The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 599 Shipping Development Ideas (asking for monthly tickets at the end of the month)

In the early years of Hong Kong, there were four people who were called shipping kings, also known as the Four Shipping Kings of Hong Kong.

These four people are Pao Yue-kong, Dong Hao-yun, Zhao Cong-yen and Cao Wen-jin.

These four are not natives of Hong Kong, but "outsiders". Dong Haoyun and Bao Yugang are from Ningbo, Zhao Congyan is from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, and Cao Wenjin is from Shanghai.

They all entered Hong Kong around 1949.

Starting from the late 70s, Pao Yue-kong began selling ships, divesting non-performing assets, and acquiring British trading companies such as Wharf Holdings and abandoning his ships and going ashore.

At that time, because of his connections in the mainland, Ho Ying-tung made great efforts to enter the shipping industry. The size of his fleet grew rapidly and now has a total tonnage of 1000 million tons.

The shipping group established by Liu Tao by controlling the companies in Hong Kong has expanded rapidly in recent years. It now owns more than 200 ships of various types with a tonnage of more than 2000 million tons.

Ranked second is Dong's Orient Overseas Container Line, which now owns 200 ships of various types with a tonnage of more than 1800 million tons.

In recent years, the two sides have also cooperated a lot in shipping.

However, the Dong family's Orient Overseas Container Line expanded rapidly under a high debt ratio through huge loans. After Dong Haoyun's death, Dong Jianhua further invested money to expand the scale, resulting in Orient Overseas Container Line being insolvent at that time.

Shipping has been doing well in recent years. China has exported a large number of goods to all parts of the world and purchased a large amount of raw materials from all over the world. Coupled with the element of war, shipping has been doing well. Orient Overseas has made a lot of money and finally reduced its debt significantly.

When the company was in the most difficult time, it was on the verge of bankruptcy, but it managed to overcome the difficulties with the help of Henry Fok.

But after a few years, the Dong family's status and influence are no longer as good as when Dong Haoyun was alive.

Liu Tao pondered for a moment, looking thoughtful.

Orient Overseas Container Line has a shipping capacity of 1800 million tons, which plays a huge role in shipping. Not only does the company cooperate in shipping, but Orient Overseas Container Line will also order ships from mainland shipyards when it replaces them.

For the sake of China's shipbuilding industry, Liu Tao also had to win over these shipping giants.

Because these shipping giants have considerable orders.

Orient Overseas Group's Sea Giant, the world's largest supertanker, is 458.45 meters long, 68 meters wide, has a load capacity of 56.6 tons, and can transport 410 million tons of crude oil at a time.

Even if he paid 2 Meituan a bucket of shipping price, Liu Tao would still make a huge profit. OOCL could make a lot of money, but Liu Tao made more.

After a while, he said, "Three days later, after the shareholders' meeting is over and lunch is over, we will arrange this time slot."

The secretary quickly wrote it down in her notebook.

Half an hour later, the secretary left the room and Liu Tao turned on the TV and tuned it to the wireless TV station.

I didn’t watch TV dramas or variety shows, but instead watched news reports.

The news reports at this time were about news from Singapore.

Singapore made its fortune through transit trade. Although it does not have a drop of oil, it is the third largest oil refining center in the world.

The lack of crude oil has a huge impact on the country's refining industry.

Moreover, Singapore does not have as many sources of crude oil as New York and Rotterdam.

In the past, Singapore's crude oil came from the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, with the Persian Gulf accounting for the majority. Now, in the Iran-Iraq war, more than five tankers in Singapore were attacked in just a few months, casting a heavy shadow on the entire Singapore refining industry.

The oil transported from the Red Sea alone is not enough to meet the needs of Singapore's refining industry. With so many refining facilities idle, the country is incurring huge losses every day.

However, the transportation cost of shipping oil from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean is too high and Singapore simply cannot afford it.

Ever since the Iran-Iraq ship attack war broke out, a problem has arisen that has been causing headaches for the whole world: anyone can buy the oil from the Middle East, but the problem is that it cannot be transported!
If an empty ship was sunk while entering the Persian Gulf, the loss would not be too outrageous. But if it was sunk while fully loaded with oil, the loss would be outrageous.

Therefore, all major media in Singapore are reporting on the Iran-Iraq War every day, and scolding the two bastard countries every day, just because they attacked each other's merchant ships and oil tankers that were transporting oil and cargo. Most of the oil tankers over there were carrying oil to Singapore.

Singapore’s oil gap has now reached 70%!

No one can bear such a huge loss.

Liu Tao looked at the news with a sneer on his face.

When the China-Myanmar railway is opened, part of China's import and export of goods will go through Myanmar, bypassing the Cape of Good Hope.

He has not forgotten that this tiny country has been jumping around in history. Although that is the way for small countries to survive and develop, it is disgusting.

Now that he is here, he naturally has to change some things. For example, Singapore, which relied on the geographical advantage of Malacca to win, would not be so comfortable.

In addition to building the China-Myanmar railway, he also plans to develop shipping on the Irrawaddy River, Salween River, Mekong River and Red River. These four major rivers all have great potential for shipping development.

The Irrawaddy River and the Salween River both flow into the Andaman Sea and do not need to pass through the Strait of Malacca. The Chao Phraya River flows into the Gulf of Thailand, which does need to pass through the Strait of Malacca. However, if an artificial canal of approximately 100 kilometers is dug, it can reach the Andaman Sea directly and avoid the Strait of Malacca.

As for the shipping potential of the Mekong River, it is naturally huge. However, the current 100 kilometers of the lower reaches of the Mekong River are within the territory of Annan, which still poses a safety hazard. It would be better to dig an artificial canal of about 90 kilometers and directly lead it into the Gulf of Thailand.

This involves interests, and we have not yet reached an agreement on it.

There are many forces in Thailand, and the position of Chinese families in Thailand is relatively delicate.

According to the current situation, even if Panshan Group participates, it will not be able to obtain control. If it cannot obtain control, it means that there will be many variables in the subsequent operation.

"Singapore, huh!" Liu Tao sneered in his heart. He wanted to be a fence-sitter and get along well with both sides. That was just wishful thinking.

Sooner or later, he will force it.

Singapore is now the world's third largest oil refining center, but what use is it without crude oil? Singapore Petroleum Company has been looking for crude oil everywhere but cannot find it, so the refinery will lose money.

The oil refineries in Guangdong Province are different. Their refining capacity is constantly improving. Perhaps in a few days, they will surpass Singapore's refining capacity. By then, the oil refineries in Guangdong Province may be able to supply refined oil to Southeast Asia.

As for Singapore's refineries, it would be best if they were closed down eventually.

The subsequent news, still about Singapore, was that Singapore's oil prices soared and many people shouted that they could not afford to fill up their tanks. Singapore called on Iran and Iraq to remain calm and resolve the dispute through peaceful dialogue.

Unfortunately, it is such a small country with little influence, not enough to attract the attention of Iran and Iraq. It can even be said that Iran and Iraq will not even pay any attention to it.

Iraq sank the USS Stark frigate and has not admitted its mistake until now, but the United States still can't do anything about Iraq.

(End of this chapter)