On January 1, 1993, the curtain of the reform of the supply and marketing system of the means of production was officially opened, and for the first time, the products that were abolished from planning control and turned to market regulation included steel, cement and flat glass. Among them, cement and flat glass have been market-oriented in the past due to their low investment, quick results, and easy to produce from local materials, and have not attracted much attention in this reform. What the industry really cares about is the changes in the steel market.

In China, it's impossible to keep anything really secret. As early as a few months before the State Development Planning Commission officially issued the circular, the relevant news was already circulating in society, and some well-informed people even knew very clearly when the reform would begin. "Fallen masters" such as Sun Zhenjiang shuttled between large and medium-sized steel mills like a marquee, and booked a large number of steel products. There are also some provincial and municipal material companies that have also taken precautions and are ready to stock up.

After several rounds of reform in the past few years, China's state-owned enterprises have also gained a sense of operation, and they are no longer the kind of rookies who do not understand market conditions. The CEOs of all iron and steel enterprises have some understanding of the market pattern that may arise after the liberalization of supply and marketing control, so as soon as the State Planning Commission announced the liberalization, the steel enterprises invariably increased the ex-factory price of steel by more than 50 percent. In the face of surging orders, steel prices continued to rise, gradually rushing to the 2,500 yuan per ton mark predicted by Wang Hongsheng to Qin Hai.

After all, the reform of the means of production is only a matter in the field of production, not to mention ordinary people, and even a few financial media that have just begun to appear have not put this news on their headlines. On New Year's Day, the headlines of the financial pages of various media outlets were:

China's first 800,000-ton ethylene construction project broke ground in Jintang City, Shannan Province!

The commencement of this mega-project, with a total investment of 7 billion yuan, has added countless festive colors to Jintang City during the festival. The Jintang Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government began preparations for the groundbreaking ceremony months in advance, the streets were re-asphalted, the pavement bricks were replaced, and countless managers wearing red armbands were repeatedly inspecting the city's appearance, fire protection, quarantine, and so on. The whole city can be described as noisy, and everyone is busy and happy.

At that time, there were no environmental protection organizations, animal protection organizations, and people's protection organizations, and the people were most concerned about employment and income. The Jintang city government has carried out a lot of publicity, claiming that the company, called "Jintang Petrochemical Plant", has been put into operation. It can bring tens of thousands of jobs to the local area, and can also bring a variety of additional benefits. With such anticipation, who would toss about anything else?

The groundbreaking ceremonies are all the same, nothing more than to let the leaders of all parties talk some nonsense first, and then symbolically go to the construction site to shovel a few shovels of soil to show the foundation stone. At the groundbreaking ceremony for such a major project, the leaders of Jintang City only had the right to eat and laugh with them, and leaders of the State Development Planning Commission, the Petroleum Corporation, Shannan Province, and other parties, as well as more than a dozen cadres at the provincial and ministerial levels, came to attend the ceremony. Dozens of Audi cars alone came, and the shiny four-ring logo on the front of the car blinded the eyes of countless onlookers.

According to Qinhai's original plan, Jintang Petrochemical was built by Daqin Group as the sole investor, but after dozens of rounds of negotiations, the final result was a joint venture with Daqin Group contributing 60% and the State Petroleum Corporation, Shannan Province and Jintang City investing 40%. Qin Hai has no objection to this result, because with the advancement of the program demonstration. He increasingly found that without the support of the state. It was very difficult for him to do this project on his own.

The first difficulty is that large-scale petrochemical projects involve the coordination of land, raw material supply, and finished product transportation, and with the participation of the state, these problems will not be a problem. The simplest example is Shannan Province's promise to build a railway branch line specifically for Jintang Petrochemical to transport finished products. The China Petroleum Corporation promised to build an oil pipeline to supply Jintang Petrochemical with crude oil. Qin Hai originally planned to spend some effort to fight for these conditions, but after introducing these investors, they took the initiative to put forward these conditions.

If the above difficulties can be solved with money, another difficulty that Qin Hai faces cannot be solved with money. This difficulty is the problem of talent. A large petrochemical company needs a large number of skilled workers and an experienced management team, and Qin Hai does not have such resources. The chemical companies he bought in Jintang can provide some workers and managers, but the heads of such large-scale petrochemical projects can be cultivated over many years, and no one dares to find a stunned young man to take on the role.

In terms of the speed of making money, Qin Hai is definitely a "nouveau riche", and the biggest obstacle for a person like him who lacks a foundation is that he does not have a huge team, and the talent pool is far from keeping up with the speed of career development. He let Ning Zhongying be the general manager of the group, and let a group of young people such as Ning Mo and Yu Haitao be in charge of various subordinate companies, which was a helpless move. Although Ning Mo and the others have grown at an astonishing rate, and they have barely been able to reach the level of being independent, Qin Hai knows that this is the result of paying countless tuition fees, and the detours and wasted money are really painful.

Specific to the mega project of Jintang Petrochemical, Qin Hai really didn't dare to use it as a platform for his friends to practice. Not to mention Ning Mo and others, even Ning Zhongying and Song Hongxuan, they did not dare to take over this project, because the management of large-scale petrochemical projects has its own set of doorways, and it is impossible to master the essentials without being immersed in this field for many years. If something happens to this kind of large-scale project, it will cause hundreds of millions of economic losses, and it may lead to serious safety accidents, and it is impossible for people who do not have a few brushes to manage this kind of enterprise well.

In the end, under the coordination of Wang Hongsheng, the oil company found a suitable head for Qin Hai. This person's name is Ren Feihan, 50 years old, studied in the Soviet Union in the 50s, and after returning to China, he worked in several petrochemical enterprises, starting as a technician and becoming the deputy director of a large petrochemical enterprise, and is waiting for the old director to retire and take over as the director. When the oil company called him in and told him to send him to be the director of a petrochemical company in which the private sector held 60 percent of the shares, he was unhappy for a while.

"This is Comrade Qin Hai, chairman of Daqin Group, and 60% of the investment in Jintang Petrochemical, which is about to start construction, is provided by Daqin Group." Half a year ago, Wang Hongsheng solemnly introduced Qin Hai to Ren Feihan in his office.

"As the factory director, thank you for your help." Qin Hai arched his hand to Ren Feihan, who had a stern face, and said politely.

Ren Feihan politely replied with a bow, without saying a word, with a curious and slightly hostile gaze, looking up and down at the new owner in front of him, who was only half his age.

"I heard that the total investment of Jintang Petrochemical is more than 7 billion yuan, and if Daqin Group invests 60%, it will be 4.2 billion yuan. I am curious how Chairman Qin raised such a huge amount of money. ”

After being silent for a while, Ren Feihan spoke like this.

Qin Hai had already heard Wang Hongsheng give a detailed account of Ren Feihan's situation, and also heard about his dissatisfaction and disdain for this new position. Hearing Ren Feihan's question, he smiled slightly and said, "This money is nothing to Daqin Group, we have been accumulating this money since a few years ago. The 4.2 billion yuan mentioned by the director of the plant is only the first phase of our investment in Jintang Petrochemical, and we plan to make additional investment and expand the scale in the future. ”

"Can I ask the Daqin Group how it made so much money?" Ren Feihan asked. He has no interest in working under the Daqin Group, so he doesn't have to worry about offending Qin Hai with his words and deeds. In his mind, if Qin Hai was not satisfied with him, it would be better, and he would not be too lazy to be sent to work in such a non-trivial enterprise.

Qin Hai knew that people at that time did not trust the private economy, and he did not feel any surprise at Ren Feihan's attitude. From Wang Hongsheng, he knew that Ren Feihan was a career madman and belonged to the very paranoid industrial party, and Qin Hai believed that he could become good friends with such a person.

"Daqin Group has launched several new products, including thermal spraying machines, ceramic knives, ultra-high-strength fibers, etc., which are all international firsts, and we have accumulated so much money through these products." Qin Hai replied.

"How many new products can make that much money?" Ren Feihan was a little surprised. Due to the lack of information, Ren Feihan had not found detailed information about Daqin Group before, and the leaders of the Petroleum Corporation who spoke to him had very limited understanding of Daqin Group, so he was unable to explain the process of Daqin Group's fortune. Hearing Qin Hai say this now, Ren Feihan was a little shocked.

"Technology makes money." Qin Hai said with a smile. He briefly introduced the situation of several technologies to Ren Feihan, who is engaged in business management, and naturally understands the mystery as soon as he hears it. Billions of yuan is an astronomical amount for the Chinese market, but it is insignificant in the international market. The assets of some international chemical giants can often be tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars, and it is not an outrageous thing for Qin Hai to earn billions of yuan from these large enterprises.

"I just heard Chairman Qin say that your previous projects were all small input and high output. The annual output value of thermal spraying machines reaches hundreds of millions of dollars, and the investment in technology and equipment is not even 100 million yuan. Since there is such a good project, why does Chairman Qin spend a lot of money on petrochemical industry? Ren Feihan threw out another tricky question. No matter what kind of anti-heaven character Qin Hai is, if he doesn't ask these questions clearly, Ren Feihan will not defect lightly. (To be continued......)

PS: I'm back!