Chapter 217 The mainland coast is equal to the Western Pacific
"When I get back, I still want to suggest that the head office build more large-tonnage cargo ships. Nowadays, shipping competition is becoming more and more fierce, and freight rates are getting lower and lower. Small and medium-sized tonnage ships can do this ocean transportation, let alone
Even if you make money, you will probably lose money.”
"Yes, judging from the current situation, cargo ships with more than 5,000 tons are barely at par. If you want to make a relatively generous profit, you still need a 10,000-ton cargo ship like the Liuhe Lane!"
What they are talking about is also one of the strategic development centers of Feng Shipping Company in recent years.
Although Fung Shipping Company has launched luxury passenger ships in recent years, especially the 30,000-ton Rising Star, which has shocked everyone's attention. Last year, during its first official trial operation, even though it was running on local coastal routes, it was full, especially
First-class tickets are in short supply.
That's a first-class cabin that can easily cost hundreds or even thousands of Tang Yuan. It's not something that the top elites can afford.
But even so, the several trial operations on the local coastal routes were always full. I heard that many rich people specially went to take the Nova for sea travel!
People are not here to travel, but to travel by sea!
After several trial operations, Fung Shipping Company is preparing to officially put the Nova into global sailing operations starting this summer!
And the banner is not about travel, but travel!
The target customers of Nova Star's first global route are, in addition to high-end customers who have travel needs, there are also some passengers who have no travel needs themselves but want to travel around the world.
This is a marketing strategy launched by Fung Shipping Company after careful market research!
Because the Nova Star is expensive to build and operate, the ticket price is very high. Ordinary passengers, even middle-class passengers, will probably hesitate when they see such a high ticket price.
However, if pure travel is turned into travel, the nature will be completely different.
Just to go to a certain destination, most people are only willing to pay the usual fare for a ferry.
But if it is to go somewhere to play, then many people will unknowingly increase their affordability.
In response to this, Fung Shipping Company has appropriately adjusted the operation strategy of the New Star.
The former Nova was a luxury liner!
Nowadays, the Nova is a luxury cruise ship and has also added many recreational facilities on board to ensure that passengers can enjoy a variety of top-notch services during their sea journey.
The emergence of the New Star has greatly increased the reputation of Fung Shipping Company, and the company's brand has also grown day by day, and has promoted the company's mid- to low-end passenger ship business.
But even so, in fact, most of the business of Feng Shipping Company is not passenger transportation, but freight!
The rise of Feng Shipping Company back then was based on the word "cheap".
In fact, this lower price is not reflected in the passenger transportation field, but in the freight field.
Those companies don't care whether Feng's Shipping Company's cheap transportation loses face, they only care about the cost.
The freight costs of Feng Shipping Company have always been quite well controlled. They mine, iron, ship, and even build their own docks.
We are involved in everything from upstream to downstream in order to control freight costs.
Although this also resulted in Feng's Shipping Company having many subsidiaries, which seemed a bit indifferent, they actually reduced shipping costs.
Relying on cheap freight, Feng Shipping Company has always occupied a considerable share of the freight market.
This also made Feng Shipping Company realize that in order to make money and market share in shipping, the ship must be big!
The larger the ship, the more cargo it can carry, and the freight cost per ton can be reduced more effectively.
This is also the direct reason that directly pushed Feng Shipping Company to launch the 10,000-ton cargo ship plan a few years ago.
So far, Fung Shipping Company has put into operation nine bulk carriers of over 10,000 tons, and many more are under construction.
They are even planning to build large bulk carriers of more than 20,000 tons.
Even though these 20,000 tons are huge, the technical difficulty is actually not that high.
Because freighters don’t pursue speed or anything like that, they just want to load more cargo.
Therefore, if the power performance requirement is very small, even a cargo ship of 20,000 tons, its power is only a few thousand horsepower at most, which is not as good as a passenger ship of several thousand tons.
The hull requirements are also simple and do not require as many decorations as large-tonnage luxury passenger ships.
Therefore, the overall technology is simple and the cost is low.
Otherwise, Feng's Shipping Company would not have put nine 10,000-ton cargo ships into service in just a few years, with several more under construction, and now plans to build another 20,000-ton cargo ship.
The development strategy of Feng Shipping Company can also be seen as a microcosm of the empire's global economic development.
That is, transportation costs are further reduced, and maritime trade costs are further reduced. In order to maintain profits, shipping companies have to pursue larger-tonnage freighters, use more transportation volume to reduce unit costs, and increase overall profits.
It was not just the Feng Shipping Company that did this, Yangtze Shipping Company and a large number of shipping companies in the Tang Empire also saw this situation.
Nowadays, the newly built ocean-going cargo ships are basically all cargo ships with more than 10,000 tons. As for the cargo ships with only a few thousand tons, it is estimated that they will only be able to run local coastal routes in the future.
However, it is also said that the domestic coastal routes are actually the bulk of the empire’s shipping industry!
Ocean transportation sounds lofty, but it does not occupy a major share in the empire's shipping market.
The empire's domestic coastal routes are actually quite large. To be honest, it should be more strictly speaking the Western Pacific route.
The empire's East Asian mainland coast, Donghai Province, Nanyang Peninsula coast, Nanyang Islands, Australia, these places are all native coastal areas.
Therefore, what Datang people call local coastal routes does not only refer to such a small section of the coast of the East Asian continent, but actually includes all routes in the entire Western Pacific Ocean.
And this area is the main market for the empire’s shipping industry!
When the Liuhe Lane was loaded with high-quality wheat and ready to return to the mainland, Miao Mingkun also successfully escorted a large piece of mining equipment to the South China Mining Company's coal mining area in Wuhu Province.
This coal mine is actually not that far from West Lake City. It was developed on a small scale by the American Mining Company before, because this coal mine is a relatively rare open-pit coal mine and the quality of the coal is quite good.
It's just that in the past, American mining companies could only hire immigrants to mine manually at high prices. The cost was extremely high, so let alone making money, they were losing money year by year.
But now that the policy has changed, everything will be different. Both costs and output will undergo earth-shaking changes.