Chapter 445: The Final Crazy Ship Purchase

Chapter 445: The Final Crazy Ship Purchase

Chapter 445: The Final Crazy Ship Purchase
In late July, Yang Wendong once again came to the Keelung Shipyard in Taiwan;
At this moment, in front of the dock, two large oil tankers were parked in the water, with a large number of red cloth flowers wrapped around the hulls.

"Hello, Mr. Yang." Director Zhao of Keelung Shipyard came to greet him with his men.

"Hello, Director Zhao." Yang Wendong also shook hands.

Director Zhao continued, "Mr. Yang, thank you very much for choosing to cooperate with our Longji Shipyard. Today is the handover ceremony of your two new ships. We will go up there now."

"Okay." Yang Wendong said with a faint smile.

Led by Director Zhao, several people first took advantage of the time to take a tour on one of the ships. Yang Wendong, Zheng Yuhua and several captains from Changxing Shipping also gained a preliminary understanding of the ship.

Afterwards, several people went to participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony next to the dock. This was the first time that Taiwan's shipbuilding industry produced an oil tanker of more than 5 tons, and it also attracted the attention of many local media in Taiwan, including TV stations.

Facing the reporters' filming, Yang Wendong seemed normal.

In the early days, he was more concerned about hiding his photos, but now with the growing scale of the industry, there are too many reporters and people interested in this aspect, which has led to the photos being leaked out. He has no choice, because there are many times when he takes photos with the Governor of Hong Kong, it is difficult to refuse.

This is also the inevitable cost of a large industry. In the 21st century, who in the world didn't know Bill Gates's appearance? Although Yang Wendong is far less famous than Gates now, the principle is the same.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the two ships sailed to Hong Kong under the attention of reporters. This is also a routine transaction. The ships need to be transported to Hong Kong and then pass the double inspection of the government and the customer before they can be officially considered a deal.
After the ship went away, Yang Wendong and others came to an office building inside the Keelung Shipyard.

"Mr. Yang, this is a tea unique to Taiwan. Please try it." Director Zhao said with a smile.

"Thank you." Yang Wendong also said politely, then tasted it and said, "The tea tastes good."

When he had just traveled through time, he actually didn't know much about tea. After all, he didn't have this habit in his previous life, although he did drink it. But in the past few years after traveling through time, he drank more tea and had a general understanding of it. Sometimes he could tell the good from the bad just by tasting it.

Director Zhao smiled and said, "I have a few kilograms of tea here, so I'll give it to Mr. Yang."

"Thank you very much." Yang Wendong agreed. It was just a small gift, so he naturally didn't need to be polite.

This is not the officialdom. In the business world, if bosses give each other gifts, you have to accept them. This will actually help to build good relationships.

However, this is only suitable for private enterprises where both parties are wholly owned. If it is a listed company or a company with shares, or if it has some financial relationship with the government, then you need to be cautious.

"Mr. Yang, you're too polite." Director Zhao added, "I also want to thank Mr. Yang for placing this order with us in Taiwan. Otherwise, I don't know when we can make a breakthrough."

Yang Wendong asked, "Director Zhao, has the Keelung Shipyard received an order for a 5-ton tanker from another company?"

Large oil tankers are a very high-risk commodity, because once an oil tanker leaks oil in the sea, the shipowner behind it will suffer heavy losses or even go bankrupt. Although the current maritime convention has also bound the rights and interests of the ship's client, the shipowner's losses are still very large no matter what.

Therefore, it is difficult for new companies and new regions to obtain customers for their tankers, just like the C919 aircraft in the past, which also developed very slowly.
Director Zhao replied: "Not yet. I guess the customers in the market want to wait for Mr. Yang's two tankers to operate for a while before seeing the results."

"Almost." Yang Wendong added: "Even on my side, in the early stages of operation, we only dare to take short routes, and we will also invest extra manpower to avoid special situations."

Even with Yang Wendong's current financial resources, he would not dare to take a gamble, so he must avoid some major risks in the early stage, such as not going to some economically developed waters, not going to the open sea, and not going to areas with bad weather. This way, problems can be avoided as much as possible, and even if problems occur, it will be convenient to remedy them in time.

Director Zhao said, "That's good. I can also send a group of engineers to stay on these two ships for a long time. If there are any problems, the technicians can communicate with each other more conveniently."

"Okay, no problem." Yang Wendong agreed naturally.

The other party's purpose must be to collect ship data, which will also facilitate the optimization of subsequent ships in the future. This is normal. Although the shipyard will conduct tests before delivery, it is impossible to spend a lot of time and energy. Just like a car, if it is tested too much, it will become an old car. And the company does not have that much energy.

Many car brands, before launching new cars, will sell cars to employees at a low price and let them drive them slowly. This is good for everyone as long as there are no major quality problems.

"Thank you." Director Zhao said with a smile.

Yang Wendong then said, "Director Zhao, if I say I still want to place an order with you, what discount will I get?"

"Are you serious, Mr. Yang?" Director Zhao asked with some shock in his eyes.

"Of course, but it also depends on the price." Yang Wendong confirmed.

Director Zhao pondered for a moment and said, "Mr. Yang, if you can continue to place orders, I can guarantee that the current price will be the same as before. As you know, the market price of ships has increased a lot in the past two years, and even the price of steel has increased a bit. If I use the original price, it will be a great discount."

"Well, I'll discuss it internally." Yang Wendong naturally wouldn't agree right away, so he asked, "As for quantity, what is your production capacity and speed?"

Director Zhao was stunned for a moment, then asked, "How many ships does Mr. Yang want to buy?"

"My idea is 10 ships, but I don't know if you have enough docks here? And the time for each ship." Yang Wendong said with a faint smile.

It is now the middle of 65, and the Middle East crisis is less than two years away. What he needs to do is to lock in future ships from some shipyards, even if they are from Taiwan.

Of course, this is also because Taiwan’s shipbuilding industry has taken off since the 70s and has not encountered any major problems. Otherwise, even if he wanted to support the Chinese shipbuilding industry, he would not dare to do this because the risk is too high.

"Ten?" Director Zhao's expression changed a little, and after a while he said, "Mr. Yang, to be honest, our Keelung Shipyard only has two such docks at the moment, but if you really place an order for so many, I can plan to apply for two more docks.

However, the construction of the dock also takes time, so at the rate of one ship per year, it will take about 4 years to complete the delivery, and the first few ships will be delivered one by one after completion. "Four years, that's fine." Yang Wendong said: "Director Zhao, although I am the boss of the company, I can only make such a plan. In the follow-up, you still need to negotiate with Ms. Zheng."

Even if the boss can really make the decision, he usually won't make it in front of outsiders, because once it's said, it's hard to go back on it because it will affect his personal reputation.

But if they are subordinates, as long as they don't sign the contract, they can change their opinions the next day by simply saying "the boss {board of directors} doesn't agree".

"Of course." Director Zhao looked at Zheng Yuhua and said, "Ms. Zheng, please take care of us. We hope to cooperate with Changxing Shipping again this time."

Zheng Yuhua smiled and said, "Okay, I will formally issue a purchase plan later."

"Okay, that's it." Yang Wendong said, "Director Zhao, I hope we can have long-term cooperation in the future."

"Me too." Director Zhao quickly stood up and said.

Hong Kong is now home to the largest number of shipping tycoons in Asia, and is also a large trade transit point and export base, with a very high demand for ships.

If Taiwan wants to focus on developing the shipbuilding industry, it must seize the nearest market that is full of Chinese people. Changxing Shipping is very suitable for this. It has strong funds behind it. Once it is confirmed that there are no problems with its ships through it, it will inevitably bring more Hong Kong customers.
After leaving the Keelung Shipyard, the Changxing Shipping team came to a nearby hotel. Next to a beach, Yang Wendong, Bai Yujie, and Zheng Yuhua sat together.

"Sister Zheng, the bank in Japan is unwilling to give us credit line?" Yang Wendong asked while drinking tea.

Zheng Yuhua said: "It's not that they are unwilling to give the credit line, but they will not give 65% or even higher. They think our current debt in the Japanese banking industry is too high, and they will not consider it until our fleet has been operating for a period of time."

"Well, it seems that it will be a bit difficult to order more ships from Japan." Yang Wendong nodded and said.

Many times, knowing the future alone may not be of much use. If you want to maximize your profits, you must use leverage and magnify the funds in your hands through the bank.

He had been doing this in the past few years, which made him the largest shipowner in Hong Kong in just a few years. However, bank leverage also has its limits. It is useless to believe in your own judgment of the future because the bank does not believe in it, and the bank itself also has risk management rules.

This is just like playing futures. Even if you know that a stock will plummet, you cannot short it with a leverage of dozens of times, unless you see it in some online novels.
Zheng Yuhua went on to say: "Another reason is that Japanese shipyards are very busy now. Other Hong Kong shipowners, European and American companies have placed orders in Japan. They don't want to get involved and are definitely looking for businesses with lower risks to cooperate with."

"Then forget about it this year." Yang Wendong paused and said, "Let's just operate it for a year or two. When the follow-up funds improve and some of the loans are repaid, we will consider buying ships from Japan. Now we just need to settle the shipyard in Taiwan first."

In this day and age, making money from ships is as easy as sweeping gold with a broom, so naturally everyone comes to order ships. Shipyards have no shortage of orders, so they are naturally picky. Only the Taiwan Shipyard, because they cannot guarantee any experience, others dare not place orders.

"Okay." Zheng Yuhua agreed and said, "Mr. Yang, if you want to order ships, there is another place, and that is Europe."

"Europe? The price of European ships must be sky-high, right?" Yang Wendong said with a smile.

So far, he has only purchased a luxury cruise ship from Europe once, and that was because Japan does not produce this kind of thing.

Zheng Yuhua replied: "Yes, it is very expensive, but there are still many shipyards in Europe, and many shipping companies buy from them. The fundamental reason is Europe's internal protection policy, that is, only ships purchased by Europe can operate within Europe."

"If I buy a ship, can I get business from Europe?" Yang Wendong asked with an idea in his mind.

If you want to be a global shipping tycoon, you can’t just do business in Asia. You have to do business in Europe, America, South America and even Africa.

Zheng Yuhua said: "Yes, I have also contacted many European airlines in recent years. They are also very happy to rent Hong Kong ships. Compared with some European and American shipowners, our Hong Kong shipowners are much cheaper and have strong service."

"What about finance?" Yang Wendong asked again. He was naturally a little tempted.

Originally it was inconvenient to buy ships in Japan, so they could only be purchased in Taiwan. However, Taiwan's production capacity is limited. Before the Middle East crisis, it could only provide itself with 50-ton ships. It is unlikely to expand further, but Europe may also be a breakthrough.

Originally, in history, Bao Yugang's biography once clearly described that when Bao Yugang went to the French shipyard to place orders or receive ships in the late 70s, he was accompanied by the Minister of Commerce in person. That is enough to show that even in the 80s, a shrewd shipping magnate like Bao Yugang had to go to Europe to order ships. He did so certainly not because French ships were cheap, but because it was profitable.

Zheng Yuhua said: “These are basically supporting services, which are actually similar to those in Japan, but we still need to talk to them;
But one thing is that the ship trade between Europe is mainly for cargo, not oil, so we can only buy cargo ships in Europe."

"There are already quite a few container terminals in Europe, so let's just buy container ships." Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "European shipbuilding companies happen to have more experience in this area."

The container was born in the United States and was gradually promoted. Therefore, the European and American shipbuilding industries were also the first to develop container freighters. They even had many patents, forcing Japanese shipbuilding companies to purchase them.

"Okay, then I will arrange for someone to contact the airlines and shipyards in Europe." Zheng Yuhua said.

"Thank you for your hard work. I'll leave the matters in Taiwan and Europe to you. Tell me if there is any progress." Yang Wendong said again.

The Middle East crisis is just two years away, and it is uncertain whether we will be able to order a large number of ships from Japanese shipyards in two years. Therefore, this operation may be the last time to purchase additional ships before the Middle East crisis.

In fact, such expansion itself is not normal. Even with HSBC behind him, Pao Yu-kang could not compare with Changxing Shipping in its initial expansion.

"Mr. Yang, you're too polite. This is what I should do." Zheng Yuhua said with a smile.

Yang Wendong added: "We will continue to purchase other suitable second-hand ships, as long as they are not too broken. We won't make much money from these ships, but we won't lose money either."

This is indeed the case according to current freight rates, but two years from now, the situation will be completely different. By then, an old ship will be able to make back its investment in one year.

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(End of this chapter)