Return to 1958 and build a century-old giant

Chapter 854 Container Ship Orders

After listening, Director Lin asked, "So, if we succeed in our research, the patent will belong to you, and the equipment will belong to us?"

Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "No, the equipment is still on loan to you. You can continue to use it as long as you help me continue to research some issues. As long as you meet my requirements, you can use the equipment."

The specifics of how to cooperate need to be negotiated.

Honor Electronics faces numerous challenges every year, not only in gaming but also in other areas such as home appliances, computers, and software.

Previously, these were handled by European and American laboratories or by hiring European and American experts, but the cost has been increasing over time.

Now, we can try to utilize the top talents from the mainland. These talents are mostly in top universities. With our own capabilities, it's not a problem to poach some people, but it's difficult to poach too many.
It would be better to just provide them with some equipment and let them continue their research.

"These are all negotiable," Director Lin nodded.
Yang Wendong has tentatively agreed to this matter, but further detailed negotiations will be needed. Although it will certainly be very complicated, it is worth it to bring hope to various universities to purchase advanced Western equipment.
Besides, there's no harm in either way, because if any university feels the deal isn't worthwhile, there's no loss in refusing it; conversely, Hong Kong can also refuse.

It can be said to achieve multiple benefits in one fell swoop.

“Alright, since we’re going to use this method, then we’ll need to expand the negotiations on talent arrangements,” Yang Wendong said. “I will arrange for people from Hong Kong to visit the top cinema chains again and negotiate with them individually.”

However, I will not relinquish control over the job placement of graduates from the universities I have donated to; this aspect still needs to be discussed.

In fact, as long as the school is located in the deep sea, most of the students will be under our control in the future, so it's basically a sure thing.
However, the deep sea is not a special zone yet, and I came here on purpose to delay this issue and try to settle other issues.

Director Lin's method allows him to collaborate with top universities across the country, which not only enables him to acquire a batch of graduates from each university in the future, but also allows him to utilize the many talents within the universities to solve his technical problems now.
Although it will cost some money to purchase equipment for the school, these research projects would require equipment to be purchased elsewhere anyway, so the equipment still belongs to us.

In overseas schools, you can forget about it. With the same amount of money, you'd be lucky to get into three prestigious overseas universities.

The problem is that China is currently short of foreign exchange; otherwise, it would be the same in a decade or two.

Director Lin laughed and said, "Of course, but in that case, we don't need to argue so fiercely, right?"

"Yes, that's a good idea, Director Lin." Yang Wendong smiled.

After the two left, the others could tell from their smiles that the conversation had gone well, and then Director Lin told everyone about his method.

Upon hearing this, everyone agreed that it was indeed a win-win situation. The number of talents that Hong Kong needed could be a lot if placed in one school, but if distributed among dozens of schools, each school would not have many. Moreover, even among Tsinghua and Peking Universities, some students might want to work in Hong Kong, which also took into account the needs of the students.

However, the issues of new school allocation and address have not been fully resolved, but at least today's meeting can be considered a success.

Then, in the evening, Yang Wendong had dinner with officials from the Ministry of Education, and then returned to his hotel under the arrangement of his bodyguards.
In a corridor, Yang Wendong saw Bao Yugang, who seemed to have a worried look on his face.
Yang Wendong stepped forward and asked, "Bao Sheng, what's wrong?"

"Mr. Yang," Bao Yugang said, snapping out of his reverie, "I need to think about something. Today I met with the leaders of the Sixth Ministry of Machinery Industry, and they wanted me to purchase a few ships from the mainland. You know I'm still reducing the number of ships in Hong Kong, which puts me in a bit of a dilemma."

"Oh, I see." Yang Wendong nodded. "China's reform and opening up probably also wanted to develop the shipbuilding industry, but the timing is really unfortunate. A global ship disaster is coming soon, and there is a serious oversupply of ships. Even the shipbuilding industries in Japan and Taiwan cannot receive enough orders."

Bao Yugang said, "Yes, this is the first time that a 10,000-ton cargo ship has been built and exported from the mainland. Even under normal circumstances, not many ship owners would be willing to buy it, let alone now. So we can only rely on shipping companies in Hong Kong."
"By the way, Mr. Yang, your shipping company isn't much smaller than mine; I reckon they'll be coming to you soon too."

“Then we need to have a good talk.” Yang Wendong nodded and said, “Bao Sheng, now that everyone knows you abandoned the ship and went ashore, are you really going to completely abandon the operation of this ship, or will you retain a part of it?”

Bao Yugang said: "Of course, it is impossible to give up completely. We are in a crisis now, so I will downsize appropriately. I will expand again when the market returns to normal."
I just anticipate this shipwreck will last a long time, and I'm not young anymore; I don't know if I'll live to see that day.

“Bao Sheng, entrepreneurs like you and me don’t retire. You’re only 60 and you just had a son. You should work for another 20 years,” Yang Wendong said with a smile. “My suggestion is that you delegate some authority and, if it’s convenient for you, have a comprehensive check-up every six months.”

Things are completely different now than in the past. The Bao family is about to have descendants, and Bao Yugang's motivation is probably completely different as well.

However, some diseases are difficult to control, and some cancers are truly beyond the control of money.

Bao Yugang, of course, was unaware of Yang Wendong's thoughts, and nodded, saying, "I'll do my best, but it's rare to live to seventy."

Whether I'll live to 80, who dares to say? If I pass away prematurely someday, Mr. Yang, you'd better take good care of my descendants.

“Bao Sheng, you’re overthinking it.” Yang Wendong paused and said, “But I promise you.”

"Haha, okay, then let's discuss the matter of mainland ships," Bao Yugang said with a smile.

Yang Wendong said, "Alright, since Bao Sheng doesn't plan to withdraw from the shipping market, I can also tell you that I don't know how either, so buying new ships is not a problem, but you can't buy blindly, otherwise you will only suffer huge losses."

Bao Yugang said, "The mainland doesn't expect us to buy a lot. They just want to buy three or five ships first. I guess they want to use us to set an example in the global market. Once the safety of the ships is verified, they can move on to the next step."

“Yes, that’s how Taiwan and South Korea opened up the market back then,” Yang Wendong nodded and said.

Ships, airplanes, and cars all involve safety, and these are the hardest to sell at the beginning. Even though they are cheap, many people are hesitant to buy them. At this point, it is necessary to find the first person willing to take the plunge.

In the early days when Taiwan's shipbuilding industry was just starting out, Yang Wendong was among the first to purchase ships. Taiwan offered significant discounts to open up the market and acquire its first customer.

Bao Yugang said, "So, Mr. Yang means that both of us should buy it? I reckon that once you've finished your other matters, the Sixth Ministry of Machine Building will also come to you."

Yang Wendong is different from him. He is a shipping magnate, while Yang Wendong is involved in many more industries, including a university. Of course, he also has a hotel to donate. "They might indeed come to me. Then let's go to the Sixth Ministry of Machine Building together tomorrow morning to discuss this matter." Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "I was originally going to negotiate with the First Ministry of Machine Building about automobile cooperation tomorrow. Let's reschedule. Let's resolve this matter together first, so as to avoid having to go through two more rounds."

Many of the business matters he was in Yanjing for this trip required him to handle all at once. For several collaborations in mainland China, he needed to first establish the general framework before having his subordinates negotiate.

“Okay, that would be perfect.” Bao Yugang nodded, then asked, “So, we’re going to buy a few ships?”

In fact, even during the ship disaster, buying a few more ships wouldn't have much of an impact on them. Of course, they would definitely lose money, but coming to the mainland at this time wasn't about making money there, at least not now; they were planning for the future.

Yang Wendong said, "The ships from the mainland, are they those old cargo ships from a long time ago? Ten-thousand-ton class?"

Bao Yugang said, "Yes, you could say it's outdated, but the mainland itself is still using it, and many developing countries around the world don't have container terminals either, so they are also using it."

“Well, buying a ship is an option, but this kind of ship wouldn’t be very useful to us.” Yang Wendong shook his head and said, “Even if we convert it into a bulk commodity cargo ship, the tonnage is too small, and it’s not economically worthwhile.”

Different ships have their own tonnage. Cargo ships carrying bulk commodities are generally tens of thousands of tons or more. They rely on transporting a sufficient quantity at one time to reduce the cost per unit weight, which is the same principle as large oil tankers. Especially in this era of high oil prices, oil tankers are getting bigger and bigger, often exceeding 20 tons.

If it weren't for the limitations of steel materials, it's estimated that a million tons could have been produced.

Bao Yugang seemed to understand Yang Wendong's meaning: "Do you want China to build container ships or bulk cargo ships?"

Yang Wendong countered, "Both are fine. Which one do you think is more suitable?"

“I’m afraid it will be very difficult.” Bao Yugang shook his head and said, “We probably don’t have the experience in building container ships, let alone large cargo ships. Even if the technology is simple, the requirements for shipyards are too high, and we probably don’t have any civilian shipyards like that in China.”

"Yes, these are all problems." Yang Wendong nodded;
China has been out of sync with overseas countries for a long time, and to this day, China does not have a container terminal, so naturally there is no container ship manufacturing.

As for large cargo ships, the docks used are different from those used for ordinary 10,000-ton cargo ships, several times larger. It's unclear whether the military has them, but it's unlikely they will be lent to civilian use.

Bao Yugang said, "Is Yang Sheng trying to force the country to regress on its own?"

Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "Actually, no. I really hope that China can build container ships as soon as possible. This is what the times demand. Old-fashioned cargo ships should have been phased out long ago."
Given domestic prices and production capacity, if we could build container ships or large oil tankers, the prices would definitely be cheaper than in Taiwan and South Korea, which would benefit both of us.

Bao Yugang asked, "So you want to place container ship orders with the domestic market?"

Yang Wendong laughed and said, "That's right, I can provide enough orders. If they can produce them and meet our needs, then we won't lose out; if they give up, they can't really ask us for anything more, right? It's a win-win situation."

"Yang Sheng, that's a good idea. Then let's go to the Sixth Ministry of Machine Building together tomorrow." Bao Yugang felt that his problem seemed to be solved.

“Hmm.” Yang Wendong nodded and said, “Actually, even if the domestic company takes on this new order, it will still need to be redesigned, which will probably take several years. This way, it can save some money for both of us now.”

Although the amount of money needed to buy a few ships isn't a huge sum, during a time of ship disasters, buying them a day earlier means losing money a day earlier, so the later you buy them, the better.

Bao Yugang laughed and said, "Haha, that's right, Mr. Yang is very thoughtful."

,.
The next day, Bao Yugang and Yang Wendong arrived at the Sixth Ministry of Machine Building.
The leaders of the Sixth Ministry of Machinery Industry warmly welcomed the two, and after a series of activities, they arrived at the conference room.

Yang Wendong and Bao Yugang also put forward their own demands.

"Container ships?" Upon hearing the request, the officials from the Sixth Ministry of Machinery Industry immediately discussed in hushed tones. Then, Director Wang said, "Mr. Yang, Mr. Bao, actually, container ships are already under development in China."

"Oh, that's great." Yang Wendong thought about it and it seemed to make sense.

Domestic companies should also recognize the overseas trend of container shipping and may have their own ideas in this regard.

Bao Yugang then asked, "How many TEUs?"

"Currently, Shanghai Shipyard is developing a 300TEU container ship with a deadweight tonnage of 1.2 tons," Director Wang replied.

Bao Yugang said, "It's a bit small. Nowadays, no matter what kind of cargo ship it is, the bigger the better. International container ships are basically all over 1000 TEU. These small container ships are only used for short-distance sea transport."

Yang Wendong remained silent, but agreed with Bao Yugang's point of view.

These ships are too small, only 300 containers. They would be a huge loss in the international market. They are only used for small-area transportation in Southeast Asia and within Europe.

Director Wang said awkwardly, "I'm sorry, this is only the beginning of experimentation in China."

“300 TEU is too small. My suggestion is that you develop a 1500 TEU ship, or at least 1000.” Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, “If you can build a ship with a capacity of 1000 TEU or more, I can place an order for 5 ships first, but the price still needs to be negotiated.”

It was estimated that by the time the domestic research and development was completed and the products were put into production, it would be around 84 or 85. At that time, although the shipping market was still sluggish, it was better than in previous years. The Dong family was able to gradually get rid of the debt crisis by taking advantage of the market improvement.
As the Asian economy began to take off and domestic exports gradually increased, global shipping demand began to rise, then returned to normal in the 90s, and then plummeted during the Asian financial crisis in 98.

If one wants to expand the scale of the shipping market, the most appropriate time would be to start increasing the fleet around 85.

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(End of this chapter)