Chapter 468: Dramatic Changes in Trade
September 11, the first year of Xinghe.
Li Qingye headed west and inspected the eight industrial zones of the Numidia branch, then turned south and entered the Chad branch.
After more than half a month of visiting, he had a direct understanding of the Numidia branch and the Chad branch.
For example, the city of N'Djamena, where Li Qingye is currently based, is the headquarters of the Chad branch.
A huge airship logistics center has been built here, which is one of the industries of Ceylon Ocean Transport Group.
Kent Alpha, the manager in charge of the Chad branch, is a tall black man. He was introducing some information about the Chad branch to Li Qingye.
"This logistics center is currently the largest in the entire central Africa region and is also an important channel for us to radiate our influence to surrounding areas."
"I heard that local armed forces attacked an airship during its landing phase?" Li Qingye calmly looked at the transport airship that was descending and ascending in the sky.
Alpha's expression was a little serious. "Yes, it was mainly some ignorant local forces who, under the instigation of European and American forces, tried to stop the chariot with their arms. We have already dispatched the aerospace fleet to completely clear these obstacles."
"Well, there's no need to be too polite to them." Li Qingye didn't care too much about the life and death of the locals.
If we don't take ruthless action, those people will become more and more aggressive and think that the Sapiens company is easy to bully.
He strongly agreed with Alpha's approach. Only by using the most violent means of retaliation can they serve as a warning to the rest, so that the evildoers in those places will consider in advance whether they can withstand the retaliation of the Homo Sapiens company when they do things in the future.
"Through several attempts to scare the monkeys, there is no objection to our cooperation plan in Central Africa. We have also carried out exploration and planning for rich surface mines in various places."
Li Qingye took a look at the holographic geological exploration map in Alpha's hand, which was covered with densely packed mineral symbols.
Especially in those inland areas of Africa, there are many rich mines on the surface, including no less than 11 large iron mines with reserves of more than 27.3 billion tons. There are also bauxite, coal, copper, lead and zinc, tin, phosphate and the like.
The reason why there are such abundant surface minerals is related to the social environment of this place.
After all, this place used to be a European colony. Although it gradually became independent after World War II, most of its areas are still economic colonies.
In addition, these places are often in turmoil, and there is no stable social environment to develop the mining industry.
After all, the mining companies are not fools. Although the mineral resources here are rich, the infrastructure is very backward and there are not even a few railways. To mine the inland mineral resources, they have to invest heavily in the construction of transportation facilities. This is simply a sinkhole.
Not to mention the unstable social environment.
Even France, which has worked hard in Africa, has only developed a part of the coastal plains with convenient transportation, and is powerless .
For base metals like iron ore, European and American companies have Western Iron in the Kangaroo Country and Vale in the Redwood Federation, so why bother mining in inland Africa?
It is precisely because of the low cost-effectiveness that the rich surface mines in inland Africa remain undeveloped.
Unless it is a precious metal mine or a gemstone mine, local forces have no interest in mining at all.
Relying on the strength of the Zhiren Company, the Char branch picked up a large number of rich surface mines in the interior of Africa.
In fact, most of the local forces in inland areas of Africa welcome Homo Sapiens to come in and invest in mining. As long as Homo Sapiens does not do other things, everyone can still be good friends.
This is mainly because the prices of Sapiens companies are relatively fair and the gold dollar is very strong.
For example, the city of N'Djamena at this time is not only a logistics center, but also a trade center in Central Africa.
The gold obtained from selling mines must be spent.
Otherwise, where would the mountains of containers in N'Djamena Airport come from? It is because the demand in Central Africa is very strong.
A large amount of steel bars, cement, hardware, furniture, electrical appliances, electronic products, medical supplies, grain and food produced by Sapiens Company were dumped on a large scale throughout Africa.
The high-quality and low-priced products of Sapiens, with their fast and safe transportation channels, have caused other foreign companies trading in Africa to complain bitterly. They have found that they cannot compete with Sapiens in normal trade competition.
Take steel as an example. Zhiren Company produces rebar, and the retail price in Africa is 240 gold yuan per ton, which also includes door-to-door delivery.
Currently, the US dollar has depreciated by about 50% against the gold yuan, and 240 gold yuan is roughly equivalent to 720 US dollars.
The problem is that in the current global steel industry, European and American steel companies (including free associations) account for only about 15.6% of the world's total production.
The Far Eastern steel companies with the largest production capacity account for about 42%, and Zhiren Company's steel production capacity accounts for about 37%.
However, most of the Far East steel companies are now of the processing-on-commissioned-materials type, and their iron ore source is the Sapiens company, which can basically be regarded as an extension of the Sapiens company system.
For every ton of steel produced, Far Eastern steel companies can earn a nominal profit of 5 to 10 gold yuan and a 0.5 ton iron ore quota for their own use.
In other words, if the Far East steel companies produce 100 million tons of crude steel or customized steel for Zhiren Company, they can obtain a purchase quota of 50 million tons of iron ore with a grade of no less than 50%. Within this quota, the price of iron ore is basically the same as the internal price of Zhiren Company.
Under such circumstances, how could the Far East Steel Company give up cooperation with Zhiren Company?
You know, with the rated profit of 5 to 10 gold yuan per ton of steel, it is a guaranteed profit and is not affected by market fluctuations.
Otherwise, what would the Far East rely on to maintain investment and development in Central Asia? It would be cheap steel, cheap oil, natural gas and food from Russia, and mineral resources from Central Asia itself.
In addition, Far Eastern companies have also survived tenaciously in the West Asian, Latin American and African markets.
It is one of the few forces that can barely compete with the Homo Sapiens company.
Of course, this is just because Sapiens has not fully exerted its efforts.
In addition, forces in various parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America were worried that the Homo sapiens Company would cause trouble, so they intended to keep the Far East Enterprise and even offered to help in order to prevent the Homo sapiens Company from dominating the market.
As for European and American companies, they also managed to survive in this way.
However, how long they can hold on depends on whether they can withstand such low profits or even long-term losses.
In any case, Li Qingye is not optimistic about European and American companies' persistence in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This behavior that goes against market rules is not a long-term solution for private enterprises, even with subsidies from the Americas and the European Union.
Unless the Homo Sapiens company suddenly explodes, Europe and the United States will have a chance to recover, otherwise it will be a vicious cycle.
Will the Sapiens company self-destruct?
Obviously impossible.
Li Qingye had made a lot of preparations, so even if he was assassinated now, the Homo Sapiens Company could still survive.
Of course, the possibility of him being assassinated is very small.
When he was inside the company, he was surrounded by a special security team to protect him. On the surface, there was a special security battalion of 500 people, and secretly there were at least 4 security teams that could provide rapid support at any time.
In addition, there are maritime escort fleets, aerospace escort fleets, satellite defense and monitoring systems in the surrounding areas.
With this level of security, it would be difficult for conventional forces to successfully assassinate Li Qingye.
