095 : If you bring it, it is money
Daesei Shipping Office in Busan.
“No, Captain Yoon, how did this happen? There are so many people.”
I was surprised when I arrived at the Daesae Shipping office.
Chemistry, the trend I visited before coming to Busan, is buzzing because the petrochemical complex is in full swing, but I didn’t expect it to be overflowing with crowds here too.
It was completely different from a month ago.
“We didn’t expect that people would be so enthusiastic about Daesae Shipping Library. ”
“A popular shipping library?”
“Didn’t the president tell us to open the books brought from America to the public?”
“No, you read that many specialized books?”
Are the books brought by technicians dispatched to the San Diego Shipyard and engineers who went to the Bechtel Lab so popular?
“It’s difficult because it’s an application form, but rumors say that if you study with it and roll around in Jeonpo-dong, you’ll get a job in the mainstream, so all those who study in this area flocked to it. I heard that books translated into Korean are also bound and sold.”
Well, I don’t think there is only one place for materials related to welding, shipbuilding, engines and marine plants.
Come to think of it, everyone passing by had a bag on their side.
It’s like making your own technical notes.
“That’s why I made a separate reading room over there.”
“Yes, it was originally a library for the general public, but too many people flocked to it, so we set up a separate reading room.”
The library was opened to the public because it would be helpful to the students of the Maritime University, but it was so crowded that even the reading room had to be opened.
The butterfly effect was happening here too.
“I heard that machine tools brought from San Diego play a big role in Jeonpo-dong, and this library is similar to that.”
“Yes, sometimes our employees go out to Jeonpo-dong on weekends to give training. Didn’t the boss tell you to take care of the cooperative companies?”
“Haha, you’re busy working in many ways.”
Everyone is full of passion.
At some point, I heard that the technological prowess of the subcontractors has improved, and the containers that Daese Unemployment ordered and used are even being exported.
“It’s all thanks to the boss. They all die and come back to life in the Pacific Ocean, so they work at random.”
Perhaps because the general unemployment was overwhelming other conglomerates, our partners were establishing themselves as strong but small businesses.
It was clear that the trend was growing towards exports, which was stimulating many.
Anyway, everyone is becoming rich in their own way, so I am proud to see them.
“Haha, that’s good. Who went to the shipment from Silverstein?”
“Are you talking about going to Australia? Because the quantity was so large, Captain Smith led the fleet from Daesae No. 4 to No. 7. He said he had to cross the equator once because his knee hurt. haha.”
Well, it’s not enough even if our 4 cargo ships move non-stop. Silverstein has contracted 2 million tons of iron ore over two years.
I had to borrow a cheap bulk carrier from somewhere.
“It’s a Captain Smith joke. Anyway, did you have anything worth borrowing from the international shipping company’s bulk carriers serving Hong Kong?”
“I am inquiring. It just needs a little time.”
It doesn’t look like it’s easy.
A bulk carrier is a vessel that transports unpackaged cargo (bulk cargo) such as grains or ores. Because it does not require special skills, the rental fee is cheap and the size of the vessel is large.
At least 50,000 tons or more must be borrowed.
That way, I can take care of Silverstein’s cargo and bring mine too.
“Please put more effort into the rental case, how is it going with Mr. Hoffman?”
“Yes, the drilling probe is being repaired. I am focused on my work without taking a break, as if I want to go to the sea off Ulsan as soon as possible.”
“Oh yeah?”
Looking at the nuances, it seems that almost everything has been fixed.
Well, it’s a guy who was dismantled in San Diego and brought it by floating in the Pacific Ocean, so there must be a lot of places to fix it here and there.
“They told me to look forward to hitting the jackpot if I just go out to Ulsan.”
To be honest, it’s a scheduled jackpot because you just have to drill through the places I pointed out. Compared to other countries, it is only a micro gas field, but where is it in Korea?
Everyone is passionate about what they are doing, so things go smoothly.
Above all, I was relieved because Captain Yoon Sang-soo was taking good care of the general shipping business.
“You are a key talent in Daesae Shipping. Get it.”
“Uh, uh… boss.”
When I handed out the commander, Captain Yoon was taken aback.
I will refrain from recruiting talent from outside and promoting them to executive positions as much as possible.
It is a job that lowers the morale of the employees, so even if it is difficult, I will verify and select it from within.
“As the president of Daesae, I appoint Captain Yoon Sang-soo as the director of Daesae Shipping as of today.”
“This is such a heavy duty for me… Thank you. president.”
“If it wasn’t Director Yoon, who would do it? I wish you all the best in the future.”
“I will do my best not to disappoint.”
“Wow, congratulations. Director.”
Office workers jumped up and ran.
Everyone clapped their hands and rejoiced as if it were their own work.
It was clear that he was recognized by the staff as well.
“It would be appropriate to invite several people to celebrate an executive promotion, but since the company is busy, I am content with just the people in the office. Congratulations.”
“thank you. I’ll do my best.”
“The most important thing for executives is that they have the right to appoint people below the manager level. Use your discretion to promote to manager and section manager if you believe you are competent.”
“Yes, I understand.”
I said that and handed over the envelope.
“Wow, it’s Geumilbong.”
“Director, are you having a promotion dinner?”
“The boss even gave me a gold bar, and today, of course, it’s a dinner party!”
“Waaa!!”
Director Yoon got excited and I waved to the happy employees and left the office.
I stopped by the library’s reading room for a while before heading to my next destination. It was cold outside with the approaching winter wind, but the reading room was hot with a passion for learning.
Everyone was squatting between the narrow bookshelves, reading and copying books.
‘I’ll have to go to Australia and do public recruitment next year.’
It seemed that if only those who had studied properly here were hired, it would be enough to fill the new staff.
People around me were changing.
***
Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Tata Tata Tata…
As soon as I arrived in Australia, I took a light plane and a helicopter and headed to Western Australia.
“CS, we are almost there. This is the Brockman mine that the Hammersley Company is proud of.”
“Please look around the sky just once. I want to look down at the entire mine.”
“Hahaha, it is spectacular. Pilot, let’s take a turn.”
“An old story!”Read at noblemtl
Jackson, the vice president of Hammersley, laughed heartily when I pretended to be a tourist and turned the helicopter around.
The Pilbara region was a vast, reddish-brown plain with no end in sight.
It is an open-air mine where 29% of the world’s iron ore is buried… no, it is exposed on the bare ground.
To be honest, the amount of reserves or market share is meaningless, since the amount that can be produced here is over 70 million tons per year, which is more than enough to cover the world demand in the 1960s.
In the end, shipping costs and unit price negotiations are the only issues.
Until the late 1990s, it was said that Australian restaurants used spoons and forks once and threw them away.
It may be more efficient than using people and paying expensive labor costs.
damn it! In some countries, grains grow in abundance if you just sow seeds, in some countries oil comes out if you just dig the ground, and here iron ore is scattered on the ground… Korea really has nothing.
Tata Tata Tata…
‘have. There is limonite!’
Even though it was a vast reddish-brown plain, there were only a few spots of light brown land.
It was clear where the limonite was collected.
To them, limonite is nothing more than garbage that is difficult to dispose of, as it interferes with hematite, which has a high iron content, and reduces the overall quality.
“It’s a really great place. Come down.”
“Have you finished watching? Let’s go down.”
“Old story.”
In their eyes, I may be just an Asian, but I was polite on the outside because it was a deal that a big hand named Silverstein connected.
“Anyway, it’s been a long time since a customer wants to see the mine in person. Here iron ore is loaded by train and taken to Heardland Harbor. Would you like to see the harbor too?”
“The port is done. I set out on a large-scale shipping vessel, so if there is a problem with the shipment, I will report it to me.”
“Ah, you are the CEO of Daesae Shipping. I thought it was a trading company because they said it was the trend of unemployment.”
Only then was Vice President Jackson counting the number of companies in my company from the business card I handed him.
“The head office is a trading company, but we also have a shipping company and a steel mill. That’s probably why Silverstein uses our company.”
“That… you see.”
It’s okay to show off a bit of bravado when dealing with someone who doesn’t know much about Asia. For westerners, showing humility does more harm than good.
“Let’s start with the contract. Silverstein told me to import 2 million tons over 2 years. It is a cash payment immediately upon shipment, and they say that they will add 5% to the already promised unit price for the amount shipped by the first half of next year.”
I delivered the shipment request documents sent by Silverstein to Vice President Jackson.
“Huh, 5% each? It seems to be an urgent quantity.”
“I think there are quite a few steel mills that Silverstein has invested in in Turkey or Brazil. It must be something that goes that way.”
I pretended to know.
What does it matter what you say?
It’s just that if you think it’s roughly like that.
“Haha, if you are a good customer and give me a 5% premium, then I should push the quantity as much as possible.”
Like Nancy, it was a ulterior motive to set the conditions for a special contract and pull the maximum amount until the war broke out.
“Oh, and on top of that, there is additional stock from Korea.”
“korea? Oh, you mean the country next to Japan?”
“Yes that’s right. They are also building an integrated steelworks there, so iron ore imports are needed.”
“That is a bit difficult. Since World War II, no deal has ever been executed as contracted with a new steel mill. You go through an intermediary like Silverstein.”
Wasn’t iron ore properly imported in the 1960s?
In the original history, there were more than one reason why the integrated steelworks project floated like Bupyeongcho.
“I asked for Silverstein as a broker, but he said they don’t handle limonite. We want to import limonite.”
“Is it sandstone? That crap… No, why earn money for it?”
I stammered to the end, probably bewildered.
“We are trying to lower the material cost by mixing hematite and limonite. Cost reduction is essential for steel mills in developing countries.”
“Do you mix hematite and limonite?”
“Our calculation is that if you mix high-quality limonite with scrap hematite, you can extract profitable molten iron.”
Vice President Jackson made a puzzled expression.
It was a natural expression for a worker in the steel industry.
In a normal blast furnace, if you do something stupid, the blast furnace will burst instead of drawing molten iron.Read at noblemtl
Just like bellows in a blacksmith’s shop, fresh air must be blown into the blast furnace to remove the molten iron.
However, if you mix limonite and hematite crumbs, which contain many foreign substances, air cannot reach every corner, so molten iron cannot be made.
It is like Goro eating unhealthy food and getting sick.
“Oh, is that so?”
“So it is. Limonite is imported at 2 million tons per year, and hematite crumbs are imported based on the price per ton.”
I’m not going to sell hematite to Korea anyway. I did not want to publicize that production is possible only with limonite, so I just mentioned it as an assortment.
I will use only limonite to extract iron from Incheon Steelworks.
After June next year, the price of steel will at least triple, so we are going to pull out as much as possible until then.
We can just pile it up here and load it slowly as soon as the bulk carrier is ready.
“Two million tons per year?”
“Isn’t limonite a surplus resource? It’s about 20% of the hematite price suggested by Silverstein.”
“Ah, that is nonsense. Even though it is iron ore, you have to pay 30% of hematite, 6.75 dollars per ton. Silverstein is already offering it at a discounted price, so we can’t offer it cheaper.”
what? Are you really going to give limonite for less than half price? If you look at the iron content, it is 60% of hematite. Besides, it’s only $6.75 a ton?
How the hell did Silverstein beat the price?
Compared to the 21st century’s asking price of $150 per ton, it is eye-openingly cheap.
… Was shipping logistics a thing in the 60’s?
Iron ore is so cheap because there are no people who come all the way to Australia to ship it. No, it could be like this because China is yet to become the factory of the world.
It’s not just a contract and moving slowly.
3 tons of limonite extracts at least 1 ton of steel.
Currently, steel prices are around $100 per ton, but in the second half of next year, the price will easily exceed $300 per ton.
Even if you calculate this and that expense with margin, you can leave a profit of hundreds of percent.
Move quickly and get as much steel as possible.
It’s not just about dumping resources.
There was a reason why Japan invested more than 10 billion dollars in the steel industry until the mid-to-late 1970s.
Steel was the semiconductor of this era.
It was an industry that could only be supported by shipping and steel mills.
“Whew, then you sign a 10-year long-term contract for 3 million tons per year at $6 per ton. Instead, we will allocate more ships from our main shipping line so that you can receive an additional 5% premium on Silverstein.”
“Hehehe, if that’s the case…”
It will appeal to you.
You can get 5% more from Silverstein, and you take 3 million tons of limonite a year, which was treated as garbage, for 10 years.
“Are you having trouble with that amount?”
“No, no, no. Do you have a contract? ha ha ha.”
I wonder if the opportunity to sell limonite like this will ever come again.
Swish.
“That’s a nice deal.”
“Hahaha, it’s an honor to have a valuable customer.”
We signed the contract and shook hands.
Vice President Jackson twitched his facial muscles while holding a 10-year long-term contract.
It seems that it was difficult to manage facial expressions.
You’d think you asked the right question.
Love it a lot, because it’s a win-win for each other.
This contract will continue to serve as a filial son to the general public
The problem is that it has become impossible at the level of renting a bulk carrier.
By the way, is it time for me to carry out the raft transport operation that the OBs have been talking about in saga?
When I heard that he had crossed the Strait of Malacca dozens of times with a raft, he laughed and said that he was bluffing.
It wasn’t that they were brave or ignorant, it occurred to me that they made the best choice in similar circumstances.
