The flowers in the factory of rebirth are too fierce

In April, Lin Zhiyuan received an overseas phone call. The caller was Mr. Costa from Vale.

On the phone, Costa expressed his willingness to visit China, and Lin Zhiyuan immediately expressed his welcome.

After entering 2483, international hot money also began to encircle and suppress Samba. The Samba country, which had a weak economic foundation, was deeply affected. According to statistics from the Samba United Industrial Association, since the outbreak of the financial crisis, Samba's economy has been hit hard, with a cumulative loss of 1450 billion reais (approximately US$ billion).

As the industrial pearl of Samba, Vale naturally shoulders the task of revitalizing the economy.

Vale is a mining company. If they want to expand their production value, they have only one way to go, which is to sell more ore.

However, the financial crisis not only damaged Samba Country, but also Samba Country, which had the largest demand for iron ore, was also hit hard. This directly led to a serious decline in Vale's output in 1997.

As the majority shareholder of Vale, Costa is very worried about this. He must find a country that can replace Dongsan to eat up the excess production.

Looking at the steel companies around the world, he has no choice but to do so now.

Lin Zhiyuan and Costa had a pleasant conversation, and the date for Costa's visit to China was set, in late April.

After receiving Costa's call, Lin Zhiyuan immediately reported to Jin Huaying and Li Zhenshan.

Jin Huaying didn't say anything, because Leather Steel had its own mines and had no demand for imported iron ore.

Li Zhenshan is now the director of the Metallurgical Industry Bureau. With the increasing domestic steel production capacity, there is a gap in iron ore. Now, in addition to Shanghai Iron and Steel, Hansteel and Ma Iron and Steel have begun to import iron ore, and the demand is increasing year by year.

Now Costa is going to visit China, which is good news for domestic steel companies. Li Zhenshan was very energetic at that time. He realized that this was a good opportunity to bring down the price of iron ore.

"Zhiyuan, do you have any suggestions on this matter?"

"Brother, the price of iron ore in Australia has been rising year by year in the past two years, which has led to rising costs for domestic steel companies. Increasing the import of iron ore from Samba State will undoubtedly serve as a warning to those greedy Australians. I think we should fully seize this opportunity. Opportunities, but we must be fully prepared. I think we should make good use of the platform of the Iron and Steel Association, let’s form a group to talk to Costa, and use our advantage of large import volume to lower prices.”

"Yes, Zhiyuan, that's what I mean. Let's do this. I'll call Mr. Guan of Hansteel and ask him, as the secretary-general of the Iron and Steel Association, to inform member units that companies interested in importing iron ore can sign up for this event. event.”

After receiving the call from Li Zhenshan, Guan Jianye did not dare to neglect and immediately sent a notice to all member units in the name of the Iron and Steel Association.

After the notice was issued, Lin Zhiyuan and Hai Gangqing's phone calls were inundated with calls from other steel company CEOs.

Last year, Lesteel Yangcheng Branch and Shanghai Steel signed an agreement with Vale Samba to import iron ore, and received the first cargo in March this year.

Both companies have experience in importing iron ore, so CEOs of steel companies who are willing to import have made inquiries.

Lin Zhiyuan was very patient and answered all questions. He gave a complete account of the process of signing the agreement with Vale last year.

"Mr. Guan, the iron content of Vale's iron ore is very high, which is comparable to that of Australia. Its only disadvantage is that Samba is too far away from our country, and the freight is much higher than that of Australia. But we signed an agreement last time At that time, Vale was very sincere and deliberately lowered the price to make up for the high freight costs. In this way, it is more cost-effective to import iron ore from Samba."

"Mr. Qin, Han Steel's low demand for imported iron ore is not a problem at all. The purpose of this registration is to count how many domestic steel companies have demand for imported iron ore. When the time comes, we will form a group to negotiate with Vale. With more people, we have more power, and our demand is huge, so we will be more confident in lowering prices during negotiations, so you don’t have to worry about this at all.”

After explanations by Lin Zhiyuan and Hai Gangqing, eight steel companies signed up to participate in this unified action in one day.

In addition to the Yangcheng Branch and Shanghai Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., which have already signed the agreement, Han Iron and Steel, Yan Iron and Steel, Ma Steel, Han Iron and Steel, and Suzhou Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. all signed up quickly.

Since the first stop of Costa's visit to China was Yangcheng, this year's Iron and Steel Association event was held in advance. In mid-April, the CEOs of the above-mentioned steel companies gathered in Yangcheng, and Li Zhenshan also came from Yanjing.

After two days of meetings, eight steel companies made an important decision to start negotiations with Vale in the name of the Price Alliance of the Steel Industry Association. The price of iron ore imported from Samba State cannot exceed the price of the Yangcheng Branch last time. The price agreed with Shanghai Iron and Steel Co., Ltd.

The eight steel companies each reported the amount of iron ore they need to import.

After counting the total quantity, Hai Gangqing found that the total quantity of the eight steel companies exceeded an astonishing 50 million tons. He slammed the table and said, "Based on this total quantity, I don't think those Australians will dare to do it in the future." Don’t dare to ignore us.”

For a long time, the pricing power of iron ore has been controlled by the Dongsang people. At that time, the amount of iron ore imported by Shenzhou Prefecture was too small, and Shenzhou Steel Enterprises did not even have a say.

Hai Gangqing has always been worried about this. Now that domestic steel companies are gradually growing, the demand for imported iron ore is increasing. With so many steel companies uniting to import, no mining company dares to underestimate this force.

"Director Li, Zhiyuan, fellow bosses, my opinion is that we'd better use Costa's visit to China to publicize it and let the Australians take a look, lest they think that without their iron ore, ours will All steel mills will have to close down." Hai Gangqing came up with a good idea.

Lin Zhiyuan immediately agreed, "I agree with Mr. Hai's opinion. Costa's visit to China should be well publicized and shocked by those Australian mining companies. After all, at present, we import more iron ore from Australia." Big, with Samba’s iron ore, those Australians won’t dare to raise prices casually anymore.”

The CEOs of the two most important steel companies spoke out, and others echoed them. Finally, Li Zhenshan made the decision, and the matter was settled. The bureau would come forward, contact national news media, and publicize Vale. This news.

The broad direction has been taken care of, and only some details remain.

In the final meeting, it was decided that the joint negotiation team previously sent by Lesteel Steel and Shanghai Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. would continue to be responsible for the negotiations and would never give in on the price issue.

The reception work will be handled by the Yangcheng Branch, making sure that Mr. Costa feels at home.