Hong Kong Island's New Rich Era

Chapter 76: Pier Opening

Time soon came to May, and housing prices in Hong Kong began to rise. More and more people came to see houses, and real estate speculators began to re-emerge.

In this environment of rising housing prices, Pier 4 of Kwai Chung Port, a core project of Whampoa Group, was also announced to open.

Liu Zhicheng decided to hold a grand opening ceremony at the dock to further boost Huangpu’s stock price.

Once Pier 4 is put into operation, it will become one of the core profits of Huangpu Group, and media publicity is indispensable. Therefore, hundreds of media reporters were invited to interview and film.

At the same time, hundreds of guests from the shipping industry were invited to witness the opening of the terminal.

Due to its special geographical location, Hong Kong is an important hub for the east-west maritime trade routes and has become an important port on the Asia-Europe and Asia-America container liner routes.

Therefore, some powerful international shipping companies have set up offices in Hong Kong to handle their business.

The guests here today include Sea-Land, Holland Transport Group, and Orient Overseas Container Line, which are the top three container liner companies in the world. Of course, they only sent their representatives.

Kwai Chung Container Terminals is mainly engaged in container transportation. Today, Whampoa Group has invited all shipping companies with which it has business ties.

Just like Mr. Dong, the founder of Orient Overseas Container Line, which specializes in standard containers, he owns thirty ocean-going container ships.

Shipping tycoons Zhao Congyan of Huaguang Shipping, Xu Shixun of Shunchang Shipping, and Wang Shi, who mainly deals in oil tankers, sent representatives to celebrate, even though his strong business is energy transportation.

Pier No. 4 opened today to lay the foundation for future business cooperation. Although they are all local shipowners in Hong Kong, they only sent representatives to attend the opening ceremony.

However, Lu Zhihe, the boss of Daya Stone Mining, heard that Liu Zhicheng's wharf had opened and came to show his support.

There was another person who appeared and surprised Liu Zhicheng, that was Swire’s boss John Shi, Shi Huaiya and his two assistants.

Since Liu Zhicheng had a lot of social engagements today, they just chatted a few polite words. Only after he finished the opening ceremony would they have time to chat privately.

Liu Zhicheng knew that if a boss like Taikoo came in person today, there must be something important to discuss.

Lu Zhihe is simple. He has purchased shares of Whampoa Group. He attended the opening ceremony today as a shareholder and friend, just to express his congratulations.

It was not until 11 o'clock in the morning that Liu Zhicheng, John Shi and Huaiya Shi left the dock and went to the Peninsula Hotel to eat and chat.

John Shi and Huaiya Shi were originally named John and Huaiya Shi. In order to integrate into Hong Kong society, they gave themselves the surname Shi to make it easier for them to integrate into the Hong Kong Chinese community.

Whether it was true or false, Liu Zhicheng still had a good impression of the Swire Group. After the reform and opening up of the mainland, it actively participated in the economic construction of the mainland, and should be considered as a British capital that is relatively friendly to the mainland.

As they sat down at the Peninsula Hotel, John Shi and Shi Huaiya smiled and said, "Congratulations, Mr. Liu. The opening of Pier 4 today will be a great source of money for the Whampoa Group."

"Thank you Mr. John Shi for visiting us. It is an honor for the Whampoa Group." Liu Zhicheng also said politely.

John Shi smiled and said, "Mr. Liu should know about the Justice of the Peace."

"Yes," Liu Zhicheng replied. "I got the news that Mr. Liu will be one of them," Shi John said with a smile.

"Really?" Liu Zhicheng asked in surprise as he heard that the Governor of Hong Kong had mentioned it when he met with him last year, but there had been no follow-up.

Although Justices of the Peace are not as useful as they once were due to legal amendments in recent years, being elected to this position requires a certain amount of activity and is also a reflection of one's social status.

"Of course it's true. With Mr. Liu's current status and fame, it will be easy for him to become a Justice of the Peace. No matter what, Mr. Liu will become the youngest Justice of the Peace in Hong Kong's history." John Shi said with a smile.

"So that's how it is. Thank you for letting me know. I think Mr. Shi John came here today not just to tell me this, right?" Liu Zhicheng asked with a smile.

"Swire Group and Whampoa Group have had a lot of cooperation in the past. I hope that the current Whampoa Group can continue to maintain this relationship with us." Shi Huaiya nodded and said.

"No problem, the United Dockyard Group is still operating normally and I won't make any changes," said Liu Zhicheng.

The Hong Kong United Dockyard Group was formed in 1972 by the merger of the Hong Kong Whampoa Dockyard and the Taikoo Dockyard & Engineering Company Limited, with its base located on Tsing Yi Island in the New Territories.

It is mainly engaged in marine engineering, port salvage and tugboat and related services. The base area is 10 square meters and has a superior geographical location, close to the Kwai Chung Container Terminal and is the location of the future Kwai Tsing Terminal Pier No. .

The reason for the merger was that the competition between the two companies was fierce, resulting in meager profits for both companies. Taking advantage of the relocation of the Hong Kong port, the two companies discussed and merged to form a small-scale monopoly.

"Mr. Liu should know that Jardine Matheson has obtained the development rights of Pier No. 5." John Shi suddenly said this.

In fact, Liu Zhicheng had already known this news. After thinking for a while, he said, "I have land for the dock and I also applied to the Hong Kong government for it, but it was rejected."

Shi Yueke smiled and said, "Kwai Chung Port is so busy every day, there are tens of thousands of containers that need to be loaded and unloaded. Even if there are two more docks, I'm afraid it won't be able to handle it. What should Mr. Liu know?"

Liu Zhicheng certainly knew the reason. Wasn't it the issue of Chinese and British capital? Liu Zhicheng smiled and said, "I heard that Bao Sheng also applied to build a wharf, but was also rejected."

In fact, it was not the Hong Kong government that refused, but after Liu Zhicheng and the ship charter king learned that Hutchison Whampoa had obtained the construction rights for Pier 5, they both withdrew their applications.

The first global oil crisis broke out in 73, leading to a great depression in the shipping industry. It is still affecting shipping today and was not eased until 78.

Although the situation eased, the second oil crisis would break out soon after, and the impact was not eliminated until the mid-1980s. This is why the Kwai Tsing Piers 6 to 9 were not built until the end of the 1980s in the previous life.

Because the global container freight business did not grow much during this period, the five terminals at Kwai Tsing Port in Hong Kong were sufficient to handle the container business transiting to the port from all over the world.

Relying on his ability as a 'prophet', Liu Zhicheng knew that the global shipbuilding and shipping industries would stagnate in the next ten years.

If we build new docks, it would be a waste and would not bring us the returns we deserve.

Moreover, in the next ten years, Hong Kong's shipping tycoons all lost a lot of money in the shipping industry and were heavily in debt. If it were not for their rich family assets, they would have been able to avoid bankruptcy.

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(End of this chapter)