 80% came from Southeast Asia. In Malaysia, palm trees cover approximately one-third of the country's arable land, reaching 2.5 million hectares, with a production exceeding 11 million tons, accounting for half of global production.

Xia Wenzhuo knew a great deal about Zhao Chang'an, and these were data she considered second nature, which Zhao Chang'an probably didn't know: "With the large-scale import of edible palm oil into China, the structure of our domestic edible oil market has changed significantly in the past two years. In 01, the market share, from largest to smallest, was: rapeseed oil, soybean oil, peanut oil, palm oil, cottonseed oil, and minor oil varieties. Last year, this order changed to rapeseed oil, soybean oil, palm oil, and peanut oil. Of course, this palm oil isn't sold directly as is; it's used as a blending oil, added to rapeseed oil and soybean oil to reduce costs. Furthermore, the import volume of these three downstream raw materials—palm oleic acid, palm oil extract, and palm stearin—was 23 tons last year, and it's estimated that it won't be less than 35 tons this year."

"However, in Malaysia, the world's largest palm oil producer, the entire processing and sales chain has become relatively fixed. This is why this company is located in Singapore and only acquires palm fruit from a few farmers and smallholders in the border area. Further north, there are factories with sufficient industrial processing capacity to absorb the local palm oil resources. Entering those markets would definitely face strong competition. So no matter how it develops, the company's ceiling is limited, which is why I chose to engage in deeper palm oil processing."

Xia Wenzhuo said, "That's why I'm planning to invest in building a rubber processing plant in Malaysia. Although there are still considerable obstacles, they are not as great, and in the long run, it's more likely to be large-scale."

"Since you've thought it through so clearly, why did you still want to acquire this factory?"

Zhao Chang'an was a little confused.

"Let's take this initiative first. Palm tree cultivation in Malaysia has reached its limit. Continuing to expand will affect the cultivation and balance of their food and other crops."

Xia Wenzhuo glanced back and saw Yang Yixin following behind, looking at her with displeasure. Suddenly, their faces were face to face, more than a meter apart.

Yang Yixin was startled, but she quickly realized that Xia Wenzhuo was only looking south and his eyes were not on her at all.

“There are much larger areas of virgin forest over there, and the climate and environment are more suitable for large-scale palm tree cultivation.”

"Lanfang?"

Zhao Chang'an frowned, because he had a very bad impression of that place because of what happened a few years ago.