Chapter 251: Pulling Investment

Chapter 251: Pulling Investment

Chapter 251: Pulling Investment

Academician Li just left.

He Jintang came to visit with an old colleague.

The other party wanted to attract investment. Jiang Miao listened to the relevant conditions and recalled some local conditions.

"I will not hide it from Mr. Jiang. The current situation in Yecheng is that traditional industries are declining. Although there are certain resource reserves, similar to the steel industry, the production costs are getting higher and higher, and it has basically lost its competitiveness."

"And the transportation location is not obvious. Although there are tourist resources such as the Yinxu Ruins, Yecheng Ruins, Red Flag Canal, and Taihang Mountain Grand Canyon, these obviously cannot drive the overall development of Yecheng."

Jiang Miao deeply agrees with this point. His hometown Shanmei used to be worse than Yecheng. After all, Yecheng had at least had good days for a period of time. It was only in the past decade or so that environmental pressure has been increasing and industry has been suppressed, and life has become difficult.

However, he did not agree immediately, but asked in detail about the situation in Yecheng.

In terms of high-tech industries, Yecheng also lacks potential.

The layout has three high-tech industry directions, namely new display materials, domestic computer systems, and UAV production and research and development.

After listening to this, Jiang Miao frowned.

In terms of new display materials, represented by Xuyang Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., 18 upstream and downstream large-scale enterprises in the new display materials industry have been gathered, and are accelerating the creation of an important production base for high-end display new materials in the country.

For example, the Xingyang Optoelectronics project, whose products can be used in high-end fields such as folding screen mobile phones, fills some gaps in Henan Province in the field of high-end display materials.

As for the domestically produced computer system, Jiang Miao sentenced this product to death in his heart.

Yecheng's drone R&D and production are located in Beiguan District, with more than 5 companies settled in the district. It has also built the country's first G ubiquitous low-altitude testing base, forming a full industrial chain development pattern from R&D and manufacturing to training services.

It looks OK, but that's just a nice thing to say.

The reason why he is not optimistic about the development of these industries is that these industries are not irreplaceable.

For example, Hailufeng Company can drive the development of Shanmei, Qiongzhou and Minqin because it can establish a monopoly industry in the local area within a short period of time.

Shanmei’s high-end aquaculture and durian cultivation;
Qiongzhou’s Mike banana, durian planting, and abaca industry.

Minqin’s Xiansi soybean planting, bean silk materials, and airship manufacturing.

The three high-tech industries in Yecheng are just nice-sounding names. In fact, the same industrial layout exists to a greater or lesser extent in all parts of the country.

The lack of monopoly means that there is no way to take over the core interests of the entire industry. These industries not only have low profits, but also face competition from homogeneous products across the country.

Jiang Miao fell into deep thought.

If there is no way to establish a monopoly industry in the local area, he will not invest blindly.

Arranging several characteristic agricultural projects is something that Hailufeng Company can easily do, but just a few characteristic agricultural projects are obviously not enough to drive the entire region.

After all, it is difficult for vegetables from the Central Plains to compete with those from Qi and Lu, and it is difficult to form a monopoly in the fruit category. The fruits that can be grown in Anyang can be grown throughout the North China Plain and the Loess Plateau, so it is difficult to form an absolute advantage.

This is unlike Shanmei and Qiongzhou, which are subtropical and tropical. Durian and bananas are only limited to certain areas, and the country needs large quantities of imports, so a monopoly can be formed.

However, apples, peaches, plums, apricots, pears, kiwis and grapes are widely grown in the north. Hailufeng Company only has some ideas about kiwis, but is not very interested in other fruits.

At present, the fruits and crops that Hailufeng Company is focusing on developing in the north are silk soybeans, fairy bean soybeans, alfalfa, rubber grass, pistachios, strawberries, tomatoes, cherries, and soft-fleshed kiwifruit.

The Linzhou area of ​​Yecheng district could consider introducing new technologies for growing pistachios and cherries, but Hailufeng Company itself has not come up with any varieties for promotion of these two varieties.

After much thought, we still have to develop industry, and high-tech industry at that.

Jiang Miao was thinking about the high-tech technologies currently held by Hailufeng Company to see if there were any technologies suitable for settling in Yecheng.

The sponge battery and the car are excluded first.

The airship industry can also be ruled out. For safety reasons, hydrogen cargo airships can only establish production bases in remote western areas; for helium passenger airships, Hailufeng Company plans to establish a production base in the Weihe River Basin.

The reason for choosing the Weihe Basin is that helium resources are widely distributed in the Cenozoic geothermal wells in the Weihe Basin. The helium content in Weishen 13 well is as high as 2.13% to 4.14%. The helium content of gas samples from 63 wells in the area is greater than 1%, with the highest reaching 9.23%.

Being close to areas with abundant helium resources reduces the difficulty of transportation and makes it convenient to refuel nearby.

These factors made it impossible for airship manufacturing to be established in Yecheng.

Suddenly, Jiang Miao thought of a technique.

Although it is also a derivative product of bean threads, it needs to be produced closer to the consumer market.

That is the Silicon Bean Wire Component Factory.

Minqin Group currently has a special component factory in Minqin. Small components can be transported by road and rail. Large components are still easy to transport if they are nearby, but if they are far away, they can only be transported on a large scale after cargo airships are available.

Therefore, local production has become a more convenient option for large silicon filament components.

Thinking of the silicon bean thread product, Jiang Miao thought of another thing, that is, a material needed in the production process of silicon bean threads: diatomaceous earth.

Perhaps many people will be confused.

Isn't it just diatomaceous earth?
Isn't this thing very common?
Yes, this thing is indeed common.

But if there are special restrictions, diatomaceous earth will become uncommon.

For example, if we limit diatomaceous earth to be formed by a certain type of diatom, it will become very troublesome.

It should be noted that as of 2027, there are 20987 existing species of diatoms with valid taxonomy recorded, and there are about 10000 diatom species for which the latest reference materials of relevant taxonomic characteristics have not yet been found.

Overall, there are about 30000 species of diatoms discovered so far, but some studies estimate that the actual number of diatom species in nature may be as high as 35000.

With such a large number of diatom species, if we limit diatomaceous earth to being formed by a certain type of diatom, then this type of diatomaceous earth will become very rare.

Although ordinary diatomaceous earth can be used to produce ordinary silicon bean threads, there will generally not be any obvious problems.

However, in order to produce special silicon bean silk products with a relatively high yield rate, such as superconducting mercury silicon nanotubes, room temperature evaporated silicon carbide nanotubes, high hardness silicon carbide nanotubes, ultrafine silver-coated silicon nanotubes, etc., it is necessary to use diatomaceous earth of extremely high purity and specific type.

Although it is possible to purchase diatomaceous earth from specific production areas on the market for secondary selection and purification, the cost will increase a lot.

This is also an important reason why the cost of products such as silicon carbide nanotubes is relatively high.

What made Jiang Miao even more troubled was that there were two kinds of diatomaceous earth, one was a specialty of Australia, and the other was a specialty of southern Siberia. Although there were similar diatomaceous earths in China, the amount of resources that could be mined was very small. Once large-scale production was required, it could only be met through imports.

This situation is definitely not the result that Jiang Miao wants to see.

If the import cost increases, the cost of high-purity special diatomaceous earth after selection and purification will increase further, further leading to an increase in the production cost of silicon filaments.

Instead of relying on imports, it is better to use artificial breeding technology to cultivate diatoms that can produce diatomaceous earth with specific structures, and then cultivate them on a large scale.

The cultivated diatomaceous earth has a very high purity from the beginning, which reduces the difficulty of selection and purification. Anyway, the cost of domestic feed and related nutrients is getting lower and lower, so cultivating diatoms will make the cost even lower.

After thinking this through, Jiang Miao said, "I have a new industry that we can consider settling in Yecheng."

"Professor Jiang, please feel free to speak."

"The Minqin Group under our company has been developing silicon bean silk products recently." "I heard from Jintang that your company is planning to build a factory for silicon bean silk related products in Yecheng? In this regard, our Yecheng also has some advantages. The quartzite mineral reserves in Linzhou have reached 1.2 million tons. Together with the quartzite and associated quartzite in other regions, it can meet the needs of your company."

Jiang Miao shook his head: "Quartz minerals are not important. They are everywhere in the country. Yecheng is backed by the Taihang Mountains, so there is no need to worry about the supply of quartz. What I need is land."

"Land? Don't worry, Mr. Jiang. As long as Hailufeng Company is willing to invest here, we can grant your company an industrial park with an area of ​​no less than 5,000 acres."

However, Jiang Miao still shook his head: "The land our company needs is not industrial land, but agricultural land, or mixed industrial and agricultural land."

He Jintang was also surprised: "Are you going to grow agricultural products? Your company's farms in the south and northwest of the desert are enough, right? It's difficult to form large-scale mechanized production in Yecheng. Professor Jiang doesn't need to establish an agricultural production base here just because of us."

"Mr. He misunderstood. I wanted to establish a special aquaculture base in the local area."

"Special aquaculture base? Mr. Jiang, you may not know that our water resources in Anyang are quite tight, and agricultural water consumption is relatively large, so it is difficult to provide enough water resources for aquaculture."

Jiang Miao smiled and said, "Don't worry about that. We don't plan to use open-air breeding, but indoor breeding. We also use efficient circulating water. We can even hand over all the polluted wastewater and domestic wastewater in the city to our company."

"Then I wonder what your company wants to breed?"

"Diatoms."

"Diatom? What is this? Is it something like seaweed?"

"This is prepared for the production of special high-purity diatomaceous earth. Some of our company's special silicon filaments require special high-purity diatomaceous earth. At present, about 68% of this raw material is imported from abroad, which is not conducive to the safety of our raw materials."

This was the first time He Jintang had heard of this situation: "Can't domestic raw materials be substituted?"

“Some of them can be replaced, but different types of diatomaceous earth will affect the performance of the product. For products with extremely high requirements, high-purity special diatomaceous earth must be used.”

They were also very surprised to hear Jiang Miao's answer.

"Then how much land area does your company need?"

"At least tens of thousands of acres in the early stage! The land polluted by industry is not a problem. After all, we also need to harden the land after building indoor breeding ponds. Breeding ponds are mainly made of plastic."

"Tens of thousands of acres. If your company can use industrial and domestic wastewater, we can grant all the wasteland near the steel plant and chemical plant to Hailufeng Company."

Jiang Miao nodded: "Okay."

The two parties discussed the investment. As for the funding issue, Jiang Miao didn't need to worry about it at all. The local bank would approve a loan of 50 billion yuan to Hailufeng Company.

That evening, after receiving six waves of visitors in a row, Jiang Miao finally had some peace and quiet.

He and Shuya discussed the diatom industry this afternoon.

Shuya looked at the relevant information on the laptop: "Diatom? If we just produce diatomaceous earth, its utilization rate is relatively low. We can consider extracting its protein, carbohydrates, and fat."

Jiang Miao certainly knows that diatoms should be used in a comprehensive manner: "In fact, under relatively good and suitable conditions, diatoms, such as Cyclotella, which reproduces quickly, may be able to multiply four times in just twenty hours."

"Isn't breeding your forte?"

"I do plan to use breeding methods to increase the growth rate of diatoms, as long as the growth rate of these diatom species can reach the level of Cyclotella." Jiang Miao continued with a smile:

"In an indoor breeding environment, using shallow trays, 5 kilograms of diatoms can be cultivated per cubic meter of water. If the number of diatoms increases fourfold every day, that is 4 kilograms of living diatoms, which can be extracted into about 20 to 0.6 kilograms of high-purity diatomaceous earth."

If shallow-plate farming is used through multi-layer farming, with 666 cubic meters of farming water per acre, 400 to 800 kilograms of diatomaceous earth can be produced every day, and the annual yield per acre is 146 to 292 tons of diatomaceous earth.

Just tens of thousands of acres can produce millions of tons of special diatomaceous earth.

Jiang Miao has other ideas. For example, among the diatom mines that are currently mined on a large scale, there are only dozens of common types. The diatomaceous earth formed by other diatoms is either buried underground due to geological reasons, or there are no mineralization conditions, or the scale of mineralization is small and scattered.

There are tens of thousands of species of diatoms in nature, and their shells are all very strange. These strange shells sometimes show some very strange properties at the nanometer size.

Even if it's just a matter of luck, the shells of tens of thousands of diatom species are a huge potential resource.

As long as we can produce a few relatively good application results, this investment will become more cost-effective.

We currently produce diatomaceous earth ourselves only to avoid being blocked by import channels and to improve the security of raw material supply.

At the same time, experimental diatom breeding farms can be established to develop new diatomaceous earth.

At the same time, there are some special types of diatoms, such as high-protein type, high-carbohydrate type, and high-fat type.

The protein content of different types of diatoms varies, generally around 15%-20%. For example, the protein content of the dry matter of the beautiful algae is about 19.519%.

The content of carbohydrates in diatoms is also considerable, generally accounting for about 30% to 70% of their dry weight.

The fat content of diatoms varies depending on the species, generally ranging from 20% to 50%.

Some diatoms used in biofuel research have higher fat content. For example, Cyclotella menifolia has become an ideal material for producing bioenergy due to its high content of fatty acids.

Of course, the rapid reproduction of diatoms requires the consumption of a large amount of carbon dioxide, hydrated silica and other nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium nutrients. Add to that the cost of regulating temperature, pH value and light, and the cost is definitely high.

If you simply produce diatomaceous earth, the benefits will definitely be significantly lower. After all, ordinary diatomaceous earth only needs to be dug and screened. If there are no very high purity and type requirements, using ordinary diatomaceous earth is the best solution.

However, when it comes to later selection and purification, there is an obvious difference between natural mineral diatomaceous earth and artificially propagated diatomaceous earth.

The initial mining cost of natural diatomaceous earth is low, but the cost of subsequent selection and purification is high.

The initial production cost of artificial diatomaceous earth is high, but the cost of subsequent selection and purification is low.

The two are just the opposite.

This is like graphite. The cost of ordinary graphite minerals is very low, but when it comes to specific types of high-purity graphite, the price is very high.

For example, the nanoscale high-purity graphite powder used by Minqin Group to produce silicon carbide nanotubes is very expensive, and there are only two domestic companies in the world that can produce it on a large scale.

Once the raw materials of a product reach the nano level, the price will often remain high.

Another very typical example is ordinary bottled purified water and pure water used in the semiconductor industry. Both are water, but the prices are very different.

Therefore, for some high-end manufacturing needs, it is more appropriate to use artificially cultivated diatomaceous earth for the high-purity special diatomaceous earth. After all, inside the farm, a single algae species can be selected from the beginning, which is almost impossible to achieve in a natural breeding environment.

Even if the production cost of one ton of high-purity special diatomaceous earth reaches five or six thousand yuan, it is better than it is now, because the food-grade diatomaceous earth currently purchased by Minqin Group is about 3000 yuan per ton.

However, this purity is not enough and further purification is needed to increase the purity to 99.9%. After purification, the cost directly soars to about 1.2 yuan per ton.

What is even more troublesome is that these diatomaceous earths are "hybrid" varieties. It is impossible to find diatomaceous earth that is completely formed by a single diatom species on the market.

These diatomaceous earths mixed with other diatom shells have become the key point affecting the product yield.

Since they are all diatom shells, it is difficult to separate them through screening processes.

Therefore, it is imperative for Hailufeng Company to establish its own artificial diatom breeding base and cultivate single-component diatomaceous earth.

Jiang Miao chatted with Shuya for more than an hour, during which he took the opportunity to send several emails to the company's executives, asking them to arrange time to visit Yecheng in the near future and prepare for the preliminary work for the construction of the Yecheng diatom breeding base next year.

(End of this chapter)