Episode 54 The first shipment

After a day of preliminary consultations on the 18th, Daming's side basically figured out what the American industry can mainly provide, what things can be guaranteed to be open, and how much is needed; which are currently limited in production and require companies to switch to wartime production; what one or two companies can fully provide; What are the things that the U.S. government wants to coordinate with multiple companies across the United States to jointly produce......

At the end of the evening negotiations, .

He sat down with the ministers of industry, commerce, mines and energy, maritime affairs, the army, the navy, and foreign affairs for a small cabinet meeting to determine the general direction of future purchases from the United States.

"Except for a few large finished products such as automobiles, artillery, and large aircraft, we try to focus on semi-finished products, as well as those scattered things that do not have much technical content but consume a lot. We try to take advantage of the enormous production capacity of American industry to do primary and intermediate processing for us, and we concentrate our production efforts on assembly and high-tech core finished products.

"In short, in addition to automobiles, artillery, and large aircraft, we should try our best to purchase steel, cables, armor plates, various metal materials, communications equipment, semi-finished parts, and chemical industrial products from the United States, and we should also gradually import machine tools and automobile assembly lines to enhance China's self-production capacity."

The Minister for Mines and Energy added:

"There is also a lot of oil drilling and mining equipment to be imported. At present, the production capacity of such products in China is far from meeting our new needs. War aside, our drilling equipment production capacity is still quite weak. For many years before, we were an oil-poor country, and our oil was basically all dependent on imports, and we did not need to extract oil ourselves. Of course, our oil refining equipment has a large output and the technology is also very mature, this is because we have been importing oil for a long time and only need to process refined oil by ourselves, but the upstream oil recovery is almost blank.

"Last year we got a large new oil field in the East Indies and we needed to extract our own oil. However, the development of this heavy industry cannot catch up overnight. Now the United States is the world's largest oil producer, and the oil production industry is very developed. If we want to digest the East India oil fields as soon as possible, then we must step up cooperation with the United States in this regard. There is no telling when this war will end, and war is a bottomless pit of oil. It would be ironic if we had a large field of oil and at the same time we had to import a lot of oil.

"As for mining equipment, it is said that China's production capacity is relatively strong, and the technology is mature. After all, non-ferrous metals are one of the traditional pillar industries in China. However, now that the north has just been reunified, we have suddenly obtained such a large area of land, and the number of non-ferrous metal mining areas has nearly doubled, and the two core industrial strategic resources of iron ore and coal mines have increased more than tenfold at once. In this way, our current mining capacity is only at the kindergarten level. In order to turn these dormant underground minerals into national strength and national wealth as soon as possible, we urgently need to import a large number of mining equipment and equipment for the production of mining equipment. That is, the import of the entire factory. ”

The Secretary of State for Commerce took over and said:

"Not bad. Ever since the end of our war for reunification, we have been constantly lobbied by representatives of relevant businesses from the United States and Australia. The mining industry in these two countries, as well as the mining machinery industry, are the most developed in the world, and now people also see that we have obtained the vast north, and they definitely need to expand their mining capacity, and they all want to rush to pan for gold. Those mining machinery companies want to come and seek large orders, and those mining companies want to come and seek investment opportunities. ”

Shen Rongxuan nodded and said:

"I know that, too. It's not our topic tonight, but it's relevant and important. They played their calculations well, but they also played them right. First, the many minerals in the north cannot be eaten by our own existing capacity. Second, the current severe international environment, as well as the severe domestic employment environment, dictates that we must rapidly expand the mining industry and turn these underground minerals into war capability, national wealth, and employment opportunities as soon as possible. Then we must draw on the strength of the international community.

"We can adopt a more common method: or let foreign mining companies directly invest, sell the mining rights of the mine to them for a certain period of time, and then collect a certain tax every year, and then take back the mine and sell it to our miners to operate. Or the government sells the mine to a domestic mining company, and then lets the domestic mining company and the foreign mining company join forces. Our company comes out of the mine, and foreign companies contribute capital and equipment, and then share it every year according to the proportion of equity. Which method to use depends on the specific situation. This is the only way to turn these mineral resources into wealth and power in a short period of time. ”

……

After two days of negotiations, the two sides basically determined the number of orders for the first batch. These are all figures that are as conservative as possible, and they are numbers that determine what the US side can supply. The first batch of supplies consists of:

Munitions - large and medium transport aircraft: about 100; 37 mm and larger anti-tank guns (including ammunition): 120 in total; 12 mm and 14 mm anti-tank guns: 500 in total;

Communication equipment - field telephones: 1,500; 7-core telephone line: 15,000 km; All kinds of on-board and airborne radios: 800 sets;

Semi-finished metal products - aluminum: 800 tons; Electrolytic copper: 500 tons; Brass rolled products: 1000 tons; Armor plates for tanks and armored vehicles: 1,500 tons; Cutting high-speed steel: 50 tons; Carbon steel and other tool alloy steel: 200 tons; Hot-rolled steel: 700 tons; Cold-rolled steel plate and steel strip: 200 tons; Manganese steel: 500 tons; Tinplate: 400 tons; Steel wire: 600 tons; Alloy steel pipe: 20 tons; barbed wire (barbed wire): 400 tons;

Chemical products - toluene: 300 tons; nitroglycerin gunpowder: 200 tons; Carbolic acid: 150 tons; Petroleum refining products (aviation gasoline, various engine oils, special lubricants, etc.): 1000 tons; ethylene-diethanol: 15 tons; Diphenylamine: 20 tons;

Machinery and equipment - all kinds of metal cutting machine tools: about 100 sets; Large electric furnaces: 10; Forging equipment: about $500,000; Industrial diamonds: about $50,000; Various abrasives: about $30,000; Graphite electrode: 40 tons;

Agricultural products - rubber: 500 tons; jute: 300 tons; Leather: 100 tons; Wool: 50 tons; military wool: 120,000 meters; Cocoa beans: 100 tons.

……

Envoy Smith looked at this huge letter of intent to purchase, with a smile on his face and a happy heart. This is not all, but it is necessary to supply Daming in the next month, at the latest two months. That is, just the first batch. In the future, such materials may be available every month, and may be several times as many times as in this letter of intent. Although this shopping list is not large, it is rare to have it every month in the future. This will undoubtedly inject a shot in the arm for the sluggish US economy.

Moreover, this does not include the purchase intention of the vehicle. Shen Rongxuan told him that the Ming army's military vehicle procurement did not need to be negotiated with the US official. They can negotiate directly with the two largest U.S. auto companies, GM and Ford, individually.

……

In the next few days, the Ming government and the bosses of the military and the US delegation will consult. The two sides quickly and concisely tendered, bided, negotiated prices, and proposed contracts, and on June 22, the first cargo ship on the East Coast of the United States was loaded with semi-finished metal products and went south to sea.

At the same time, every move of the United States and the United States for so many days has been clearly seen by Moscow.