Chapter 180 The Future Richest Man in Taiwan

Chapter 180 The Future Richest Man in Taiwan

Chapter 180 The Future Richest Man in Taiwan

"The price of plastic particles has increased?" Yang Wendong immediately took it seriously. His main products, except for sticky notes, all rely on plastics, so he asked, "Why has the price increased? Has the international oil price increased?"

"International oil prices have not increased," Wei Zetao replied. "Oil prices have not changed for a long time, and if they did change, it would inevitably affect the prices of too many things, especially for an import-oriented city like Hong Kong."

"That is to say, these traders jointly raised the prices?" Yang Wendong had his own guess.

Before the first oil crisis, international oil prices were controlled by monopoly oil groups headed by the Seven Sisters of Oil, and the princes in the Middle East were still workers digging for oil.

In order to obtain maximum profits, the monopoly oil giants suppress the price of oil. Therefore, the international oil price remains stable for many years unless problems occur in oil-producing countries or core transportation routes such as the Suez Canal.

Wei Zetao nodded and said, "Yes, I suspect so too. They did something similar two years ago when plastic flowers were popular, raising prices collectively.

However, the raw materials of plastic flowers are considered high-end plastic particles, so they only increased the price of high-end plastic particles at that time.

But this time, it’s a full-scale price increase.”

"Is it because our demand has increased so much that they want to suck some blood from us?" Yang Wendong thought for a moment and asked.

Wei Zetao nodded and said, “It is very likely that several of our plastic products have a very high demand for plastic particles. According to the current trend, the demand will be even greater in the future.

These foreign companies have monopolized the supply of plastic particles. Seeing that we have reached this scale, they will definitely want to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune.

I guess it’s not convenient to raise prices just for us, so they just raised prices across the board.”

"Yes, that's a reasonable guess." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Many factories in Hong Kong have been unable to develop for many years because of the monopoly of raw material supply and sales channels by these foreign companies."

It's not just Hong Kong. Many places without local resources are prone to fall into this dilemma when developing industries, such as Vietnam in the past.

As long as the business starts to pick up, clients will try their best to lower prices and suppliers will try their best to raise prices, sucking their blood out of you until you have only your last breath.

The only way is to upgrade the industry and master the technology to have a say, but this is too difficult. In the history after World War II, only a few countries such as China, Japan and South Korea can be considered truly successful.

"Yes." Wei Zetao said, "This reminds me of a method.

Our ships can ship suitcases to Japan or the United States, but they can also bring plastic pellets back. Judging by the weight, we can ship more, and maybe even sell them to other factories, killing two birds with one stone.”

"Smart!" Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Are you trying to steal business from these foreign companies?"

"I just did this by the way." Wei Zetao said with a smile: "These foreign companies rely on their monopoly on supply channels, but they are arrogant and treat us as lambs to be slaughtered.

We didn’t want to steal their business originally, but now they are forcing us to do so.”

Yang Wendong nodded and asked, "How was the price increase two years ago handled?"

"If it's not handled, each company can only accept its fate." Wei Zetao shook his head and said, "Only companies like us with large purchase volumes can afford to purchase from overseas alone. It would be more expensive if we were small-scale and tried to do it ourselves."

"Yeah, that's right." Yang Wendong nodded.

Large factories will not accept small orders, just like Changxing Industry, which does not specialize in trading sticky notes with private individuals. The Hong Kong market, which it once contacted separately, was handed over to its old friend Zhao Chengguang after its scale became larger.

Then he said: "We can do this by buying a few warehouses near Huangpu or Kowloon Wharf and storing plastic particles there.

In addition, I will set up an import trading company. I want to destroy those British foreign companies. Hong Kong needs to import a lot of factory materials, and I can get involved in it in the future. "

It doesn’t matter whether the trading company makes money or not, but we can’t let ourselves be controlled by the local crappy companies. Since we have done this, we naturally have to steal their business.

Wei Zetao said with a smile: "Okay, now that we have a ship and our own warehouse, we can definitely reduce costs to the extreme.

Those foreign trading companies don’t have the ability to do this. Even if they have money, they dare not invest like this.”

"Of course, our ship can only bring back goods. Otherwise, it would be unlikely for you to ask me to buy a ship for this purpose." Yang Wendong shook his head and said.

"Yes." Wei Zetao nodded and said, "Then I will ask my colleagues in the United States to find sellers of plastic particles in Los Angeles and prepare to stock up."

"Okay." Yang Wendong agreed, and then said: "From the perspective of supply chain cost control, what we are doing now can indeed reduce Changxing Industrial's procurement costs.

But if we want to do the best, we still have to control the cost of the plastic particles themselves.”

"Mr. Yang, you want to make plastic particles?" Wei Zetao asked in surprise.

Yang Wendong asked: "Can Hong Kong do it?"

"It's basically impossible." Wei Zetao said, "Unless you recycle plastic and grind it into particles, but these are basically low-end plastics.

Normal plastic is extracted from the oil separation process, which requires an oil industry chain. This is an industry with heavy investment, heavy pollution, high energy consumption and high water consumption. Hong Kong cannot do this.

Even if we really invest and import everything like the glue factory, we can only build a small factory, and the unit price is far less than that of glue. "

"There is really no point in making this kind of industry bigger." Yang Wendong nodded and said.

The most profitable business in the world is dumping at low prices, and the prerequisite for this is scale.

When others have a very large scale and you don't, you will be crushed. In the past, many countries could easily make a simple plastic bag or urea in fertilizer, but they couldn't do it without scale.

Plastic particles, which are heavily dependent on the oil industry chain, must also form the scale of the entire industry chain to reduce prices. Wei Zetao nodded and said, "Yes, for this kind of industry, there is no profit without scale."

"It is indeed unlikely for Hong Kong to do this." Yang Wendong paused, and then said, "But there is still a chance.

Lao Wei, you should proceed with the plastic particles brought back from the United States and Japan as usual. In addition, you should send people to Taiwan to check the situation in Taiwan in this regard. I need detailed information. "

What the British Hong Kong government would not do, Taiwan did in the 60s, just like the mainland did in the 70s.

It is precisely because of the massive investment in steel, chemicals, petroleum and even transportation over a decade or even decades in the early days that the foundation was laid for the sustainable and rapid economic development in the future.

The same is true for South Korea and Japan, so they will be successful in the future, but Vietnam and a number of Southeast Asian countries will not. With the support of the United States, these countries will only prosper for a short period of time and then wither.

"Wanwan?" Wei Zetao agreed and said, "Okay, I'll send someone to check it out right away."

"Okay, the sooner the better." Yang Wendong nodded.

Inside a steakhouse in Central, Hong Kong:
Several white ghosts gathered together, eating various foods elegantly.

"Steve." A foreigner suddenly said, "We raised the price this time. I'm always worried that it might anger those Chinese factories."

"So what if they get angry?" Steve smiled and said, "Can they import plastic particles from overseas? And then ship them to Hong Kong by ship? And then build a warehouse in Hong Kong? How much money will it cost?

Don't worry, I've already calculated that in the past two years, Hong Kong's export industry has become stronger and stronger, and the profits of plastic products are also getting higher and higher. A 20% price increase is something they can afford. Didn't they bear the price increase the year before last? "

"Haha, Steve, you are so cunning." Another foreigner laughed and said, "Those small factories finally made some profits, but you squeezed them dry again."

Steve took a sip of red wine gracefully and said, "No, Ted, we are helping them because we don't squeeze them dry, and the traders responsible for export will do the same.

Even Chinese factories are willing to lower their prices in order to grab export shares, so why don’t we be a little tougher and put pressure on them first?”

The man called Ted suddenly said, "Steve, what I am most worried about is the recently emerging Changxing Industry. Their purchasing volume is very large. I am worried that our price increase this time will force them to import from overseas. As you know, the Hong Kong government does not care about such things. Any factory can import freely."

"Impossible." Steve said confidently, "I have already calculated the cost. He is importing from overseas, and it will be more expensive to ship it back. Do you think there are no distributors in overseas countries?

It is difficult to buy directly from manufacturers, and we are able to do this not only because of the Hong Kong market, but also because of some of Asia.”

"That's right." After thinking for a moment, Ted felt that it made some sense.

But he was always a little worried.

Three days later, Wei Zetao brought relevant information and said, "Mr. Yang, we have already found out the information about the plastics industry in Taiwan."

"So fast?" Yang Wendong couldn't help but be a little surprised after closing the newspaper. This efficiency was too fast. Although Taiwan was close, it was not easy to investigate something without the Internet.

Wei Zetao said with a smile: "It was so fast because there was only one company in Taiwan that met our requirements. This company is called Formosa Plastics Company."

“There can’t be only one plastic company in Taiwan, right?” Yang Wendong asked in return.

You know, there are a lot of plastic companies in Hong Kong, at least hundreds of them. From daily necessities, toys, plastic flowers, industrial plastics, plastic pipes, etc., Hong Kong can produce everything.

Although Taiwan's economy is not as good as Hong Kong's today, there are certainly many similar plastic companies. Not to mention, plastics are also used in the military. In this era, Taiwan still attaches great importance to the military.

Wei Zetao explained: "There are many plastic companies in Taiwan, but this one is the only one that can produce plastic particles. I checked and their monthly production capacity is 1200 tons."

"1200 tons? That's indeed a lot." Yang Wendong nodded.

Although theoretically one ship could carry 10,000 tons of plastic particles, the distance is too far. If Taiwan could have a stable production factory, that would be a long-term solution.

After all, even if you return with an empty ship, there will still be transportation costs, because the original empty ship can be used to carry other things back.

Distance is very important for industrial cost control. In the past, many industrial parks in the mainland brought together the upstream and downstream of an industry for this purpose. It not only saved money, but also saved time and improved efficiency.

"Yes, and this company has only been established for three years. In the first year, it could only produce 100 tons a month, and it couldn't sell it." Wei Zetao said with a smile: "This is their boss's information.

This guy is very capable. When his Taiwanese peers did not believe in his quality, he founded the South Asia Plastic Pipe Company and used his own plastic particles to produce PVC pipes, while others still imported them from Japan, with a much lower cost.

Then within two years, he controlled more than half of Taiwan's PVC plastic pipes, and other plastic factories also looked to him for raw materials."

"So amazing." Yang Wendong had some doubts in his heart, so he took the information and after seeing the name, he said, "Wang Yongqing?"

"Yes." Wei Zetao noticed that the boss' tone seemed to indicate that he knew the man, so he asked, "Mr. Yang, have you heard of this person?"

"Yeah, I've heard of it before." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

Speaking of the strongest entrepreneur in Taiwan, many people in the past would say Zhang Zhongmou, because he founded TSMC, the world's largest chip factory and the long-term economic core of the Taiwan region.

But before the electronic age, Taiwan's richest man was indeed an entrepreneur specializing in plastic production: Wang Yongqing.

PS: Ask for monthly ticket

(End of this chapter)