Year: I had a good time when I was young

Chapter 819 Kill two birds with one stone

Chu Xiangqian was able to save 7 million in Standard Chartered last year. In addition to more than million US dollars in profits from livestock and marine fish, he also had coal and iron ore businesses.

Iron ore was simple, and Chu Xiangqian also found Philips to be the agent for the ore.

Using a company under Philips' name as a cover, after selling it to Philips, the ore was loaded onto a ship from Hong Kong Island and transported to Neon by an international shipping company at a landed price of US$14.5 per ton.

Philips' own company received iron ore at the Japanese port and sold it to the Japanese for $15.5.

The total amount is 90 tons, which is the iron ore output of the Novice Village for 5 months. For Chu Xiangqian, this is no pressure at all.

It took four months, compared to only two months last year, to transport the iron ore to Sakura, and Chu Xiangqian also received the payment of US$1305 million early.

By the way, every month we also help China export 20 tons of iron ore with an iron content of only 30%, which is exported to Sakura.

As for coal, the profit is actually divided into two parts.

Part of it was shipped from Tianjin at US$6 per ton, and Chu Xiangqian took 6% of the US$8, which is US$4.8.

It can be considered that the Celestial Empire is using coal to repay the money it owed Chu Xiangqian for grain over the past few years.

This $4.8 is pure profit, which means three round trips from Tianjin to Sakura in a month can earn $648 million.

But in the second month of the shipping company's operation, Chu Xiangqian bought 25 Victory ships from Morgan Jr.

Minus two refrigerated ships and two cattle and sheep transport ships, the coal transportation capacity suddenly soared from 2 tons to 2 tons.

After four months, 4 million US dollars were received. This money belonged exclusively to Chu Xiangqian.

Although China only took US$1.2 per ton, it was still US$891 million.

So China is now very active in the coal business.

I heard that in order to expand coal mining, China has begun preparing to build a dedicated railway line directly to Tianjin Port.
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After coal is exported to Japan, the price is US$8.2 per ton.

Deduct the purchase price of $6, the freight of $0.5 per ton, the crew's wages, and the cost of the ship's voyage.

The profit is about $1.5 per ton.

This is the profit of Chu Xiangqian’s shipping company, Philips, Norton, the Poker Club, and the two Moldy Army garrisons.

With a shipping capacity of 45 tons, the net profit is US$202.5 million per month.

With a transport capacity of 67.5 tons, the profit is 303 million per month.

After 4 months, more than 1100 million.

But this money has to deduct the benefits paid to Philips, Norton, the poker club, and the two Moldy Army garrisons.

Chu Xiangqian can probably get half, which is 550 million.

This means that after four months, Chu Xiangqian made a net profit of 4 million US dollars from the coal business alone.

1.23 million in one year.

After the business of trading thoroughbred horses with J.P. Morgan and MacDonald is completed this year, another 60 Victory ships will join the shipping company.

Future profits from shipping will be at least US$2.5 million per year.

Of course, out of the 2.5 million, only a small portion is the shipping company's apparent profit.

After China repaid the more than 6 million yuan it owed to Chu Xiangqian, all the profits from the export of $ worth of coal belonged to China.

So Chu Xiangqian is actually quite anxious now. Although he is happy to help the Celestial Empire make money, he is used to eating big meals and he is a little unhappy to eat home-cooked meals.

I can only think more about what kind of business I can do with Sakura people in the future.
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Since there is so much money deposited in Standard Chartered for mortgage and margin, let alone 10 million US dollars, even billion will be no problem.

And this time, Standard Chartered is much bolder than before.

After all, although Chu Xiangqian opened an account with Standard Chartered and shorted the pound, Standard Chartered could resell the short contracts to institutions and banks on the three major exchanges in Tokyo, London and New York.

Moreover, Juan was only willing to give Chu Xiangqian 10 times the leverage.

In other words, unless the pound rises by 10%, from the current 1 to 3.6 to 1 to 3.273, it will trigger the warning line for increasing margin or closing positions.

With a maneuvering space of 0.327 pounds, the probability of Standard Chartered suffering a loss is much smaller.

Although Chu Xiangqian himself saw the result, he was actually a little uncertain about the exact time when the pound sterling exchange rate would plummet this year.

He wasn't even sure of the exact day or month.

So after Standard Chartered signed the second short contract with itself and began to sell 10 billion short contracts to the outside world.

He originally planned to use the shipping company and coal contracts as collateral to borrow $1 million from Standard Chartered specifically for use as a backup margin.

This was to avoid the situation where, after going to London or India, I was unable to replenish the margin in time and Standard Chartered would forcibly close the US$11.35 billion contract.

If that were the case, Chu Xiangqian would definitely regret it.

But if you think about it carefully, you can definitely borrow $1 million using coal contracts and shipping companies as collateral.

But if he really borrowed money, once the outside world knew that he had borrowed so much money, it was very likely that the shipping company would be targeted by someone with ulterior motives.

In just less than half a year, the business of large and small shipping companies in Hong Kong has decreased by 20% to 30% compared to the past.

At this time, I don’t know how many bosses wish that International Shipping would go bankrupt tomorrow.

Once these people are given the opportunity, they will definitely feel that this is the best time to defeat themselves.

As it involves the stability of the shipping company and even the entire Chu family industry, Chu Xiangqian thought about it and decided not to test outsiders and his subordinates.

The human heart cannot stand the test.

Perhaps those of his originally loyal subordinates are worried that their boss may lose hundreds of millions in foreign exchange.

Having borrowed another $1 million, it is likely to look for a way out.

At that time, people who would not have betrayed you will make wrong decisions for your own sake.

So Chu Xiangqian simply didn't borrow money, but went to the store on the twelfth day of the first lunar month when Chow Tai Fook's Central flagship store reopened.

In order to prove his optimism towards Chow Tai Fook, he publicly announced that he had officially become the second largest shareholder of Chow Tai Fook Group with a 30% stake.

42.5 tons of gold will be deposited in Standard Chartered as gold reserves to support Chow Tai Fook's development.

These Golden Week tycoons can call on the gold at any time in case of a gold shortage, and repay the money after the gold is sold.

Of course, it would be best to exchange it for gold.

However, having said that, it is not that easy to borrow gold from Standard Chartered.

First of all, there must be collateral, and then you have to pay interest when you borrow 1 ton.

To put it bluntly, these 42.5 tons of gold were deposited by Chu Xiangqian at Standard Chartered as reserve margin for short-selling contracts.

Saying that it was a reserve for Zhou Dafu was nothing more than concealing the fact that he was shorting, and also supporting Zhou Dafu and gaining the favor of Zheng Yutong and the Zhou family. After the opening ceremony, Chu Xiangqian actually told Zheng Yutong that the gold could not be used within six months. If there was an accident, he would think of a way to help Zheng Yutong mobilize three to five tons for emergency.

When Chu Xiangqian just announced the news, hundreds of local celebrities, wealthy families, and officials present were shocked beyond words.

Zheng Yutong, his wife, father-in-law, and several descendants of the Zhou family who had no interest in doing business were so excited that they trembled as they spoke.

Afterwards, he began to feel vaguely worried, but fortunately Chu Xiangqian explained everything to him, and Zheng Yutong finally felt relieved.

He even jokingly asked whether he still needed Zhou Dafu to help him purchase 1 ton of gold every year in the future.

Chu Xiangqian naturally continued to fulfill this gentleman's agreement without hesitation.

Anyway, gold was only $51 per ounce at that time. In 80, gold rose to $800 per ounce. The profit was fifteen or sixteen times, and it was only one ton per year. Only a fool would not do it.

However, considering that the market value of one ton of gold is approximately US$180 million at the time, these 42.5 tons of gold are equal to US$7650 million.

It is already 20 to 30 million US dollars more than the wealth of the Zhou family and Zheng Yutong combined.

Chu Xiangqian had previously deposited 7.5 tons of gold in Standard Chartered, which means that he will have deposited a total of 50 tons of gold in Standard Chartered in the future.

Of course, these 7.5 tons of gold, or US$1350 million, have been used as collateral to sign a US$1.35 million short contract with Standard Chartered.

Therefore, after the contract ends, these 7.5 tons of gold cannot be freely used.

But it is also true that he stored 50 tons of gold.

Zhou Dafu's future development will definitely be smoother than in his previous life.

Not to mention, the outside world doesn’t know that he still has 12.5 tons of gold in Hang Seng.

As shareholders of Hang Seng, the brothers Ho Chan-yuan and Ho Chan-xian naturally knew about this. So they were extremely glad that they had stood with Chu Xiangqian without hesitation at the Hang Seng board meeting a few days ago.

Otherwise, who knows how much cash and gold this guy has left.

As for how these dozens of tons of gold were earned, the two brothers looked at each other and quickly remembered that Chu Xiangqian's Chai Wan Wharf had been importing and exporting iron ore last year.

In order to conceal the source of the iron ore in the Novice Village, Chu Xiangqian signed a contract with the Celestial Empire to import at least 20 tons of iron ore every month.

The quality of these iron ores is not very good, with an iron content of 30%. The quality is not even as good as the iron ore from India, so the price is naturally not high.

The landed price from China to Chai Wan Port in Hong Kong Island was US$5.5 per ton, which was considered a low price at that time.

China does not intend to make a lot of money from this. Some profit is made in foreign exchange, and for China now, it has become a business that must be maintained.

Chu Xiangqian originally planned to just make some money from the freight, by exporting it to Sakura at a price of US$6 per ton, which means he only made a profit of US$0.5 from the freight.

Of course, these iron ores were also exported by Philips' company, with the purpose of relying on his status and connections to avoid being banned after the source was discovered.

But what surprised Chu Xiangqian was that he had just quoted $6, but within two days Philips negotiated the price down to $8.5 per ton.

Chu Xiangqian knew it must be expensive without checking the price.

But if you think deeply, there must be considerations of the import and export between the two countries, and even the development of the British and European markets.

Although Yingguo has declined, not to mention in this era, even decades later, there are still people who stubbornly believe that Yingguo is still a top-notch country.

So, although it seems that Philip got the upper hand, Chu Xiangqian actually relied on his status as well as the status of Margaret and Norton to get more benefits from the prices of iron ore, livestock and marine fish.

Chu Xiangqian immediately regretted his decision, but of course he didn't say it explicitly.

Rather, it means that the iron ore is unloaded in Hong Kong Island, which requires considerable storage costs, and then shipped to Sakura, and the export price of US$6 remains unchanged.

But the freight cost will increase by USD 0.5 per ton and the storage, labor and loading and unloading costs will increase by USD 1.

Therefore, the landed price of this batch of iron ore from China in Sakura is US$7.5.

Then he complained that he worked so hard but only earned $1 in the end.

But in fact, the landed price in China was only 5.5, and he had a gross profit of 2 US dollars.

As soon as Philip heard it, he understood that this bastard Chu Xiangqian definitely made more than just $1.

But when I think about it, I really did nothing. I just sent people to Sakura to negotiate and then waited to get paid. Making $1 per ton is really a great bargain.

And with 20 tons per month, that means a free profit of 240 million US dollars a year.

Together with the additional 90 tons of iron ore contract, it would be US$330 million a year. After thinking about it, Philips agreed readily.

He even began to encourage Chu Xiangqian to find a way to import more iron ore and coal from China.

As for whether it helped the Celestial Empire, Philips didn't care about that in the face of huge and tangible benefits.

Moreover, Hong Kong Island imports more than 10 billion Hong Kong dollars worth of finished products, daily necessities, and basic raw materials from China every year.

In Philips' view, exporting iron ore is a business and has nothing to do with stance or thoughts.

Chu Xiangqian was worried that the amount of iron ore imported by Sakura would not be enough to absorb too much iron ore from China.

However, since the 50s, after Sakura was used by Magnesium as a logistics base for the Korean War, a large number of light and heavy industries have been rebuilt.

In the 60s and 70s, annual iron ore imports skyrocketed year after year.

Moreover, Sakura's iron ore is 62% imported. In 4, the imported iron ore exceeded million tons.

In the first eight months of 63 years ago, the amount of iron ore imported by Sakura exceeded 8 million tons.

It is estimated that at least 6 million tons were imported last year, or even more.

After all, it was September last year when Chu Xiangqian approached Philips and pushed him to the front to discuss iron ore imports with Sakura.

Philips' name was indeed useful, and the general terms were negotiated in just two or three days.

Then the people from Philips flew directly to Sakura, and the contract was signed in less than a week.

The 90 tons in Chu Xiangqian’s Novice Village, plus the 4 tons imported from China in four months, totals 80 million tons.

This iron ore order was definitely an unplanned order, so Chu Xiangqian guessed that Sakura might have imported 7 million tons of iron ore last year.

What Chu Xiangqian didn't know was that in the nine years from 61 to 70, data showed that Sakura imported more than 9 billion tons of iron ore.

These are the data clearly shown by the customs. The amount of iron ore that is smuggled or avoids taxation is definitely 20 to 30 percent.

Even with the character of the Sakura people, Chu Xiangqian was 100% sure that they would conceal a large part of the data and stockpile strategic materials such as imported iron ore and coal.

Just look at how the Sakura people in the future are using iron ore and coal to fill the sea, and you will know how crazy they are when it comes to storing basic raw materials.

So let alone the 240 million tons exported by China every year and the 90 tons of iron ore in Chu Xiangqian’s Novice Village, even if it were multiplied tenfold, the Sakura people should be able to consume it.

As for coal, Chu Xiangqian was worried about the shipping company's capacity before. After it doubled, Sakura would take the initiative to request a reduction in import quantities.

But after four months, they ate whatever was available.

It can be seen that what Chu Xiangqian guessed, that data was concealed, was true.
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(End of this chapter)