The night is blurred, and the faint wall lights are shining soft light.

After resting for a while, Zhai Danqing supported her body and said with a grudge: "I came to talk to you about work, and I didn't say anything, and I just broke up for you," she said coquettishly again, "I don't have the strength, take me to the bathroom..."

"Let's go to the bathroom to talk about work..." Zhang Ke stopped Zhai Danqing's slender waist, held her in his arms, and walked towards the bathroom.

After nightfall, Zhang Ke and his friends left the main camp in the exploration area and went to stay in Christmas Creek Town.

Christmas Creek Town is unknown in Australia, but the town has a big shot Joyce as a member of the Australian Senate, which makes Christmas Creek Town often appear in newspapers.

Fortunately, Senator Joyce is not an extreme environmentalist; on the contrary, he was very angry that Rio Tinto, Bi and Billiton were the two major miners who controlled the Western Australian mining industry and controlled the logistics system of Western Australia, which led to the inability of Western Australia's mineral resources to be more fully developed.

Australia's nearly 8 million square kilometers of land has a population of only one-sixty of China's, and there is no irreconcilable contradiction between man and nature.

After all, the Joyce family's private land is not within the scope of the development of key mining areas of Rio Tinto and Bi and Billiton. When the economy of the entire Western Australia depends on mineral development as high as 90%, once it is not radiated by Rio Tinto and Bi and Billiton, the interests of the Joyce family will naturally be insufficiently reflected.

Australia's land is divided into state-owned and private ownership. The federal government and local governments control about 90% of the land, but the remaining 10% of the land belongs to private ownership, but most of it is fertile offshore and convenient transportation.

The Joyce family not only owns Christmas Creek, but also has large areas of private land in Handland. Even if Kumho builds deep-water harbors in Handland, builds a railway system between Handland and Christmas Creek, and builds large processing plants in Christmas Creek without occupying the Joyce family's land, the prosperity of iron ore development and trade, railway and port transportation will attract a large number of foreign populations, and increase the economic activity of small towns to an unprecedented level, which will inevitably bring huge benefits to the Joyce family.

When Zhang Ke visited Christmas Creek, Senator Joyce himself was unable to come back from Melbourne, but other members of the Joyce family still gave him warm reception and invited Zhang Ke to live in their family's holiday villa at night.

Zhai Danqing and Zhang Ke sat in a luxurious bathtub with each other. Looking at the charming night outside the window, Zhang Ke, the annoying guy, asked her to sit on him, afraid that water would enter his body, and even more afraid to let him move.

"The geological discovery in the Christmas Creek exploration area was amazing, but Jia Zhiyi, Huang Mingsheng and others were surprised enough, but there were not many surprises!" Zhai Danqing put her smooth cheeks on Zhang Ke's chin, and her body swelled up the hard object, and she didn't feel particularly awkward. She just pushed it to the cloud and had no strength to move. The feeling of sitting on her side was even more intoxicating.

"The offshore base price of iron ore is only US$26 per ton. In addition to mining areas and ore processing factories, we also need to build almost all infrastructure including power plants, water plants, railways, highways, deep-water seaports, etc. The annual output of the Christmas Creek mining area must reach 40 million tons to reduce offshore costs to less than US$26 per ton. The actual profit... The plan we announced before was an annual output of 10 million tons, and the cost of the same spread will be as high as US$36 and US$37 per ton," Zhang Ke talked seriously about work, "They may be worried that we will give up."

The reserves of one billion tons and an annual output of 40 million tons are almost considered saturated mining. Rio Tinto, Bi and Billiton have developed in major mining areas in Western Australia for 30 years, and their annual output is only 4,000 to 5,000 tons.

The scale of Kumho production is small, the cost remains high, and it is a net loss every year. However, if you want to develop an annual output of 40 million tons, who knows how long it takes?

The best choice is to connect to the existing logistics system in Western Australia, save huge construction funds for the logistics system, and reduce the unit cost of the mining area of ​​tens of millions of tons to about US$26 to make profits. Unfortunately, the existing logistics systems such as railways, highways and seaports in Western Australia have been given to Rio Tinto. The two major mining companies of Bi and Billiton and the Japanese and European and American chaebols behind them are tightly controlled. They are not too late to suppress Kumho, so how could they agree to connect to their logistics system in the mining area invested by Kumho?

In 1988, Zhongzhi Company jointly developed the Chana Iron Mine with Rio Tinto in Western Australia, and has 50% of the interests in the Chana Iron Mine. Since it is a joint venture with Bantuo, the iron ore of the Chana Iron Mine can go overseas through the existing logistics system and transport three million high-quality iron ore to the country every year. Even so, the Chana Iron Mine has not brought much profit to Zhongzhi Company for so many years.

In addition, the price of ocean shipping from Western Australia to China is only US$3.6 per ton of iron ore. If you invest hundreds of millions of dollars to build a deep-water seaport dedicated to iron ore offshore, the port income payment of financing interest is far from enough, let alone recovering capital costs.

No wonder Jia Zhiyi, Huang Mingsheng and others were worried that Jinhu would give up.

"You are very confident!" Zhai Danqing thought of turning around and talking to Zhang Ke, but she was afraid of giving Zhang Ke a joke.

Zhang Ke's head rested on the head cushion on the side of the bathtub. Zhai Danqing moved twice, and he felt very beautiful.

Seeing that the noise was too loud, Zhai Danqing was a little embarrassed, so he straddled Zhang Ke's body and twisted his slender waist. After twisting for a while, he refused to move again and said, "I'm so tired. I still like to listen to you talking about work..."

"Why did I find a workaholic?" Zhang Ke complained.

"You still have the face to complain. If every woman had it, wouldn't you be drained?" Zhai Danqing said coquettishly.

"The word "squeezing" is very vivid... ah... ah..." Before Zhang Ke could smile proudly, he pinched Zhai Danqing and screamed for surrender.

After taking a shower, Zhang Ke stood in front of the window in his nightgown. Zhai Danqing hugged him from behind, and his face gently pressed against Zhang Ke's shoulder.

"Stop talking about the outside world, Kumho also has great doubts about the investment in Western Australia's iron ore, right?" Zhang Ke looked at the charming night outside the window and said softly.

"You are the king of Jinhu. As long as your confidence is firm, there will be a sea of ​​swords and fires ahead, and we will follow you..." Zhai Danqing said softly with his eyes closed.

"My reason is very simple. The purpose of the establishment of Kumho Commercial is to use the power of capital to balance the development of the industrial chain, industrial layout, and interest gains and losses. If it is a unit of ten years, you must never consider the immediate interests only," Zhang Ke said lightly. The reason he could say was very legitimate. Kumho has extended his tentacles to every corner of steel smelting, and it is impossible not to extend to the supply end of raw materials. "Because it is a low period, the cost of large-scale entry can be minimized. Even Mitsui Caiguan, who has always regarded Kumho as a thorn in flesh, might be expected that the mineral investment in Western Australia will eventually drag down Kumho. If it were in other times, Mitsui chaebols would have frequently dispatched to set stumbling blocks for us..."

The iron ore market is now in a trough period, and there seems to be no signs of recovery. In order to balance the global iron ore price level, the two major miners have compressed the iron ore production in Western Australia, which has completely relied on mining economically, greatly affecting local fiscal and taxation and employment of local residents.

In addition to Perth, other small towns in Western Australia have been declining for more than ten years due to lack of employment opportunities and low fiscal and tax revenue. Young people in Christmas Creek and Handland towns have gone to big cities to look for job opportunities and settle down.

For local governments, increasing local fiscal and tax revenue, ensuring employment for local residents, and preventing small towns from continuing to decline have become the primary task. The main method is to attract investment. Even for attracting investment, local governments and local governments will engage in bad competition, and investors can often obtain excess benefits.

In late autumn last year, Kumho announced a $1 billion mining investment plan through the Consulate General in Perth, which immediately received a positive response from Western Australia. Otherwise, how could foreign capital controls such an easy and even nearly 100,000 square kilometers of exploration area in Aokegee?

On the other hand, the iron ore market is in a trough period, and Kumho's massive invasion also dispersed Rio Tinto and Bihe Billiton's will to resist. They may be more looking forward to the cruel market competition to teach Kumho a huge lesson, and not rush to make more obstacles for Kumho to enter Western Australia to invest in mining.

Zhai Danqing gently pressed his face against Zhang Ke's shoulders. Although the formation of the senior executives of the Kumho was very gorgeous, this did not affect Zhang Ke's prestige within the Kumho. Whether to invest in the Western Australian mining industry at this time is still in Zhang Ke's hands.

"Excluding the reserved funds for other projects, Kumho Commercial still has more than 500 million US dollars in funds," Zhang Ke tapped the glass window with his fingers, "It's been enough for a year and a half..."

Zhai Danqing hugged Zhang Ke's waist and said with a smile: "There are many people waiting to watch the show. I look forward to the facts that will happen in the future to slap them in the face..."

"You must have confidence in me." Zhang Ke pulled Zhai Danqing in front of him and hugged her in his arms.

Of course, even if the global iron ore market is low, there is no sign of recovery from the domestic market.

Since the increase in domestic steel output entered a trough in 1996, the total output only increased by more than 10% until the end of 1999. However, with the strengthening of investment in infrastructure by domestic macro-control, the reform of the housing welfare system for urban employees will promote the increase in commercial housing consumption. The demand for domestic steel market has become increasingly strong, and steel prices have been rising repeatedly. Sooner or later, the supply and demand tension in the steel market will be transmitted to the upstream iron ore supply relationship.

On the other hand, the country significantly relaxed restrictions on private capital entering the heavy industry field in 1999, and local large and medium-sized state-owned steel enterprises also launched a reform process mainly based on privatization. These all provide more possibilities for a significant increase in domestic steel production in the future.

However, the predictions of the future influence of the Chinese economy by major global investment institutions are too conservative, and the prospects of the steel industry are too conservative. Who can predict that the demand for steel in the domestic real estate industry will exceed 300 million tons in seven or eight years. At this time, the global steel production was only more than 600 million tons.

Once China's steel production and demand for overseas iron ore becomes the dominant factor affecting the global steel market and the supply price of the global iron ore market, Zhang Ke made a sure judgment at this time that the offshore benchmark price of overseas iron ore will not be less than US$60 per ton.

China does not lack iron ore resources, but it is relatively rich. However, iron ore in China is mainly poor and has extremely high mining costs. To achieve large-scale iron ore mining that basically meets the needs of the domestic steel industry, the average mining cost is about US$60 per ton.

Once Kumho mines iron ore in Western Australia reach a certain scale, the total cost of transporting it to China can be controlled at around US$30 per ton, which means that in the future, it can obtain at least US$30 in gross profit per ton of iron ore. The actual profits that may be obtained may be much higher than the baseline of US$30.

Zhang Ke remembered that the offshore benchmark price of Western Australia's iron ore once soared to nearly US$200 per ton, and the price of ocean-going long-distance aviation from northern Australia to China soared from less than US$4 per ton to US$50 per ton. Even based on the 60 USD baseline, the additional cost of the domestic steel industry for iron ore imports will be as high as tens of billions of dollars per year.

It is the development of China's steel industry that has caused a small listed company in Australia with a market value of less than 20 million Australian dollars to surge to 30 billion Australian dollars in just three or four years.

If Zhang Ke was a person who was a little rich, he could secretly buy the company's stock at the maximum limit of 5%, and then pray that everything would develop according to the historical trajectory and everything went smoothly, and he would make a profit of up to 1.5 billion Australian dollars.

Of course, Zhang Ke is not a person who is at a loss for a small fortune, especially when he is able to change this historical process at this time. Kumho can completely replace the miracle created by the listed company. Once successful, it means that he can obtain billions of excess profits every year.

The most important thing is that once international iron ore prices soar, and the central government lacks more effective means, Kumho, which has become the major international iron ore supplier, will become the main bargaining chip for the central government to fight against international miner giants and stabilize international iron ore prices.

Zhang Ke thought to himself that at this time, the least resistance in all aspects was that even if the beds and cabinets were removed, the logistics channel between Christmas Creek and Handland must be established first. Moreover, Jinhu Commercial can squeeze out 500 million US dollars and 600 million US dollars to be used. After one or two years, as long as the international iron ore market improves slightly, financing will become simple.

In the next few days, Zhang Ke visited Christmas Creek, Handland and other places, and did not return to Perth until January 20. The exploration data in Christmas Creek area was enough to allow Kumho to make a decision to develop Christmas Creek iron ore resources. The preliminary preparations were quite satisfying.

Zhang Ke stayed in Perth for another four days until the 24th. Ye Jianbin, Sun Shangyi and others arrived in Perth and officially represented Kumho Commercial and the local government of Western Australia, as well as business partner companies such as MCC, China Railway Construction, China-Hong Kong Construction, Hongyuan Construction, Nanyang Maritime Transportation, Singapore Port Group, etc., signed a series of cooperative development agreements in Perth, and announced that the capital injection of Kumho Commercial (Perth) was added to US$600 million. The first capital injection of 200 million was transferred to Australia on the day of the announcement of the decision, so that the outside world no longer had to speculate on Kumho's determination to invest in Western Australian iron ore.

In late January, Hokkaido was filled with ice and snow. Hirozo Chi Sa returned to RB during this period. Mitsui Products was convening senior management meetings of its member companies in the snowy Hokkaido. Hirozo Chi Sai attended the senior manager meeting as the heir to the Chi Sai family and the head of Mitsui Products China.

After one day's meeting, Chi Sashu hid in a hot spring bath and heard the news that Kanho had officially invested in the Western Australian iron ore. He did not delay and quickly got up from the pond, intending to find the people from the New Nippon Railway and ask them what they think about the matter.

Hinata Ikesa Hinata rushed to the room of Toshiyuki Tanaka, president of Shinjit Corporation, and found that at this time he was not only here to visit Toshiyuki Tanaka, but also Yasuo Mitsui, a senior executive of Prince Papermaking, and a senior staff member of Shinjitari attended the meeting. Hinata Ikesa Hinata looked familiar and sat over, looking at the nameplate on his chest, and realized that it was because of the Fuchun Pavilion purchase incident that brought RB to Kioki who recalled.

Nippon Steel is one of the core member companies of Mitsui Consortium, the largest RB and the fourth largest steel company in the world. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Japan in the late 1970s, Nippon Steel has actively penetrated China's industrial penetration. Not only Baoshan Steel, but Wenzhou Steel can see Nippon Steel very deeply, but even Donghai United Steel Group has introduced complete sets of technical equipment from Nippon Steel. The main core technology management team was almost trained by Nippon Steel. The cooperation in the second phase of the expansion project of Donghai United Steel in 1995 once made the relationship between the two parties develop to a deep level of affection.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. On the eve of the signing of the second phase of the East China Sea United Steel Project Cooperation Agreement, which was the most critical negotiation period, members of the Japanese negotiation team led by Kio Dataka made a spring purchase in Jianye, causing the relationship between the two sides to fall to a low point. Under the leadership of Xu Xueping, the Donghai Provincial Government was strong in attitude and even did not hesitate to overturn all the previous negotiation results with the New Japan Railway.

In the end, Nippon Railway had to replace all the members of the negotiation team and provide low-interest Japanese yen policy loans to Donghai United Steel to promote the smooth progress of the negotiations. Although the second phase of the project was launched as scheduled, the Donghai Provincial Government, headed by Xu Xueping, began to work hard to eliminate the traces of the New RB in Donghai United Steel. During Li Yuanhu's administration, this trend still did not remain, so that Kumho and Donghai United Steel were preparing to build a tens of million-ton steel industrial base in Xinting, and the influence of Nippon Railway was completely impossible.

"From the perspective of industrial layout, Kumho's decision is the most important step," Tanaka Toshinobu likes tea ceremony and wears RB's traditional kimono to pour tea for Hitomi Ikesa. "The only question at the moment is whether this little snake in Kumho can swallow the whole elephant..."

Chi Zuoxue was worried. Even if Kumho lost $100 million in iron ore investment in Western Australia every year, Kumho could make up for the $100 million loss from other links in this industrial chain (Kumho held more than 25% of the shares in Nanyang Shipping, more than 70% of the shares in Dongshan Steel, more than 20% of the shares in Donglian Steel, and more than 20% of the shares in Dongshan Port). Kumho already has the atmosphere of a consortium, but unfortunately he still cannot control the power of Mitsui, otherwise he would not be more willing to see Kumho fend for himself like Toshiyuki Tanaka.

Otaka Kio has long recognized Ye Jianbin, the co-president of Kanho Commercial, as one of the people who appeared at the scene in the Fuchun Pavilion Buying incident. Ikesa Hidezo left Tanaka Toshiyuki's room, and he followed him out and called out Hikezo Hikezo: "Hello Jisajun, I am Otaka Kio from the New Nippon Railway..."

"..." Hinahiro Ikesa looked at Dataka Kio in confusion, nodded and said, "Dao Takao of the New Nichirot, what are you going to find me?"

The Fuchun Pavilion Spring Buying Incident was not very glorious, and Dalong Kio said it: "I still remember that Ye Jianbin, the president of Kumho Commercial, was also present at that time. Maybe the matter is not as coincidental as it seems on the surface?"

"You mean they had this grand plan five years ago?" asked Chi Zuoxue.

"It should be possible," said Kio Otaka, "Isn't it like the first step in implementing this plan by weakening the influence of the New Japan Railway in East China Sea United Steel?"

"Ah!" Chi Zuoxuezo became confused again. According to the information he collected, Zhang Ke was more like the leader of Kumho, but if Kumho had formulated a careful plan five years ago, Zhang Ke would not have been the leader at that time. At that time, the member companies under Kumho had not had a large scale. Even if Zhang Ke's business talent had been fully reflected at that time, but without strength, it would naturally be impossible to convince others to implement this plan with him as the main focus. "What's going on?" Chi Zuoxuezo also felt more and more trouble.
Chapter completed!