Xie Sipeng rushed back to Dracula Mo this time in the hope of cooperating with Shen Ji. Without any hesitation, he told Shen Ji, Cao Mo and the others about his involvement in the iron ore trade in Akwa over the past six months. Know.
He first came to Akwa because he heard that placer gold could be mined there. After arriving in Akwa, he actually spent nearly one million US dollars and invested in several small placer gold mines in the Mangba area, and the output was considerable. However, due to the restrictions imposed by the Akwa military government on foreign gold industry investors, he was unable to continue to expand the scale of alluvial gold mining.
In April, he met Guo Hongliang, the boss of a shipping company, who had transported cement to Kanem for him and Yang Deshan at the Port of Lome in Akwa. Only then did he learn that Guo Hongliang, nicknamed Crow, had teamed up with fellow villagers to invest in the bulk ship. After the international iron ore price soared at the end of last year, the ship received orders and began to transport iron ore between Pemei Port in Akwa and Xinhai.
For a long time, the most important iron ore producing areas in Africa have been concentrated in South Africa; and South Africa's iron ore reserves only account for about six thousandths of the world's commercially exploitable iron ore reserves.
From this figure alone, it seems that the iron ore reserves with commercial mining value in Africa are very limited, and even lower in West Africa.
However this is not the real situation.
This is mainly caused by the serious backwardness in the exploration of iron ore and other mineral deposits in Africa. In fact, the most high-profile gold mine exploration in West Africa is not very complete, such as southwestern Benin, western Kanem, northwest and other areas. , there are a lot of gaps.
The serious lack of high-grade, high-quality iron ore in the country has made domestic steel companies increasingly focus on rapid development in coastal areas in recent years, which has also made domestic steel companies increasingly dependent on overseas iron ore.
In Australia and Brazil, which are traditional major exporters of iron ore, high-quality hematite and magnetite are mainly controlled by three or four super mining companies.
And because domestic steel production capacity is developing so rapidly, it is expected that domestic crude steel production will account for 40% of the world's total by 2008. Under the control of large miners, the offshore price of iron ore has soared year after year, forcing domestic Steel companies and iron ore traders have to look for new iron ore supplies outside of Brazil and Australia.
As a traditional iron ore producing area in West Africa, Akwa has long been mining iron ore, which is mainly exported to steel companies in southern Europe and other places.
Now that domestic iron ore traders and steel companies are looking to the world, it is not surprising that some people go to Akwa to look for iron ore supplies.
However, in the entire West Africa, except for Draculamo, port construction in other places is too backward. The Pemi Port in Akwa can only accommodate a maximum of 30,000-ton ore carriers.
It is too far from West Africa to China. For a 30,000-ton ore ship to travel such a long sea route, the freight cost per ton of iron ore is too high. No domestic shipping company has been willing to take this route. .
Ore traders went to Akwa and could buy iron ore locally and transport it to Pemi Port, but they couldn't find ore ships to transport it back to the country. It was just as useless.
Xie Sipeng had been thinking about this matter since he came into contact with Guo Hongliang in early April, and in August he made up his mind to directly buy an ore ship to connect both trade and transportation. Only then would Xu Sheng find Cao Mo to sell their Qionaijin The equity assets of the mine were raised in every possible way.
Gather funds to buy a boat.
Last year, the dependence of domestic steel on overseas iron ore reached 270 million tons. Xie Sipeng and his team were able to transport more than 100,000 to 200,000 tons of iron ore from Akwa back to China with one ship for a full year. The scale can be said to be a drop in the ocean.
.
Based on the measurement of domestic steel production capacity that is being built or expanded, it is estimated that by 2008, almost 450 million tons a year will need to be imported from overseas to meet the needs of the domestic steel industry - regardless of the previous stock, this alone
The new demand in the next two years will be terrifyingly high.
Xie Sipeng now hates that he has too little capital and cannot get a big share of the cake in this field...
As for the iron ore trade, it is not easy to become bigger and stronger. In addition to purchasing or signing more ore ships to ensure transportation capacity, you also need to sign ideal supply agreements with mining companies.
In addition to the right price, the most critical point of an ideal supply agreement is to ensure a stable supply of iron ore.
The global supply of iron ore is relatively tight now, and the Mangba Iron Mine, the main mine in Akwa, has a production capacity of less than two million tons a year, so it has no worries about selling it.
As a pioneer, Xie Sipeng was the first to prepare his own ore ships. There are not many people competing with him yet, so he can still buy enough iron ore from the Mangba Iron Mine in Akwa to ship, but he wants to compete with him.
It is difficult for Mangba Iron Mine to sign a stable long-term supply agreement.
Akwa is currently under the rule of the military government, and domestic mineral mining strictly restricts the entry of foreign capital. Iron ore mining, mainly the Mangba Iron Mine, is also directly controlled by the Akwa National Petroleum and Mining Company.
Xie Sipeng has been active in Akwa for so long, and it is not without his efforts to establish high-level relationships with Akwa National Petroleum and Mining Company.
When they agreed to sign a long-term supply contract, they didn't make any excessive demands. They just asked for a deposit of 50% of the supply scale for the next year to be paid in advance based on the current futures price.
In other words, if Xie Sipeng hopes to guarantee a total supply of 200,000 tons of iron ore from the Mangba Iron Mine in 2007, he only needs to pay a deposit of US$10 million.
If you can't come up with this deposit, then I'm sorry. You can only use cash or bank drafts and letters of credit with sufficient credit value for spot transactions.
In addition to worrying that there will be more and more buyers, Xie Sipeng is also worried that competitors with sufficient capital strength will appear and directly monopolize the supply of Mangba iron ore. Then he will become extremely passive and is likely to lose control of the entire iron ore market.
In the trade chain, he can only earn a small amount of freight.
"You rushed to Kanem. It turns out you came here to raise funds. I think it's okay. We have been cooperating with you for more than a day or two. Let's bring the Chinese businessmen from Dracula Mo over and have a chat. Let's all work together.
Come on, I should be able to get 10 million US dollars to lend you, even with 20% interest..." Cao Mo said jokingly.
Xie Sipeng smiled bitterly and said, "I just earn some hard-earned money, and you have the heart to exploit me so cruelly?"
He has now invested US$15 million, part of which was borrowed at high interest rates, which has already diluted his profits. And if he borrows huge sums of money in order to sign a long-term supply agreement with Mangba Iron Mine, he will borrow huge amounts of money every year.
He has to pay an additional US$2 million in financing costs, so why should he go through the trouble?
He couldn't say that Cao Mo's joke wasn't funny at all, so he hurried over to follow him
When Shen Ji met, the key was that Dongsheng's Hexi Fund held 6% of the shares of Xinhai United Steel Group.
Xinhai United Steel Group, as a large steel industry group with an annual steelmaking capacity of more than 6 million tons, relies entirely on overseas imports of iron ore for its production. Not taking into account the new production capacity of Xinhai United Steel in the next few years, only Last year, a total of 12 million tons of iron ore of various grades were imported.
Xie Sipeng thought that the reason why Akwa National Petroleum and Mining Company asked for a deposit was mainly because he was worried about the instability of his supply chain. If he could sign an iron ore purchase agreement with Xinlian Steel first, then Using this agreement to negotiate with Akwa National Petroleum and Mining Company should be able to reduce the other party's requirements——
"I'm afraid it's difficult," Shen Ji, who is in charge of the Overseas Investment Department and is very familiar with the domestic bulk commodity import trade, not to mention that Xinlian Steel has such a close relationship with the Ding family, said after a moment of thought, "Xinlian Steel The main suppliers of steel are Brazil's Vale, Australia's BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and other super mining companies. We have cooperated with these super mining companies for many years and have long signed long-term supply agreements. Xinlian Steel is not I would mind purchasing iron ore from small and medium-sized miners, but it is unlikely to sign a long-term contract. Of course, if you can supply two million tons of iron ore to Xinlian Steel every year, you should be able to Signed a long-term contract..."
Xie Sipeng smiled bitterly. In addition to maintaining long-term cooperation with several steel companies in Southern Europe, Mangba Iron Mine has added a lot of mining scale in the past two years. There are only 6.7 million tons of iron ore available in scattered supply every year. Where does he get it from? To collect two million tons of iron ore supply?
Besides, Shen Ji and Ding Zhaoqiang behind him were unwilling to help. He needed to get the corresponding supply agreement from the mining company first, and then Xinlian Steel could sign a purchase agreement with him. It was impossible to reverse the order.
After all, it is necessary to have sufficient capital support to become a big trader.
"Tianyue's business in Akwa is doing well. Now Huachen Motorcycle advertisements can be seen everywhere in Peimei Port. I heard from Xiao Jun that Tianyue also plans to acquire a cocoa plantation in Akwa. Mr. Shen When you came here the first time, you didn’t plan to go to Akwa?” Xie Sipeng doesn’t expect Shen Ji to agree to help negotiate peace with Xinlian Iron and Steel now, but he still hopes that Shen Ji can go to Akwa, thinking that both parties are Unless we can find common interests, it will be more logical to discuss cooperation next.
Although Shen Ji participated in the investment of Tianyue Industry, a subsidiary of Tianyue Trading under Tianyue Trading, Tianyue International had nothing to do with him - and the part of the funds that belonged to him in the original Conero Energy equity transaction, Cao Mo It has also been secretly transferred from Tianyue International to his overseas account.
Listening to what Xie Sipeng said, Shen Ji knew that he still believed that he was the person behind Tianyue International.
Seeing that Cao Mo seemed completely indifferent while drinking the cold beer, Shen Ji could only smile bitterly in his heart. There was no way he would throw the blame away at this time.
"How about we go to Akwa for a walk together before Dracula Mo's matter is settled?" Shen Ji looked at Cao Mo and asked.
"Let's talk about it. I'll go when I have time." Cao Mo knew that Shen Ji wanted to talk about something when he came over this time, but he didn't really need to go there, so he could only say something vague and perfunctory to avoid talking too much. Full, Xie Sipeng got entangled and couldn't get rid of it...