"Boss, Foster, they're back from East Germany."

"Invite them in." Ling Shizhe instructed his secretary Bai Ludao.

Foster and his entourage entered Ling Shizhe's office, and after everyone sat down, Foster first reported on the trip to East Germany.

All in all, the results of this trip to East Germany were not bad, and Ling Shizhe got what he wanted. In addition to the 242 locomotive, which has to wait for a while, the DBME standard double-decker and single-decker passenger car technology has been successfully obtained. In order for Ambrera employees to thoroughly master the manufacturing technology of DBME buses, East Germany sent a team of experts to Canada to provide technical guidance.

There were more than 50 experts from East Germany, and they needed to be arranged, so Ling Shizhe decided to place them all in a three-star hotel in Montreal Skytown.

"Boss, we should set up a materials research institute." Navali suggested to Ling Shizhe, "I took a look at the alloy materials used in DBME buses, and found that the alloys used here are very similar to the materials used in aircraft and aero engines, and I think we should set up a metallurgical materials laboratory to be responsible for the material problems." ”

There are many special alloys in the turf, bogie, wheelset, and automobile turf of high-speed buses, some alloys can be bought on the market, and some can not be bought, and those that can be bought are easy to do, and those that are not have to be refined by themselves.

Some special steels have a very narrow range of use, and the annual market demand is less than 10 tons, and even more than 1 ton of demand. With such a scarce demand, steel companies will not have the slightest interest in producing, so the companies that need it can only solve it themselves.

The same is true for the 242 locomotive and the DBME series of buses, which require special steel similar to the steel used in aero engines, which is controlled in Western countries and is not easy to obtain. Moreover, when Foster negotiated with the East German government, the other party also agreed to hand over the smelting formula and process of the relevant special alloys, so it was necessary to build its own smelter and metallurgical laboratory.

Ling Shizhe thought for a while and said: "It's okay to set up a metallurgical laboratory, but forget about the smelter, it's not cost-effective in terms of cost management." So in addition to the rare alloys that are very special, I see if we can use the alloy technology that we have obtained from East Germany and work with the steel companies in North America to produce the alloys we need. ”

Navali agreed: "Boss, I agree with this approach, it will save us a lot of money. I don't think we have to go far, North American Steel has a smelter in Montreal, affected by the economic environment, this steel plant is not having a good time, has been losing money for many years, I heard that North American Steel United Company is going to close this plant, if we look for them to cooperate, the other party should be interested, because they will not be shut down. ”

In the 10s, in order to monopolize the North American steel market, Morgan united with the monopoly giants such as Carnegie and the Cliff consortium to establish the North American Iron and Steel United Company, and later the United States Antitrust Law was passed, so in the 30s, the North American Iron and Steel United Company was divided by the government into five companies, including the North American Iron and Steel United Company, the American International Steel Corporation, the American Nucor Steel Company, the American Liboheng Steel Company, and the Shewell North American Steel Company.

The steel smelter in Montreal originally belonged to Canadian Steel, and in the 60s, the smelter was sold to North American Steel United, but since the 70s, the steel mill has been getting worse every year, and now North American Steel United intends to close it.

This is a medium-sized steel mill with an annual output of less than one million tons of steel, which is a pitiful small steel mill in Montreal compared to China's 10 million ton steel enterprises in later generations.

When Navali drove to the steel plant, he saw that the whole factory was deserted, except for one smelting furnace working, all the furnaces were turned off, there were not many workers in the factory, the fallen leaves on the ground were everywhere, and no one came to clean them, and the whole factory gave people the appearance of a great depression.

After a while, a pickup truck drove out of the factory area, and a man got down, hugged Navali, and said, "My friend, are you doing well?" ”

Navalli replied: "It's not bad, the new owner has been nice to me since Bombardier was acquired." What about you, Kyrenko? ”

Alexander. Jilenko smiled bitterly: "I'm much worse than you, you see that except for one furnace that is still in production, all the other furnaces have been turned off, and most of the workers have let them go home." ”

Navali nodded with concern, now the economic situation in the whole of North America is not good, after the outbreak of the oil crisis, almost all the media are singing about the economic decline of the United States, saying that the United States is likely to repeat the mistakes of the Great Depression.

However, in the economic downturn of Europe and the United States, the development of the electronics industry is thriving and has become a bright light for the entire European and American economies.

When he came to Tikeren's office, Navali took the coffee from the secretary, sat on the sofa and said straight to the point: "Tikran and I are here to talk about cooperation this time to see if there is any possibility of cooperation between the two of us." ”

Tikran came interested and said: "What kind of cooperation? ”

At that moment, Navali said that Ambrera had introduced electric locomotives from East Germany and would cooperate with steel mills to produce special steel for trains, and finally said: "What our boss means is that we will use the special alloy technology obtained from East Germany to invest 30% of the shares in this steel factory, and in the future, Ambrera will entrust you to produce all the special steel needed. ”

Alexander. Tikron thought for a moment and said, "Navali, I fully agree with your request for cooperation, but you must know that they are planning to close this factory, and the reason why they haven't done so yet is because the No. 1 furnace is still producing steel for you. ”

Before Bombardier was acquired by Ambrera, Bombardier received orders from the Canadian government for more than 420 metro buses, which were purchased from the Montreal steel plant.

Navali smiled: "Well, after the cooperation is reached, you don't have to worry about this steel plant being closed, and you don't have to lose your job, isn't it great?" ”

Tikran shook his head with a wry smile and said, "My friend is not as simple as you say, if you want to reach this cooperation, you must go through their consent." But in order for them to agree to this cooperation, they must see the prospect of a wide market for the trains that your company has imported from East Germany, and now you have not received even a single order for the trains you have imported from East Germany, and I think they will not agree to it. ”

Navali stopped talking, because of the business, he has dealt with the North American Iron and Steel United Company for many years, they are a group of masters who don't see rabbits and don't scatter eagles, if they can't see the market prospects of the new train, they won't cooperate with you, and now Navali is also embarrassed, so he goes back and doesn't know how to explain to Ling Shizhe.

Alexander. Tikron looked at Navali's furrowed brow, thought for a moment and said, "My friend, can I ask, Jester. Did Mr. Ling ever think about buying the steel mill? ”

"Don't tease Tickeren, the boss is not interested in buying steel mills, he only wants a company that can supply steel that meets the requirements, as long as it can produce steel that meets the requirements and can supply it stably, he doesn't care which steel mill provides these steel raw materials."

"I see." After listening to Navalli's explanation, a trace of disappointment flashed in Tiklan's eyes, and then he said: "Okay, friend, I will relay your words, but if this cooperation is to be achieved, these are not enough, you have to give me a little more information, so that I can be more sure." ”

"I know you're going to say that, the boss told me before I came, give it, you see." Navali pulled a document from his briefcase and placed it on his desk.

"Why, you have reached a railway procurement plan with the Hong Kong government?" As soon as Ti Keren opened the information, he only glanced at it twice and knew that this was a letter of intent for the purchase of subway buses.

Navalli replied: "Since Bombardier was acquired by Ambrera, the head office has taken a 40% stake in MTR Corporation Limited (formerly MTR Corporation Limited), and they have signed a contract with us for the first 160 metro buses in mainland China......

This is Navalli's biggest reliance, and he believes that with this contract, North American Steel United will agree to this cooperation, and if it doesn't work, he will go to another one. For example, Canadian steel companies, anyway, there are more than one steel companies in North America.

Since the 60s of the 20th century, Hong Kong has experienced rapid economic development, increasing population, and increasing demand for public transportation. Therefore, in 1964, the Hong Kong government invited the Road Research Department from the United Kingdom to conduct a study on the future development of Hong Kong's transport, and in 1967 published the HongkongPassengerTransport Survey, explaining the need for a mass transport system in Hong Kong to solve the traffic problems of the time.

Early System In September 1967, Freeman, Fox, Wilbursmith & Associates, published the "Hong Kong Mass Transport Study", proposing that Hong Kong build an underground mass transport urban rail transit system (underground railway system), with a total length of 51 kilometers, and 4 routes to be built in 9 phases, costing 15 billion Hong Kong dollars...... The 4 routes proposed at that time were as follows: Tsuen Wan Line: Tsuen Wan – Admiralty; Kwun Tong Line: Ma Yau Tong – Sheung Wan Market; Hong Kong Island Line: Kennedy Town – Chai Wan; Sha Tin Line: Fo Tan - Tsim Sha Tsui.

In 1968, it was amended to propose the construction of a 52.7-kilometre-long MTR system, divided into three main routes: the Hong Kong Kowloon Line, the Island Line and the East Kowloon Line, and two Hong Kong and Kowloon Branch Lines: Tsuen Wan Spur Line and Kwun Tong Spur Line.

Then, in 1972, the Hong Kong government established the Provisional Mass Transport Authority, which agreed in principle to build an "early system" first.

In March 1973, the Hong Kong Government constructed experimental tunnels at the Old Naval Dockyard on Hong Kong Island, The Peninsula Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, Lai Chi Kok and Lok Fu along the MTR line to test the geology. The test tunnel was won by a British consortium for construction at a cost of 9 million, and the terms of the contract also stated that the consortium would not participate in other subway construction projects for three years to show fairness. At the same time, the Hong Kong Government also invited tenders for the project, with a total of eight consortiums tendering and four international consortiums initially selected. The plan was to award the works in a single contract at a fixed price.

At the beginning of 1974, the Nippon Foundation signed a letter of intent to undertake the project, but in November of the same year, due to the pessimistic investment prospects, due to the oil crisis, it decided to withdraw. As a result, the scheme was suspended for a time. It was not until 1979 that the first MTR railway was built in Hong Kong.

In Ling Shizhe's memory, in the twentieth century Hong Kong, its subway transportation system is quite developed, due to the large number of people in Hong Kong, the complexity of the subway line is second only to London in the United Kingdom, only in 1982, the total length of Hong Kong's subway exceeded 100 kilometers, by 10 urban lines a total of 84 stations.

With an average daily passenger capacity of 3.4 million, it is the world's largest railway system, with more than 1,000 MTR coaches running on Hong Kong's MTR lines every day.

From these figures, it can be seen that although Hong Kong is small, the railway market is very huge. I remember that after Hong Kong's return, the mainland's North Railway and South Railway, every year in order to bid for Hong Kong's subway passenger car market, the two companies are often fighting each other, if it were not for a big man from the State Council personally came forward to mediate, the two companies do not know what will be like it.

A special correspondent published an article in Ming Pao at the time, saying that Hong Kong's railways (subways) were privately owned, but in the eyes of the mainland's railway bosses, Hong Kong's railways were regarded by them as a dish on their own plates, and no one else wanted to get involved. It can be seen how big the subway market is in Hong Kong.

In 2007, after the merger of the MTR Corporation and the Kowloon Light Rail Transit Company, the Hong Kong government has vigorously developed the light rail system, and in just a few years, the total mileage of the Hong Kong MTR has increased from 186.1 kilometers to 214.6 kilometers after the merger, consisting of 150 stations on the Kwun Tong Line, Tsuen Wan Line, Island Line, Tung Chung Line, Tseung Kwan O Line, East Rail Line, West Rail Line, Ma On Shan Line, Disneyland Resort Line, Airport Express Line and Light Rail Line.

In the next 20 years, the SAR government plans to increase the total length of Hong Kong's MTR to 1,000 kilometers to alleviate Hong Kong's increasingly congested road traffic. You see, with such a long subway mileage, how many subway buses are needed to run on the subway line every day? It's no wonder that the north and south cars don't fight and bleed.

Originally, Hong Kong's subway had nothing to do with Ling Shizhe, but since Bombardier was merged by Ambrera, he had to pay attention to Hong Kong's subway market, since last year, the Japanese consortium was pessimistic about the future of Hong Kong's subway due to the oil crisis, and the Hong Kong subway construction plan was temporarily suspended, which caused the Hong Kong Railway Corporation stock to plummet, Ling Shizhe took the opportunity to absorb a lot of shares of the Hong Kong Railway Corporation.

At the same time, some shareholders are not optimistic about the future of the Hong Kong MTR, and they have withdrawn one after another, selling their shares, making Ambrera the largest shareholder of the Hong Kong MTR Corporation. Originally, Ambrera wanted to eat the shares of the Kowloon Railway in one go, but most of the shares of the Kowloon Railway were in the hands of the Lee family in Hong Kong, and the other party had no intention of selling, so Ling Shizhe temporarily extinguished this thought.

Although he did not become the largest shareholder of the Kowloon Railway, Ling Shizhe reached an exclusive agreement with the Ritchie family that the subway cars needed by the Kowloon MTR Corporation would be provided by Ambrera. At the same time, under the arrangement of Li Xiaohe, the railway engineering construction company under the Ambrera Rail Transportation Equipment Manufacturing Company took over from the Japanese consortium and became one of the two contractors of the Hong Kong subway, which made the construction of the Hong Kong subway, which had been suspended for half a year, start several years earlier than in history.

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