Material Empire

On January 1, 1993, the curtain of the reform of the supply and marketing system of production materials was officially opened. For the first time, the products that were abolished from planning control and turned into market regulation included steel, cement and flat glass. Among them, cement and flat glass have already had a market-oriented prototype because of low investment, quick results, and easy production of local materials. They have not received much attention in this reform. What the industry really cares about is the changes in the steel market.

In China, it is impossible to truly keep anything secret. Several months before the State Planning Commission officially released the notice, related news had already been circulated in the society, and some well-informed people even knew exactly when the reform would start. "Dumpsters" like Sun Zhenjiang shuttled between various large and medium-sized steel factories like a revolving lantern, ordering a large number of steel products. There are also material companies in some provinces and cities that are also planning for a rainy day and are ready to stock up.

After several rounds of reforms in the past few years, China's state-owned enterprises have also gained a sense of management, and are no longer rookies who do not understand market conditions. The bosses of various iron and steel enterprises are aware of the market structure that may arise after the release of supply and marketing controls, so immediately after the State Planning Commission announced the release, all steel enterprises unanimously raised the ex-factory prices of steel products. above 50. Facing the surge of orders, the price of steel products continued to climb, and gradually reached the 2,500 yuan per ton that Wang Hongsheng had predicted to Qin Hai.

After all, the reform of the means of production is only a matter in the field of production. Not to mention ordinary people, even the few financial media that have just started to appear did not put this news on their headlines. On New Year's Day, the headlines on the financial pages of various media are:

China's first 800,000-ton ethylene construction project broke ground in Jintang City, Shannan Province!

The start of this super-large project with a total investment of 7 billion yuan has added countless festive colors to Jintang City during the festival. The Jintang Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government began preparations for the groundbreaking ceremony several months in advance. The streets were re-paved with asphalt, and the pavement bricks on the sidewalks were also replaced. Waiting for repeated inspections, the whole city can be said to be in full swing, and everyone is busy and happy.

People in Jintang unanimously gave their understanding and support to the government's disturbing behavior. At that time, there were no environmental protection organizations, animal protection organizations, and human rights protection organizations. What the people cared most about was employment and income. The Jintang Municipal Government has carried out a lot of publicity, claiming that this enterprise named "Jintang Petrochemical Plant" will bring tens of thousands of job opportunities to the local area and bring various additional benefits after it is put into operation. With such expectations, who would bother with anything else?

The opening ceremonies are all the same. It is nothing more than letting the leaders of all parties talk nonsense first, and then symbolically go to the construction site to shovel a few shovels of soil to show that the foundation is laid. At the foundation stone laying ceremony of such a large project, the leaders of Jintang City only have the right to eat and laugh with them. Leaders from the State Planning Commission, Petroleum Corporation, Shannan Province and other parties attended the ceremony, as well as provincial and ministerial officials. There were dozens of them, including dozens of Audi cars. The shiny four-ring logo on the front of the car blinded the eyes of countless onlookers.

According to Qin Hai's original idea, Jintang Petrochemical was invested exclusively by Daqin Group. However, after dozens of rounds of negotiations, the final result was that Daqin Group contributed 60%, and the National Petroleum Corporation, Shannan Province and Jintang City invested. 40% for joint venture construction. Qin Hai has no objection to this result, because with the advancement of the program demonstration, he has increasingly found that without the support of the state, it is difficult for him to carry out this project alone.

The first difficulty is that large-scale petrochemical projects involve the coordination of land, raw material supply, and finished product transportation. With the participation of the state, these problems will not become problems. The simplest example is that Shannan Province agreed to build a branch railway for Jintang Petrochemical for the transportation of finished products, while the Petroleum Corporation agreed to simultaneously build an oil pipeline to provide crude oil for Jintang Petrochemical. Qin Hai originally planned to spend some effort to fight for these conditions, but after introducing these investors, he took the initiative to raise these conditions.

If the above-mentioned difficulties can be solved with money, another difficulty Qin Hai faces cannot be solved with money, and this difficulty is the problem of talents. A large petrochemical company needs a large number of skilled workers and an experienced management team, but Qin Hai does not have such resources in his hands. The chemical companies he acquired in Jintang can provide some workers and managers, but it takes many years to train the head of such a large-scale petrochemical project, and no one dares to just find a stunned young man to take on the role .

In terms of the speed of making money, Qin Hai is definitely an "upstart". The biggest obstacle for a person like him who lacks foundation is that he does not have a large team, and the talent pool is far from keeping up with the speed of career development. He let Ning Zhongying be the general manager of the group, and let Ning Mo, Yu Haitao and a group of young people take charge of each subsidiary company, which was considered a helpless move. Although Ning Mo and the others grew up at an astonishing rate, and had barely reached the level of being independent, Qin Hai knew that this was the result of paying countless tuition fees, and the detours and wasted money were really distressing.

When it comes to the super-large project of Jintang Petrochemical, Qin Hai really dare not use it as a platform for his friends to practice. Not to mention Ning Mo and others, even people like Ning Zhongying and Song Hongxuan dare not take over this project, because the management of large-scale petrochemical projects has its own way, and it is impossible to master it without being immersed in this field for many years essentials. If something goes wrong with this large-scale project, it will cause hundreds of millions of economic losses, and it may lead to major safety accidents. It is impossible for people without a few skills to manage this kind of enterprise well.

Finally, under the coordination of Wang Hongsheng, the Petroleum Corporation found a suitable head for Qin Hai. The name of this person is Ren Feihan. He is 50 years old. He studied in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. After returning to China, he worked in several petrochemical companies. He started as a technician and became the deputy director of a large petrochemical company. He is waiting After the old factory manager retired, he took over as the regular factory manager. When the Petroleum Corporation recruited him and told him to be the director of a petrochemical company with 60% of the private shares, he was not happy for a while.

"This is Comrade Qin Hai, chairman of Daqin Group. 60% of the investment in Jintang Petrochemical, which is about to start construction, is provided by Daqin Group." Six months ago, Wang Hongsheng solemnly introduced Qin Hai to him in his office. Ren Feihan.

"Director Ren, thank you for your help." Qin Hai bowed his hands to the serious-looking Ren Feihan and said politely.

Ren Feihan bowed his hands politely, without saying a word, he looked up and down at his new boss, who was only half his age, with curious and slightly hostile eyes.

"I heard that the total investment of Jintang Petrochemical exceeds 7 billion yuan. If Daqin Group invests 60%, it will be 4.2 billion yuan. I'm curious how Chairman Qin raised such a huge sum of money."

After being silent for a while, Ren Feihan spoke like this.

Qin Hai had long heard Wang Hongsheng's detailed introduction of Ren Feihan's situation, and also heard his dissatisfaction and disdain for this new position. Hearing Ren Feihan's question, he smiled slightly and said, "This amount of money is nothing to Daqin Group. We have been accumulating this amount since a few years ago. The 4.2 billion yuan mentioned by the director of the factory is just ours. For the first phase of investment in Jintang Petrochemical, we plan to increase investment and expand the scale in the future.”

"Can I ask how Daqin Group earns so much money?" Ren Feihan asked. He has no interest in working under the Daqin Group, so he doesn't have to worry about offending Qin Hai with his words and deeds. When he thought about it, it would be better if Qin Hai was not satisfied with him. He was too lazy to be sent to work in such a dubious company.

Qin Hai knew that people at that time did not trust the private economy, so he was not surprised by Ren Feihan's attitude. From Wang Hongsheng, he knew that Ren Feihan was a career madman who belonged to a very paranoid industrial party. Qin Hai believed that he could become good friends with such a person.

"Daqin Group has launched several new products, including thermal spraying machines, ceramic knives, ultra-high-strength fibers, etc. These products are the first in the world, and we have accumulated so much capital through these products." Qin Hai replied.

"A few new products can make so much money?" Ren Feihan was a little surprised. Restricted by the lack of information, Ren Feihan did not find detailed information about the Daqin Group before, and the leader of the Petroleum Corporation who talked to him had very limited understanding of the Daqin Group, so he could not explain the history of the Daqin Group. Hearing what Qin Hai said now, Ren Feihan was somewhat shocked.

"Technology can make money." Qin Hai said with a smile. He briefly introduced the situation of several technologies to Ren Feihan. Ren Feihan is a person who engages in business management, so he naturally understands the mystery of it. Billions of RMB is an astronomical figure for the Chinese market, but it is insignificant in the international market. The assets of some international chemical giants are tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars. It is not outrageous for Qin Hai to earn billions of RMB from these big companies.

"Just now I heard from Chairman Qin that your previous projects were small investment and high output. The annual output value of thermal spraying machines reached hundreds of millions of dollars, but the investment in technology and equipment did not even have 100 million yuan. Since there is such a good Why does Chairman Qin spend a lot of money on petrochemicals?" Ren Feihan asked another tricky question. No matter what kind of person Qin Hai is against the sky, Ren Feihan will not easily go to him without asking these questions clearly.

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