Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 2727 Breaking Through the Blockade (Second Update, Please Subscribe)
It's not that America needs it, but that our old friend needs it.

Why was Reagan able to defeat Carter by an overwhelming majority and enter the White House?

It's because of his toughness.

To put it bluntly, it's because Americans are fed up with being "bullied".

The American people have had enough of the concessions from the Nixon era to the Carter era, and they've had enough of the White House's weakness.

Essentially, the United States has always been a country that admires tough guys, such as cowboys, American soldiers, Rambo, and Superman.

Americans like the image of muscular men, and they like this kind of tough guy with muscular clashes and hard punches.

They like superheroes who single-handedly save everything.

Therefore, the White House's weakness and concessions are unacceptable, even humiliating, to Americans!
So they needed a tough guy, a man of steel, someone who would say no to the Soviet Union and to all other countries.

And that guy was Reagan!
The Tehran hostage crisis that occurred this month had a decisive impact on the election. It directly led to the defeat of then-Democratic President Jimmy Carter in re-election and helped Republican candidate Ronald Reagan win by an overwhelming margin.

Therefore, out of consideration for his old friend, Li Yi'an would certainly not remind the United States. Besides, having the opportunity to embarrass the White House in front of the whole world would be quite a good thing.

As for Iran...

"Let's apply even more pressure!"

What constitutes further pressure?
It means increasing the severity of sanctions!

The core of this new round of sanctions is to prohibit oil tankers built in Southeast Asia from transporting Iranian oil. SEA and Siam shipbuilding are ranked first and second in the world, respectively, while South Korea ranks third. These three countries control 85% of the world's ship orders, as well as the actual shipbuilding completion volume.

More importantly, SEA, as the first country in the world to build supertankers, is not only the birthplace of supertankers but also the world's largest supertanker builder, having built more than 80% of the world's large oil tankers in the Southeast Asia region.

Under “long-arm jurisdiction,” those tankers cannot be used to transport Iranian oil—this is a supplementary agreement in the ship purchase contracts signed by shipbuilders of various countries when they undertake shipbuilding, which prohibits these vessels from being used for transport to hostile countries.

Now that Iran is a hostile country, shipping companies have no choice but to abandon their orders from Iran. Of course, they can also choose to continue cooperating with Iran.

However, this involves a series of legal and financial issues, especially the latter—merchant ship construction is particularly reliant on loans, with shipbuilders typically requiring loans of around 70%, and the loan terms can be as long as 10 years.

This also means that shipowners are burdened with a large amount of financial loans. If they violate the relevant contracts, financial institutions can recall the loans in advance, which will inevitably lead to the bankruptcy of the shipowners.

Therefore, under "long-arm jurisdiction," shipping companies have no choice but to compromise.

Although Iran has more than 400 million tons of oil tankers, its oil production is huge, but its export transportation has long relied on international tanker owners such as those in Southeast Asia and Greek ship owners.

The escalation of sanctions has further exacerbated Iran's export difficulties, leading to a sharp decline in its oil exports.

This was originally the most important step in the maximum pressure campaign against Iran.

What are the principles of applying maximum pressure?
It means constantly squeezing their living space, ultimately forcing them to make the wrong choices.

This isn't a recent phenomenon; similar instances of maximum pressure have occurred many times throughout history. Faced with maximum pressure, no one has ever stood idly by.

For Iran, breaking this embargo is naturally necessary.

"We need oil tankers to break the imperialists' blockade!"

Two weeks ago, after the SEA upgraded its embargo measures, Iran was completely stunned. They never expected that the blockade could be carried out in this way.

Tehran vowed to break the "blockade" at all costs, but when it came to actual implementation, they discovered just how difficult it was.

Jamaluddin, who was in Greece, felt this most deeply; his brow was furrowed and his face was devoid of any smile.

As a secret intermediary dispatched by the Iranian government, he came to Greece with a mission—the SEA's embargo was like an airtight net, tightly blocking the outbound channels of Iranian oil, and all regular shipping companies, under pressure, refused to undertake Iranian oil transportation business.

Greece, a country with the world's largest independent shipowner families and a dominant voice in the global chartering market, became their last hope.

After arriving in Greece, Jamal al-Din repeatedly studied the Greek shipping magnates, knowing that they had deep roots, fleets all over the world, and oil tanker transportation was their core industry. As long as he could persuade any one of them, Iranian oil could break through the blockade and be transported to all parts of the world.

But when he arrived in Athens, he realized just how difficult the task was.

Faced with his tempting offer, the shipowners who had cooperated with Iran for many years flatly rejected him, and their reasons for rejection were very simple:
"The SEA ban is there, and we will not risk the future of our entire fleet, much less offend a superpower."

"Sir, you also have oil tankers with a capacity of over two million tons that were built by European countries!"

“Mr. Jamaluddin, you are too naive. Do you think that just because those ships were built in Europe, they didn’t have SEA technology?”

It's not just tankers built by the SEA; even tankers built by Europe and the United States are threatened by "long-arm jurisdiction" because they all use SEA shipbuilding technology to varying degrees.

There's no way around it; for many years, SEA has been the absolute hegemon in the shipbuilding industry. Giants like Pacific International Shipbuilding and Dongning Heavy Industry have long monopolized the market, with their technology leading the world. Shipbuilding industries around the world have imported a large amount of their technology and sub-equipment to improve their shipbuilding standards. This is also why SEA can exercise "long-arm jurisdiction"—SEA technology is also found on those European ships.

So despite Jamaluddin's efforts, the shipping magnates were unwilling to discuss the issue with him at all, and then directly issued an order to leave.

Undeterred by his initial setback, Jamaluddin then contacted three more small and medium-sized shipowners. However, no matter how high the charter rate he offered, or even his promise of a long-term exclusive partnership and to cover the ship purchase loan, he was rejected.

But the answers he received were all the same: a straightforward rejection.

Over the past few days, Jamaluddin has visited shipping companies large and small in Athens, exhausting his persuasive skills, but has failed to secure even a charter contract for an oil tanker.

As night fell, he sat by the hotel window, looking at the night view of Athens outside, feeling frustrated and anxious.

"Damn it, why did they all succumb to SEA's threats so easily..."

As Jamaluddin cursed, his brow furrowed even more deeply. He knew all too well how heavy the responsibility on his shoulders was; Iran's oil exports were the lifeblood of the nation's economy, and failure here would further exacerbate the domestic crisis.

Without the foreign exchange generated by oil exports, there would be nothing.

"Damn it, this country is the real Satan..."

If the United States is Satan, then SEA must also be Satan, and its hostility is even stronger. The Minister of Education had already made the corresponding judgment on this matter and did not agree with the government's conciliatory approach towards SEA.

"They want to use sanctions to force Iran to submit..."

Without oil, how can the promises made by the religious leader be fulfilled?
Just as Jamaluddin's brow furrowed and he was even considering abandoning Greece and turning to other countries, his mobile phone rang. It was Antonio, the lawyer he was working with in Greece.

“Mr. Jamaluddin, perhaps I have a way that I can try.”

Antonio's voice on the other end of the phone carried a hint of smugness. After hanging up, he picked up the newspaper on the table again, looked at the news, and muttered to himself:
"This could be an opportunity."

The next morning, Jamaldin rushed to Antonio's law firm.

Upon seeing Antonio, he eagerly asked:
"Mr. Antonio, do you really have a way to solve the current problem?"

"Isn't that exactly why you hired me?"

Antonio poured Jamaldin a cup of coffee and said slowly:

"Conventional tanker leasing and sales are indeed not feasible. No shipowner is willing to offend the SEA for short-term gains, as it is a major power."

But we can try a different approach!

"Let's look at it another way. What kind of way are you referring to?"

Faced with Jamaluddin's urgency, Antonio remained remarkably calm. He slowly took a drag of his cigarette and then said:
"If we can't buy it directly, why don't we change our identity?"

“It’s not easy. Even if we register a shipping company, it’s difficult to buy ships. Those companies will definitely investigate.”

"Do not."

Antonio shook his head and then said:
"I'm not talking about buying them under the name of a shipping company. I'm talking about auctioning off those companies' scrapped oil tankers as a shipbreaker."

"Shipbreakers? Decommissioned cruise ships?"

Jamaluddin was stunned, his face filled with confusion:
“Mr. Antonio, what do you mean by that? Are you suggesting buying scrapped oil tankers? But scrapped oil tankers are ships that can no longer be used. Even if they can barely sail, they can't possibly meet Iran's huge oil transportation needs. That's just too unrealistic.”

Faced with Jamaluddin's questioning, Antonio did not refute it, but patiently explained:
"Don't rush, let me finish. We're not buying scrapped oil tankers, but rather purchasing them as shipbreakers. You know, the standard lifespan of a ship is 20-25 years, but post-war technological advancements, especially improvements in welding processes, have allowed the fatigue life of hull structures to reach over 30 years. We can select oil tankers that are around 20 years old, persuade the shipowners to scrap them ahead of schedule, and then bid for them as shipbreakers."

Jamaluddin frowned, lost in thought. Antonio's words gave him a glimmer of hope, but some concerns remained:

“Scrapping oil tankers about 20 years in advance? But are shipping companies willing to do that? Even if they were to scrap their ships, they might not want to be associated with us, since we would still offend the SEA if we were exposed.”

Listening to his concerns, Antonio said in a rather arrogant tone:
"The key is to have a suitable identity as a shipbreaker as a cover. We don't need to buy directly from shipping companies, but rather participate in the auction under the guise of a shipbreaker."

As long as the price is right, those shipowners will turn a blind eye—for them, scrapping old ships early means getting a considerable auction fee and avoiding subsequent maintenance costs, so why not?

Jamaluddin's tightly furrowed brow relaxed slightly, but quickly furrowed again. He said:

“This idea is indeed feasible, but where can we find a suitable shipbreaking contractor identity? We can’t just make one up out of thin air; if we’re caught red-handed, all our efforts will be in vain. Mr. Antonio, do you have a suitable candidate?”

Instead of answering directly, Antonio took a copy of yesterday's local newspaper from his desk drawer, handed it to Jamaldin, and pointed to an inconspicuous news item:
"Look at this news; it's the most suitable agent."

(End of this chapter)