Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1262: Industrial Crusoe in Nanyang (First update, please subscribe)
"He must be using a Deli ballpoint pen!"

Watching the scene on TV of the South Korean president taking notes in a small notebook, Zhao Qingxuan, the general manager of Deli Company, immediately picked up the phone and called the marketing manager.

"We must find out whether Park Jung-woong used our ballpoint pen."

“Who is Park Jung-woong?”

"The President of South Korea! Yes, the one who is visiting now. Let's see if there is a clearer shot."

After hanging up the phone, Zhao Qingxuan couldn't help but say:

"Really? As a marketing person, how come you don't have a keen sense of smell?"

After that, Zhao Qingxuan picked up a ballpoint pen and said to himself:
"As long as it's effective, we can do a wave of marketing..."

Although the ballpoint pen was not invented by Nanyang, after all, it was widely used by the British and American air forces as early as World War II, but it was Nanyang that successfully turned the ballpoint pen into the commercial field. Before Deli entered this field, this pen was extremely expensive, with each pen costing up to $10.

However, Deli combined plastic with it and developed an industrial process for manufacturing ballpoint pens, which greatly reduced the cost. The world's first cheap ballpoint pen was born. In 99, the company sold ballpoint pens to the US market for the first time. Although there were many ballpoint pens on the market in the US at that time, consumers were not interested in the new products from Southeast Asia. However, Deli used the new media of television to promote it and sold it at an ultra-low price of cents.

Deli’s TV commercials back then were also considered creative. Ballpoint pens could be shot out of rifles, tied to roller skates, and installed on electric drills…

Soon, Deli's plastic ballpoint pens became the mainstream in the American market. In 1948, Deli sold as many as 200 million ballpoint pens in the United States alone.

But later, the price of ballpoint pens also dropped significantly due to competition, falling to less than 10 cents within ten years, a hundred times drop from the original 10 dollars. Today, Deli is the world's largest pen manufacturer.

However, Zhao Qingxuan, the general manager of the company, hoped to further expand the market. The image of a president holding a small notebook and taking notes with a ballpoint pen like a middle school student made him see a marketing opportunity.

“Perhaps, we can invite him to visit the factory.”

As soon as Zhao Qingxuan finished speaking, his wife said:
"Invite him to visit the factory? But after all, he is the president of a country, how can we just invite him?"

"So what if he's the president? The sales of our company alone is equivalent to 10% of South Korea's GDP. If he wants to see me, he has to queue up first!"

All I can say is that the company is big enough and he speaks with confidence. Don’t underestimate Li as just a business, but the annual sales of $200 million are enough for him to say this with confidence.

In fact, this is also the reason why Nanyang is so tough—it has a strong economy and speaks with confidence.

Park Jung-woong's first visit to Daming Palace did not yield any substantial results. He just learned some strategies for governing the country like a primary school student. Then Park Jung-woong began his tour.

Although Park Jung-woong had been to Southeast Asia a few years ago, his inspection at that time was destined to be military, but this time it was more about economy. After visiting Nanyang Aerospace Industries, Taiping Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, Changhong Electronics and many other companies, he went to the key enterprise of this visit - Donghae Steel Corporation.

Although Donghai Steel Company belongs to Chang'an in terms of jurisdiction, it is exactly 100 kilometers away from Chang'an. After the car drove onto Highway 2, looking at the spacious highway, when the speed of the convoy exceeded 120 kilometers per hour, Park Zhengxiong couldn't help but exclaimed.

"It's the highway network in Nanyang, right?"

"Yes, Mr. President, Highways 1 and 2 form the Borneo Ring Road. Together with the high-speed railway, they connect the five major cities together..."

As the accompanying staff introduced the vehicles, a large trailer towing a container passed by the convoy. The accompanying staff introduced:

"Although the five major cities in Nanyang are all port cities with very convenient sea transportation, a considerable portion of products and parts between industrial zones are transported via highways. Compared with sea transportation, automobile transportation is smaller in scale but more flexible. If container shipping is the artery of Nanyang's industry, then land truck freight is the capillary. The convenience of logistics brought by first-class highways has promoted the economic development of Nanyang. This is also the reason why highways were used as the basic infrastructure project during the early construction of Nanyang..."

On the way, Park Jung-woong deliberately stopped the convoy at a service area. He even ran to the bridge in the middle of the service area and stood there, watching the cars and trucks passing by. Someone beside him exclaimed:

"Oh my, the number of cars that passed by in just a short while is more than the number of cars in the entire South Korea!"

Such a feeling made Park Jung-woong and others change color slightly. In comparison, South Korea is really too backward!
"Nanyang is definitely not as wealthy as the United States!"

Park Jung-woong pursed his lips and said:
“But Nanyang was founded only sixteen years ago!” This is the fundamental reason why people regard this place as the “Nanyang Miracle”. It is also for this reason that Park Jung-woong highly praises Nanyang’s development path. It is because he regards Nanyang as a teacher that he picks up the little notebook, not only in the "Daming Palace", but also when visiting enterprises.

When returning to the service area from the bridge, Park Jung-woong was shocked and looked at the highway again. It was a first-class highway in the world, both in terms of construction and design.

South Korea should also have such highways!
Park Jung-woong muttered to himself in his heart, and almost subconsciously, he thought of building a highway connecting Seoul and Busan in South Korea.

Whether for military or economic development purposes, such a highway is needed.

Afterwards, the convoy continued to drive towards the East China Sea. On the way to the East China Sea, they visited a hydroelectric power station along the way. Although the hydroelectric power station was not large in scale, as the first hydroelectric power station in Nanyang, it opened the door to the development of hydropower in Nanyang.

Of course, we also visited the world's first nuclear power plant, the Tokai Nuclear Power Plant. Although its purpose is to produce weapons-grade plutonium and power generation is only a by-product, it still became the world's first nuclear power plant to be put into commercial operation.

In the past few years, Nanyang, which has always attached great importance to the development of nuclear power, has not only developed light water reactor nuclear power, but also verified its economic feasibility, and built three nuclear power plants, laying the foundation for the commercial promotion of nuclear power.
What was going through Park Jung-woong's mind while visiting the nuclear power plant?
It is not just South Korea that wants nuclear power plants, but also nuclear weapons. This is inevitable.

Even though it was only a hundred kilometers, by the time they had visited all the companies they needed to visit along the way, dusk had already fallen when they approached the East China Sea. Despite this, Park Jung-woong still insisted on visiting the Donghae Steel Company first. After all, it was the world's first 2000 million ton steel company.

As the car drove towards Donghae Steel Company, Kim Deok-kang, the accompanying South Korean ambassador to Southeast Asia, introduced it to Park Jung-woong.

“…Nanyang Steel Industry originated from equipment dismantled and shipped from Japan, which led to a huge gap between it and advanced countries in the United States and Europe in terms of economy and technology, especially in terms of production technology and equipment, which was significantly different from that of the United States.

Therefore, it promptly seized the opportunity of the United States' support for the Nanyang economy and introduced a large amount of advanced technology and equipment from the United States to transform the steel industry, realizing the modernization of the steel industry and laying the foundation for subsequent development.

During this period, with the help of German engineers, Nanyang's steel technology was further developed. Not only did it launch a more energy-efficient ironmaking blast furnace, but it also successfully developed the world's first oxygen top-blown converter, which has low construction and production costs: its construction cost is only 50%-70% of that of an open-hearth furnace of the same capacity, and its production cost is only 20%-40% of that of an open-hearth furnace. ... Nanyang's steel industry has basically completed the transformation of old factories and the renewal of old equipment, and has developed into a modern large-scale steel plant with an annual output of more than 1000 million tons of steel, and has formed two major steel industrial bases in Donghai and Dongning, which also allowed its steel output to exceed 2000 million tons for the first time. "

As an ambassador, Jin Dekang's eyes lit up when he mentioned the great development of Nanyang's steel industry. How could he not be surprised? Nanyang built the world's third largest steel industry from scratch in just over a decade.

“在过去五年间，南洋共开工建设2000m3以上的大高炉13座。建成投产的7座，最大容积为2657m3，这样的高炉有4座。此外扩建高炉15座，其中四座炉容扩大到1000m3以上。

In 4000, the steelmaking capacity of Nanyang's steel industry reached 3200 million tons, and the steel rolling capacity exceeded million tons! It can produce various types of steel for various purposes.

The two major steel companies in Nanyang are both at the most advanced level in the world. As large-scale steel joint ventures, they are all designed with large blast furnaces, large oxygen top-blown converters, advanced continuous casting equipment and continuous rolling units, and even use electronic computer control and management systems to form the world's most advanced production facilities. They have deep-water docks and modern loading and unloading equipment for the import and export of raw materials and finished products..."

As the ambassador was explaining, suddenly a bright pearl in the twilight in the distance came into their sight. Looking at the night view outside the car window, Park Jung-woong said quickly:

"Stop! Hurry, park closer to the roadside"

Afterwards, Park Jung-woong and his party got out of the car and stood on the side of the coastal highway. What came into view before them was the Donggang Steel Company.

Feeling the night view of the factory in the distance, they seemed to have entered a time tunnel and arrived in the future. It even gave people a feeling of being in a different space and a science fiction world.

Under the cover of night, this is no longer a single factory. The huge blast furnace, dense pipes, and cold man-made landscapes, projected onto the sea surface under the light, form a sharp contrast with the daytime.

The factory in the twilight shocked everyone, making Park Jung-woong and others feel the unique charm of industrial civilization and the power stored therein.

"This is the East China Steel Company... the largest steel company in the world."

While expressing his feelings, Park Jung-woong couldn't help but say:

"When will Korea have a steel company like this?"

While saying this, the voice in my heart sounded again - South Korea must have one too!

(End of this chapter)