Rebirth of Hong Kong 1981

   Chapter 213 Four Ship Kings

   At the dinner table, while chatting with Father Xue, Yang Chen wondered what was going on today.

  To say that Xue's business advertising was very successful, Father Xue should be very happy, but now he seems to be very preoccupied.

  Although Father Xue didn't say anything, Yang Chen, Mother Xue and Xue Yufei who were familiar with him could clearly feel it.

   Seeing Xue Yufei winking hard at him, Yang Chen put a dish for Father Xue in the bowl, and asked, "Uncle, is something wrong with the company?"

   "Press?" Father Xue moved his chopsticks and looked at Yang Chen suspiciously, "Nothing happened, why are you asking that?"

  Yang Chen glanced at Xue Yufei and Mother Xue, looked at each other, and asked, "Then why are you still so preoccupied, Uncle?"

  "Oh" Seeing the concerned expressions on the faces of the three, Father Xue put down his chopsticks and sighed lightly: "I'm not thinking about the company, but I met someone today."

   Yang Chen asked curiously, "People? Uncle, who did you meet today?"

   Father Xue hesitated for a moment, and then said, "The shipping industry is in a downturn during this time, and today Zhao Chuanwang came to the company to see me and wanted to ask me for help.

   At this time, you also know that the Xue family's industry has been consolidated, and your uncle's half-life savings have been invested in it, so what's left over there. "

   "However, Zhao Chuanwang helped me in the early years, and now he comes to the door in person, but I can't help much, and I always feel a little uncomfortable."

   "Zhao Ship King?" Hearing this, Yang Chen learned who the Zhao Ship King was from Father Xue's mouth through his predecessor.

   In the 1970s, Xiangjiang, as a world-famous international shipping center, gave birth to the so-called Four Kings of Xiangjiang in its important shipping industry.

   They are Bao Yugang of Global Shipping, Dong Haojun of OOCL, Cao Wenjin of Wanbang Group and Zhao Congyan of Huaguang Shipping.

   And the Zhao Ship King in the mouth of Xue's father is Zhao Congyan of Huaguang Navigation Industry.

  The ship king Zhao Congyan was born in Jiangsu. He worked as a lawyer in Changhai in his early years, and later changed his career to set up a shipping company to help shippers charter ships and earn commissions.

  In 1945, Zhao Congyan saw the shortage of inland materials, and keenly felt that the shipping industry had a lot to do. He immediately poured all his money into buying a second-hand freighter, and successfully earned the "first pot of gold" in his life.

   Later, due to the turbulent situation, Zhao Congyan had to leave Shanghi with his wife and children and move to Xiangjiang.

  The 1960s and 1970s was the peak period of the shipping industry in Xiangjiang, so Zhao Congyan caught up with the express trains of this era, and the number of fleets increased in just a few years.

  In the end, when it successfully owned more than 60 ships, its "Huaguang" was listed in Heung Kong Securities Co., Ltd. in 1973, and since then it has really been involved in the global waters.

   Among the four major ship kings in Hong Kong, the charter king specializes in oil tankers, Dong Haoyun specializes in container ships, and Zhao Congyan is good at operating bulk carriers.

   As the saying goes, flowers never bloom for a hundred days. Once the development of any industry reaches its peak, it will eventually be attacked by internal or external forces.

   The same goes for the shipping industry.

   In 1973, the world situation was turbulent, the fourth Middle East war broke out, and the Arab oil-producing countries imposed an oil embargo on the pro-Israel Western countries.

   At the same time, the OPEC oil-producing countries implemented a price alliance, which led to a sharp rise in oil prices, and the world oil crisis broke out.

  The oil crisis produced two major events that directly affected the shipping industry.

   First, Western governments and oil tycoons are fully aware that relying on Middle East oil is undoubtedly weaving a noose for themselves.

   As a result, they started the "road of self-production" one after another. The North Sea oil fields in Europe, the Texas oil fields in the United States, the Gulf of Mexico in North and South America, etc., have been mined one after another.

   This has greatly shortened the distance between oil production and land use, and the good news of oil production has greatly reduced the business of world shipping companies.

   Second, the oil crisis has prompted the governments of oil importing countries and oil companies to increase oil storage.

  Japan is a big oil-consuming country, and most of the tankers of the four kings of Hong Kong are leased to Japanese shipping companies.

   And Japan has stepped up its oil reserves since the outbreak of the oil crisis. In the 1970s, Japan, whose tanks were full, suddenly cut its oil imports.

At the same time, in order to grab business, Japan and South Korea, two emerging shipbuilding powers, not only set construction costs much lower than traditional shipbuilding powers, but also provided preferential loans to subsidize creditworthy shipowners who ordered new ships. .

  Although ocean freight is decreasing day by day and freight rates are starting to drop, this seems to be more than enough to make up for with the advantage of low-priced new ships.

  The shipowner is very happy with the new ship. All the docks of the Japanese and Korean shipbuilding companies stand with huge outlines of the hull. The production and sales of new ships have begun to go into a frenzy.

  While the world shipping business is decreasing, new ships are continuously increasing, which directly increases the competition in the shipping industry.

  In the beginning, everyone was delighted at the low-cost sales of ships in Japan and South Korea, and frantically snapped up to expand their shipping scale.

   However, as the scale of the ship becomes larger and larger, the business volume becomes less and less, and the winter of shipping is coming.

  Like a car, even if the boat is not running, the daily cost of parking at the dock is staggering.

   At the same time, the value of new boats is also decreasing day by day as time goes by. In addition, because the boats are parked in the sea, they are subject to the corrosion of the sea every day, and the maintenance of the boats is also a big expense.

  Incomes are getting lower and lower, and expenses are unprecedentedly large. The entire shipping industry is mourning. Among them, Dong and Zhao are the most affected.

   As for why it is said that only Dong and Zhao are the most affected? Here I have to mention a very visionary man.

   That is our charter king. As early as the oil crisis broke out and Japan and South Korea were desperately building ships, the charter king realized the danger and began to abandon the ship and land.

   Since the mid-1970s, the charter king has invested the money he earned through shipping into the increasingly prosperous real estate industry, and his fleet has been continuously sold.

The low price of    surprised and excited the shipowners who were still optimistic about the shipping prospects at that time.

   While laughing at the foolishness of the charter king, they readily took out money and bought cheap goods that fell from the sky.

   At that time, Zhao Congyan, who was also optimistic about the world shipping industry, believed that the impact of the oil crisis was only temporary.

   So, he learned to speculatively take risks, taking advantage of the low price of new ships to carry out crazy expansion.

   Over the past few years, the Zhao family's fleet has grown in size, but the shipping industry, which has been sluggish, has never seen an end.

  The business has declined, the shipping profitability is not good, and the fleet expenses in the hands of the Zhao family are increasing day by day.

   In the face of such a situation, it is naturally impossible for Zhao Chuanwang to be able to go all the way to where he is today.

  ——

   (end of this chapter)