Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1370 Thank you Big Brother for your selfless blood transfusion (rd update, please subscribe)

The office building of the United States Trade Representative Office located on the street seems to be no different from the surrounding buildings.

In fact, this is an illusion. Passersby can only see five floors and a stepped roof platform here, but they don’t know that there are three more floors buried deep in the soil.

In one of the basements, Frank, who had been looking through some documents for a while, had just stepped out of the elevator and walked to the lobby above when he was stopped by a local young man.

These lively young men, some European and some Asian, usually run errands here, serve as messengers and messengers. "Mr. Frank."

The young man with spiky hair panted and said,
"Mr. Cadell wants you to come to his office right away."

"Tell him I'll be there in a minute."

"At once, sir."

Frank felt a little unhappy when he thought that less than half of the 400 people working in the building were Americans. The rest were almost all locals, and the secret work they were allowed to participate in through loyalty checks was just the most monotonous and stereotyped chores.

Whenever they needed to recruit new personnel, they would submit one copy of the candidate's resume to the local security department for approval, and another copy to the CIA workstation, where they would quickly get the review conclusion. In his opinion, this itself showed that this seemingly cumbersome procedure was actually very simple.

But what is the point of such loyalty checks?

With this in mind, Frank stepped into the elevator and went to the top floor.

"Frank!" Caddell pointed to an overstuffed armchair next to the large desk. He sat down in another chair, looked at his subordinate with a sharp gaze, and said:
"Tell me everything you know about Donghai Steel. I'm talking about the large-diameter oil pipes they produce."

"East China Sea Steel..."

Frank began his narrative,

"It was probably founded at the end of the war. In the early days, its equipment mainly came from the defeated countries. But later, they introduced more advanced equipment and invented advanced processes such as the oxygen top-blown converter. With these advanced technologies, it became the largest steel company locally and also the largest in the world.

In the past decade or so, they have been important partners of companies such as U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel. They purchased machinery and equipment from these companies, introduced technology, and ultimately relied on American steel technology to create the current Donghai Steel.

The large-diameter oil pipeline was a technology they introduced from the U.S. Steel Corporation.”

Since his boss is interested in this question, it must be related to the "Battalion" embargo on Russia? Thinking of this, Frank added:
"Given the current embargo, the Russians will certainly try to get a pipeline from here. After all, at the moment, the Russians' own production in this field is almost symbolic and insignificant."

"Not trying, but definitely!"

Kader gestured impatiently.

"The businessmen here are willing to sell everything they have as long as they have money. You have to talk about the substance."

"Substantial question?"

Frank said directly:
"The real question is how long it takes us to find out, sir, until they have substantially violated the injunction, there is little we can do."

“Yes, that’s the biggest problem.”

Kader took out a cigarette, lit it, took a puff, and said:

"One side needs these steel pipes, and the other side needs to sell the steel pipes it produces. They will definitely reach an agreement between them."

"So what, sir?"

"so……"

Kader's casual question had an aggressive tone.

"So, we need to get intelligence on this, to know who signed the contract and how they delivered the steel pipes to the Soviet Union,"

"Do you have any friends or acquaintances there?"

In response to his boss's question, Frank said:
"We can always find friends when we need them."

Nodding, Kader said:

"Then find a friend. Only by mastering this information can we plan the next step."

“Next, next, what do we need to do?”

"do nothing!"

"What? Nothing?"

"Yeah, do nothing!"

Kader said with certainty:

"What we need now is to understand the situation and get the evidence in our hands. This is the most important thing."

Looking up at Kader, Frank asked curiously:
"Why is this?"

"Because of the US dollar! Because the Russians need US dollars, and oil is the best way for them to get US dollars." Frank said:
"As they move around the world, their demand for foreign exchange is increasing, and the absolute amount and proportion of oil exports are growing rapidly. Ten years ago, they only exported 370 million tons of oil, accounting for 5.2% of total production. Three years later, they exported 2980 million tons of oil, as high as 20.2% of total production. Exports to the West have increased dramatically. At present, their crude oil exports account for 4% of the world's total sales, 70% of which are exported to the West, of which about 40% are purchased by Italy and West Germany, and 30% are purchased here.

That’s right, while NBC’s oil companies are exporting oil on a large scale, they are also importing large quantities of Russian oil. In order to seize the market, the Russians make concessions on price and adopt a generally low-price strategy when selling to Western countries. That’s why they purchase Russian oil!

And that is why we banned the export of steel pipes, to keep Russia from getting petrodollars!"

Looking at his boss, Frank said:

"If that's the case, then why don't we do anything? Let them violate the ban?"

"It's very simple..."

He moved back in his chair and said:

"Because we need Russian blood?"

"what?"

Frank looked at his boss in confusion.

"Frank, they can make airplanes, tanks, and send people into space. Do you think they can't make steel pipes?"

“They will surely be able to build it!”

"With our embargo, their steel mills will conduct corresponding research. Eventually, they will solve this problem, but not now. Now, they have to import large-diameter oil pipelines, and in order to break through our embargo, the Russians need to spend more money."

He sipped his coffee slowly and continued:

"At the same time, in order to gain a share of oil and obtain more petrodollars, the Russians have to resort to low-price dumping. Do you know what their export prices to the West are?"

Frank answered immediately. "Last year, the price of oil sold by Russia to France, Italy and other countries here was about $10.25 per ton, and no more than $12 at most."

"Yes, but you have to know that the oil they sell to Poland is $21.97 per ton, Hungary is $20.36, and the Czech Republic is $22.58. You see, they export 3000 million tons of oil, and they may get 3 million or even 4 million US dollars in hard currency, but what is the reality?"

"In fact, they lost $400 million!"

Frank frowned, thought for a while, and said:

"Wait, aren't you saying that every time the Soviet Union exports a ton of oil to the Western world, they are giving the Western world a blood transfusion?"

"Isn't it?"

Kader looked at his subordinates and said in an extremely calm tone:

"For every ton of oil imported, the Western world receives a transfusion of about $10, while for every ton exported by Russia, it loses $10. They can export 10 million tons of oil through oil pipelines, but this is equivalent to a loss of $10 billion, while the Western world gains $ billion from it!"

Looking at Frank with a frown on his face, Kader said:

"This is a gift from Big Brother!"

Ever since Orwell wrote a book many years ago, they sometimes also used to call Russia "Big Brother", but the tone was a little different.

"Because of our ban, they need to spend more dollars to get large-diameter oil pipelines. If they spend one more dollar on this, they will spend one less dollar in other parts of the world. In order to get dollars, they have to export more oil. In order to compete for the market, they have to dump their oil at a lower price. In this cycle, what happens?"

Although somewhat proud, Kader still tried to soften his tone.

The two were silent for a long time.

"I said,"

Frank couldn't help but speak.
"This won't last long. Maybe ten, fifteen or twenty years, but they can't keep exporting oil at a loss forever and give money to others."

"why not?"

Kader said:
"Don't forget, the oil of the Middle East is in the hands of the Western world. The United States also exports a large amount of oil every year. In this case, if they want to occupy the market, they must dump it at a low price. Otherwise, they can only watch helplessly as the Western world does not buy their oil..."

Shrugging his shoulders, he added:

"It's like everyone is used to your low prices. When you want to raise the prices, it will only arouse others' dissatisfaction. Then they will consider other places. So, they can't afford this risk."

It has to be said that all of this requires understanding human nature, or understanding the basic rules of market operation.

After thinking for a while, Frank asked again:
"So do we need to turn a blind eye to this? I mean the export of steel pipes to the Russians in violation of the ban here."

"How is this possible?"

Kader looked at his subordinates and said, "How can we turn a blind eye to this? This is a handle they handed to us. We may not use it now, but who knows what will happen in the future? So we need to keep a close eye on them and get all the evidence. When the time is right, take out this evidence and fight back against them. Therefore, this work is your responsibility, and you must get the evidence well."

In fact, this is the basic way of dealing with each other - both parties will try every means to get hold of the other party's handle, but will only use it at the most appropriate time.

(End of this chapter)