Chapter 512: Layout of the container industry

Chapter 512: Layout of the container industry

Chapter 512: Layout of the container industry
After confirming the farm, Yang Wendong came to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia;

“This Kuala Lumpur doesn’t feel as good as Singapore.” After arriving at the center of Kuala Lumpur, Yang Wendong said after watching it in the car for a while.

Zhou Haoran said: "Yes, Malaysia's total economic output is about 2.5 times that of Singapore, but the population is almost 5 times; and Malaysia's main economy is agriculture and mining. Excluding these, the per capita economy is even worse.

Even the capital city of Kuala Lumpur is not as good as Singapore, especially since Singapore has developed very fast in recent years.”

"What is the per capita education level?" Yang Wendong asked again.

As long as the local economy is not outrageously bad, he will not care much. In fact, the worse the better, which is more suitable for intensive manufacturing.

But the education level is very important. Although some of his factories are very simple and low-end, if the workers are literate and even have some logical thinking, they are definitely better than illiterate people. Even if the products are simple, the quality will definitely be different.

Of course, under normal circumstances, it is difficult to satisfy both at the same time, so we can only try to find a balance.

Zhou Haoran replied: “There are more populations here in Malaysia. I have only checked the Chinese, and they are relatively the highest. The Chinese generally attach great importance to their children’s education;

In addition, in Malaysia, most of the wealthy and middle class are Chinese, and this has developed in an environment with a relatively small population. "

"The Chinese are much better than others." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "If their education level is okay, as long as they have no problems with ZZ, they are quite suitable to become the fourth largest production base of our group."

Changxing Group’s largest production base is naturally Hong Kong, followed by Singapore and Taiwan;

Although we invested in Taiwan in the earliest stage, we stopped at that stage due to some unnecessary troubles, and the focus is still on Singapore and Hong Kong.
However, the two cities have a combined population of over 500 million, and they also have many other industries, so the number of jobs they can provide is limited. Forced expansion is not economically viable.

In Malaysia, there are about 400 million Chinese people, which is not a lot, but the economy here is poor in all aspects and many people are unemployed, so more jobs can be provided, but they are more suitable for the simplest commodities.

Zhou Haoran said: "In fact, Changxing Industrial's mouse traps can be moved here. The labor cost here is more than half of that in Hong Kong. It's a bit of a waste to use Hong Kong people to make mouse traps. We can let them do other industries with higher technical content."

"This is a good idea, Aying, make a note of it and tell Wei Zetao about it when you get back." Yang Wendong agreed.

He started his own business half a year ago and invented sticky notes. He didn’t really care about the profit from the sticky mouse board, but the sticky mouse board required a lot of labor, so he kept it in the early days and even opened up overseas channels to help it develop. After all, he wouldn’t lose money and could kill two birds with one stone.
But times have changed, labor costs in Hong Kong are getting higher and higher, competition is getting more and more fierce, and other companies under the group are also expanding rapidly. So it is time to consider relocating this lowest-end industry and allow some of the former employees to truly learn some skills.

Ah Ying agreed: "Okay."

After the car made a circle in Kuala Lumpur, it returned to the airport again and then went straight back to Hong Kong;
This time he came to Kuala Lumpur just to take a look, so he didn't have any interaction with the locals. He didn't plan to invest in real estate, finance or other things in Malaysia. At most, he would build a supermarket or a cinema, which are also small industries.

Although he also knew that the land and housing prices in Kuala Lumpur would definitely rise in the future, they would definitely not be as high as those in Hong Kong and Singapore, so he naturally would not invest;
After returning to Hong Kong, we naturally lived a normal life. Now the whole family is together and we often have a lot of fun. Family happiness may be just watching the children smile, which is enough.

Late July, Kwai Chung, Hong Kong:

At this moment, a large number of construction vehicles and workers are working at the port, with smoke flying everywhere.

Yang Wendong, Zheng Zhijie, Wei Zetao, Zheng Yuhua, several of the most powerful people in Changxing Group, all came to the port construction site.

"When will it be completed?" Yang Wendong asked.

Zheng Zhijie replied: "It will be around the end of next year. The construction speed of the port can be accelerated by adding more people and equipment, but the equipment and personnel training of various container terminals are not possible and require time.

The equipment is imported, and the people who are being trained must follow the manufacturer’s plan. Our people will only be allowed to go after the equipment is built.”

"Without equipment, we can only obey them." Yang Wendong nodded.

If you have worked in the manufacturing industry, you will know that it is very troublesome to meet a strong supplier. They will ignore you and you can choose whether to buy from them or not.

Over the years, he has tried his best to localize the entire industrial chain and simple equipment, but this kind of large and complex ones, not to mention Hong Kong, even Japan currently has to import them from Europe and the United States, so the patents are all American.

"Yes." Zheng Zhijie nodded and said, "Comparatively speaking, the container terminal is better, and the Hung Hom Cross-Harbour Tunnel takes longer. The working space is limited, and there is no way to rely on family members to increase the speed;

Even if we could increase the number, it would be useless. The design and materials of the entire tunnel were completely decided by the foreign investors. We don’t even have the confidence to refute it.”

"As expected." Yang Wendong didn't pay much attention to it and asked again, "When will the Hung Hom Tunnel be completed?"

Zheng Zhijie replied: "It is estimated to be in the middle of 1970, but I don't know if the efficiency of the Americans will cause a delay."

"Well, this speed is not bad." Yang Wendong nodded.
The construction was originally scheduled to start in 1970, but has now been completed, two years ahead of schedule.

Wei Zetao smiled and said, “Once these two projects are completed, they will be of great help to our group.”

On the one hand, containers can reduce costs, and on the other hand, after the opening of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, various transportation will be much more convenient, and time can be saved in many places. "Yes." Yang Wendong also agreed, and then asked: "But it depends on the container production here."

Wei Zetao replied: "Mr. Yang, the medium-sized hot rolling press purchased from Japan half a month ago has been debugged and is currently producing container steel plates in small batches."

"Okay, let's go and take a look." Yang Wendong said.

In the past, when the container industry was very large, perhaps a small container factory could directly buy pre-pressed steel plates and weld them directly; but now it is no longer possible. At most, they can only buy steel plates of appropriate thickness, and they still have to process them themselves when they get back;

In order to produce containers, Changxing Industry also spent 120 million US dollars to buy a set of large-scale hot rolling equipment. The investment is very high, but if it can produce containers in large quantities, with the current market demand for containers and high prices, it will soon make back the money.

The distance was a bit far, so they drove there. Ten minutes later, they arrived in front of a factory. Before they got out of the car, they heard a "bang" and felt the ground shaking.

Wei Zetao explained: "This is the hot rolling mill at work. The tonnage is relatively large. Even if hot rolling is used, it still requires a lot of force for such a large steel plate."

"Yes." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Is this the first heavy industrial factory of our group?"

There are still some heavy factories in Hong Kong, but Changxing Group has basically been engaged in light industry in the past ten years. Some televisions with slightly higher technical content are not considered heavy industry.

Wei Zetao said: "Yes, it is too troublesome to do this kind of heavy industry in Hong Kong, but if you want to make containers, you can only do hot rolling in Hong Kong, because the finished steel plates after hot rolling are very inconvenient to transport, even if they are shipped from Taiwan, it is very troublesome."

"Are the steel plates imported from Japan?" Yang Wendong asked again.

Wei Zetao replied: "Yes, only Japan has this production capacity nearby. Although Taiwan also has steel mills, they don't have production lines of this specification, so they can't do it."

"This is the only way in the short term." Yang Wendong said.

It is very difficult to do hot rolling and welding of containers in Hong Kong, and it is almost impossible to do steelmaking, unless you buy crude steel and make refined steel, but this will definitely not happen in the short term. Even if you want to engage in heavy industry, you have to do it step by step;

After they entered the factory, Wei Zetao said, "Mr. Yang, the hot rolling mill may still be a little dangerous. We can just go upstairs and take a look through the glass."

"Okay." Yang Wendong naturally would not disagree. Safety was the most important thing to him, and he didn't understand the technology, so there was no point in getting closer to take a look.

After watching for a while upstairs and receiving a brief introduction from an engineer, the group went to another welding workshop. At this moment, there were a total of 5 containers being welded and there was a strange smell in the air.

Yang Wendong looked around and said, "Old Wei, this workshop needs to install stronger exhaust fans. Masks are not very useful for these chemicals."

"Okay." Wei Zetao continued, "Mr. Yang, most of these smells are because we need to do a seal test after welding. We need a special gas. We are only in the early stages of research. In the future, we will have a dedicated separate workshop to do this test, and the accuracy can be guaranteed."

"That's good." Yang Wendong nodded;
Afterwards, several people walked around the container for a few times, and relevant personnel also gave explanations. Finally, several people returned to the meeting room of the administrative building in front of the factory;

Yang Wendong asked: "Old Wei, are all the people in this factory okay? Especially when it comes to large-scale production in the future?"

Wei Zetao replied: “Don’t worry, Mr. Yang, the professional quality, technical and welding engineers were all recruited from Japan, and Taiwan also recruited some people from their shipyard;

Then here locally, there are many welders in the Hong Kong construction industry, and I have recruited quite a few of them. Our conditions are much better than those on the construction site, but the welding standards are different, so they still need to learn for a while, but they all have a basic foundation and can get started in one or two months. Moreover, even if there is a problem with the welding, it can be remedied as long as it is discovered after inspection. "

"Okay, I feel more relieved now." Yang Wendong asked again, "How much production capacity do you plan to have per year?"

Wei Zetao said: "The current planned production capacity is to produce 3000 20-foot standard containers a year. If demand increases in the future, we can continue to expand the scale. The surrounding land has also been purchased."

"3000 20-foot pieces? I remember the market price is more than 2000 US dollars, right?" Yang Wendong asked.

Zheng Yuhua next to him said, "Yes, but you still need to book in advance. If you want to buy spot goods, you have to pay a lot more."

"That year, the output value was 30 to 40 million yuan." Yang Wendong said, "Let's wait for the test results to come out. If the containers we make can meet international standards, we don't need to wait until the production capacity is insufficient to build a factory. We can start right away. There will be a huge demand for containers in the future."

Not to mention that containers have just appeared, even decades later in the 21st century, containers are often in short supply;

In its past, CIMC was able to produce several million TEUs (20-foot containers) a year, but we are still far behind.
If we can gain a firm foothold in this field and move into it after the domestic reform and opening up, we may own the future Fortune 500 "CIMC". This will also be a new industry with far greater potential than sticky notes, suitcases, etc. for Changxing Industry.

I may even use this opportunity to enter the steel industry in the future, but site selection will be a big problem. I will seriously consider it when the scale of containers becomes really large.

Wei Zetao agreed and said, "Okay, but if that's the case, we'll have to spend a lot of money to train new people now. It will take far more people than we have now, and the cycle will be long. This industry is not the same as before."

"No problem, make a budget for me." Yang Wendong said with a smile: "If you want to expand the industry, you have to be willing to invest. Compared with the future income, this is nothing."

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)