"If you just want to stir up the situation, I can see Zhang Chaoyang when I come back this time, but I don't have any plans, Zhang Chaoyang has no benefit at all when he sees me at this time," Cao Mo flicked the cigar ashes into the metal ashtray like snow, and looked at Ding Zhaoqiang, "Does Dongsheng want to make steel in the Gulf of Guinea?"

When Cao Mo saw Zhang Chaoyang at this time, he even wanted to dig Zhang Chaoyang and his team directly out of the New Iron and Steel Union, which could create enough trouble for Han Shaorong and Yu Jinjie, and they didn't need to show any mercy to Han Shaorong and Yu Jinjie, but they had to arrange for Zhang Chaoyang and his team to dig them up.

If it weren't purely for the sake of stirring up the situation, for the sake of bad Han Shaorong and Yu Jinjie, and finally fiddling with the life and fate of Zhang Chaoyang and dozens of his subordinates irresponsibly, it would be somewhat fucked.

Don't talk about Cao Mo for this kind of thing, Ding Zhaoqiang and Qian Wenhan can't do it.

When it comes to entering the steel industry, the country has obviously missed the best opportunity, and even they can expect that the steel industry will have a serious surplus in the next few years, and the competition among the top steel companies in China will be cruel, but what will happen when building steel plants in Africa?

Cao Mo pulled Shen Ji and Zhang Chaoyang to actively run for the takeover of the Catro Iron and Steel Plant three years ago, and Ding Zhaoqiang thought about this problem.

At that time, Dong Chengpeng was also in charge of Hexi Industrial Investment Fund, and specially wrote a report to Ding Zhaoqiang.

First of all, in the Gulf of Guinea and even the entire African region, only South Africa and Egypt have relatively advanced steel plants with relatively advanced production technology, but the production capacity is limited and cannot meet the market demand of the entire African continent.

At the same time, after the iron and steel industry reaches a certain scale, it can build complete industrial supporting facilities internally, and the external demand is mainly the supply of transportation and basic labor - which makes the construction of steel plants to a certain extent free from the restrictions of the local backward economic level.

Therefore, there is considerable profit margin for investing in steel mills in Africa.

With the rise of China's economy, various "threat theories" in Europe and the United States have a rising trend, and it is foreseeable that the export restrictions on steel products from Europe and the United States to China will become increasingly severe, but the construction of steel plants in the Gulf of Guinea will not only reduce export restrictions, but also enjoy lower tariff rates, and be closer to the European and American markets.

At that time, Dongsheng not only voted in favor of the new steel connection plate Catro Iron and Steel Plant, but even intended to increase its shareholding through the Hexi Industrial Investment Fund.

Of course, a series of accidents happened later, and many things went against the original intention, and Ding Zhaoqiang never thought about it again.

Now Dongsheng has shifted its focus to the real estate business, and Dongsheng Group, as a listed company, has even spun off the palm oil business to integrate with Tianyue, in addition to the traditional grain and oil business, it also retains the electrolytic aluminum and aluminum profile business.

In 09, the country increased investment in infrastructure and the property market was hot again, which made the profits of electrolytic aluminum and aluminum profile business considerable, but Ding Zhaoqiang also realized that the domestic electrolytic aluminum industry has been in surplus as a whole, and the follow-up focus is to optimize production, resource integration and research and development of high-tech products with higher profit margins.

From the perspective of Dongsheng's overall industrial layout, Ding Zhaoqiang is reluctant to participate in the investment of steel plants.

However, even if you don't mention Han Shaorong's sinister calculation of the Ding family's old accounts, now that the relationship between the two families is getting closer and closer, Cao Mo must have a hard time with Han Shaorong and Yu Jinjie, and he must fight with the Evans Foundation in the Gulf of Guinea to prevent the Saiweiyi family from coveting the Wusan River copper and gold mine, can Dongsheng stand idly by?

"If Dongsheng leads, I'm afraid you don't have this energy, or you just put it under the framework of Tianyue Industry to plan this matter to see if it is feasible, and there is no need to make another mess. Ding Zhaoqiang said very directly.

After the palm oil crushing and refining and the integration of plantation assets, Dongsheng's shareholding in Tianyue Industrial will be increased to about 8-10%, and Qian Wenhan's Xinhong Investment will also be maintained at about 10%, under the framework of Tianyue Industry, planning to build a steel plant in the Gulf of Guinea.

"You insist on pulling me, I don't care, the key is where to build, how to build, and how big is the scale?" Qian Wenhan said with a smile.

"If you want to build it, put it in Cotonou!" Cao Mo picked up the ashes from the ashtray, sketched the shape of the Gulf of Guinea on the table, and said, "Benin's single ethnic group, not so complex and sharp ethnic contradictions, makes the political situation relatively stable, and I will not say much about the industrial layout that I have recently focused on strengthening investment in Benin - the Gulf of Guinea is located on the east coast of the Atlantic Ocean, which is a fairly standard right-angle turn, and Cotonou-Podonov in Benin is located at the turning point of this right-angle turn, and Peme and Draculamo are located on both sides. Akwa's Mamba iron ore mine is located in the northeast of Akwa's capital Pemei, one hundred and thirty kilometers from the port of Peme, but because of the geographical shape of the Gulf of Guinea, the distance from Mamba to Cotonou is closer, less than a hundred kilometers in a straight line, and the terrain is quite flat, bypassing the rainforest area with soft foundations——"

"Do you want to build a medium-sized steel plant in Cotonou for the time being, and when the time is ripe, you can build a railway connection between Mamba and Cotonou, on the one hand, to send Mamba iron ore into the steel plant's furnace, and on the other hand, to use the port of Cotonou as a transit point for the Mamba iron ore mine to go to sea, so as to perfectly bypass the port of Pemei?" Qian Wenhan said.

"Aside from that, what can you think of when you look at Drake, where the Usan River copper-gold mine is located, between Mamba and Pemei Harbor?" Cao Mo asked.

"The railway from Kruno and Mamba to Port Pemei is so stuffed with iron ore wagons and tank cars that it doesn't have much capacity for the Usan copper-gold mine in the middle of the railway to send more copper concentrate out to sea. However, the railway from east to west to the port of Pemei is full of transportation demand, but from west to east is empty - this also means that the construction of a railway between Mamba and Cotonou, the copper and gold mines of the Usan River can also be transferred from Mamba to the port of Cotonou," Ge Jun habitually frowned, and said, "Politically speaking, the railway from Mamba to Pemei is completely restricted by Akwa, and even the officials of the Akwa railway department can dictate it, but the construction of Mamba to Cotonou is an international railway, which is subject to Akwa, Benin and Benin jointly supervise, and whoever wants to work on this railway will have to consider a much more serious level of issues - and even in the future the railway can be connected to Draculamo. Of course, more importantly, the railway should have been built by the Beninese government, and it would have been much easier to raise funds......"

At present, the Export-Import Bank of China has a large amount of infrastructure loans to Africa every year, but this loan needs to be applied for by African governments and endorsed by national credit, and it also needs to be handed over to Chinese-funded enterprises, preferably state-owned central enterprises.

Of course, if Cao Mo wants to push the Beninese government to build this railway, he must let the Beninese government see the importance of this railway and sufficient economic value - after all, the Beninese government will use the national treasury revenue to repay the principal and interest in the future.

The construction of the steel plant in Cotonou can first be carried through the port of Pemei to transport the Mamba iron ore to the furnace of the steel plant, and the construction of the steel plant will be carried directly in Cotonou, and the importance of the Mamba-Cotonou railway can be seen by the slightly far-sighted politicians in Benin - it must not be forgotten that the Vorkov Petrochemical Group is planning to build an oil refinery in Cotonou, through which crude oil from the Akwakruno field can be transported to the Cotonou refinery in tank trucks.

In fact, the source of funds is not a big problem.

Cao Mo currently has $1.2 billion in cash hoarded in accounts such as Tianyue Investment and Yibogu Mining, and has an additional relative control of Banco Nacional Ultramarino, a financial institution — it would not be a problem to raise $300 million or 400 million for a slow-speed narrow-gauge railway that is easy to build and has limited investment.

Even a new deep-water ro-ro terminal was built in the port of Cotonou in the future, raising an additional $200 million, which was already difficult for Cao Mo at this time.

More importantly, the Beninese government should come forward to promote the construction of this railway, so that Benin's national power will become an important bargaining chip for Tianyue against the Saweiyi family and the Evans Foundation.

"The Vorkov Petrochemical Group has decided to start the construction of an oil refinery in Cotonou, and the railway will allow tank trucks from the Akvakruno oil field to go directly to Cotonou – and the steel plant can also be used as a bargaining chip. If Xinhai Gold can build a 60,000-level copper smelter in Cotonou in a joint venture with Ibogu Mining, I believe the balance should be completely tilted. Cao Mo dropped three pinches of soot bombs on the table to indicate Cotonou's position, staring at Ding Zhaoqiang, Zhou Shenhe, and Qian Wenhan.

"Could it be that you didn't meet Han Shaorong at all just now, and you were thinking about trapping us old guys from beginning to end?" Qian Wenhan asked with deep suspicion.

As far as basic heavy industries such as iron and steel refining are concerned, the annual production capacity of one million tons is not large, and the 60,000-ton copper smelter is only absorbing the production capacity of the first mine of the Wusan River copper-gold mine.

Taken together, however, the three projects cost more than $1 billion, which is significant for Benin, a small country with a population of less than 5 million and a gross national product of only $6 billion.

This would mean a massive 20 per cent increase in gross national product (GNP) and could more than double the size of the country's industry, given a series of unleashing effects.

The point is, this is all the first phase of the project.

Whether it is a steel plant, a refinery, or a copper refinery, there is an urgent need for a railway to connect Drake, Mumba and Kruno in Akwa, and at the same time provide the basic annual capacity of four to five million tons for the completion of this railway, so as to ensure that the railway will not operate at a loss.

If we only invest in the construction of a refinery, because there are many sources of crude oil in the Gulf of Guinea and the demand for capacity is limited, it will not reflect the importance and high economic value of this railway.

Of course, without this railway, steel mills, refineries, and copper smelters would have been able to transport raw materials from the port of Peme or other important ports, but at an additional and considerable cost.

It's no wonder that Qian Wenhan suspects that this is Cao Mo's plan a long time ago.

As soon as Qian Wenhan's words fell, Han Shaorong, Yu Jinjie, Liang Yuan and others walked into the cigar room, and Cao Mo shrugged at Qian Wenhan, saying that he was absolutely innocent......