January 13, 1878

"Welcome, Mr. Fischer, you are the most distinguished guest of the Red River Valley, and I am glad to have you here."

"Thank you, Lee, my friend."

The gray-haired old Mr. Fischer is in good spirits, he came to Australia as soon as he smelled the smell of money, and high-quality coking coal is worth $20 per ton, Li Fushou knows, and the old Mr. Fischer knows even more.

Originally, Li Fushou was in North America, why was Mr. Fischer not in a hurry, and he didn't talk about the coking coal business?

Today, the North American market is dominated by heavy industry in the Great Lakes region, accounting for more than two-thirds of North America's steel production, and together with other steel smelters on the East Coast, the overall steel production accounts for almost four-fifths of the United States.

Comparatively speaking, the West Coast steel industry is much weaker, and the demand for high-quality steel is not large.

It's different now

After the United States' 10-year shipbuilding plan was thrown, the Pacific Fleet got 1/3 of it, and these battleships and cruisers needed to be built on the West Coast, and the contradiction in demand immediately became apparent.

An ironclad battleship often needs thousands of tons of high-quality steel, and the same is true for cruisers and fast coal carriers, which demand tens of thousands of tons a year, which requires high-quality coking coal to produce.

Based on the production of one ton of high-quality coking coal to one ton of steel, the annual shortfall is more than 60,000 tons, worth more than 1.2 million US dollars.

North America is not short of coal resources, the world-famous Appalachian coalfield is located in the northeast of the United States, because the area is too large, it does not belong to a single one or two states, but scattered in the nine large states in the eastern United States, including almost the entire eastern United States.

And on the West Coast of the United States, sorry...... Without high-quality coal resources, there will naturally be no high-quality coking coal.

If it is transported by the 4,500-kilometer Central Pacific Railway, plus the thousands of kilometers of rail branches from the coal mining area to the Central Pacific Railway, the cost can be so high that the West Coast steel plant will vomit blood.

Steel companies are privately owned, and the same is true for railway companies, and there is no reason not to make money but to contribute.

Comparatively speaking, the cost of sea freight is much cheaper, and the cost is completely affordable.

Although there are a large number of coal resources in the country, it cannot produce high-quality coking coal, so it can only import high-quality coking coal from Germany, which is worth 25 taels of silver per ton.

The U.S. East Coast's high-quality coking coal costs $16.7 a tonne, but the price of shipping to the West Coast is multiplied by two, which is why Mr. Fischer Sr. has just come across the ocean after Christmas.

The charm of money is unstoppable, and even a small bite in this deal is enough for the Fischer family to have a fat brain and a mouth full of oil.

"In order to welcome our distinguished guests, a sumptuous feast has been prepared in the evening, and the Red River Valley Ranch is a vast area with many unforgettable landscapes, and I sincerely invite you to take part in an unforgettable hike, and maybe we can hunt wombats, a lovely Australian animal, along the way......"

"Uh...... Wait, Lee, I'm in no hurry to hike. ”

"Then we can hold a big carnival and invite some prestigious upper-class people to ......"

"No, don't bother."

"Listen Fischer, in order to show the warm welcome of the Red River Valley, I plan to have a series of welcome banquets and picnics with a unique flavor, and you will see herds of kangaroos ......"

"Okay, thank you very much, but I'm not here to see anything abominable, kangaroo." The elder Fischer was really angered by Li Fushou's Tai Chi, as long as he could transport high-quality coking coal to Auckland earlier, every minute was money.

"Let's talk about a big deal, Lee, I urgently need your high-quality coking coal, as much as you want."

"But I've already sent it to the Normandy Import and Export Company, and I just sent two ships the other day, hmm...... A total of 11,000 tons. ”

"Oh my God, damn it."

Old Fischer's heart was like a knife, as if the green dollar was flying away from his eyes with wings, how could he bear it?

He sold the production equipment of the Red River Valley coking coal plant, which is five or six thousand tons a month at full capacity, and these 11,000 tons are two months' output.

No, no matter how fast old Fischer was, it was impossible for him to have a fast telegram, not to mention that he had a warm Christmas at home.

Newspapers large and small from New York to San Francisco all published the US government's plan for a large-scale naval expansion, and Van Ah Sang, manager of the Normandy Import and Export Company, could not have imagined that Hu Chaoshan, one of the five tiger generals of the Secretariat, would never miss this great business opportunity.

Otherwise, it would be in vain to blind Li Fushou's cultivation mind.

So why reuse the mediocre Fan Asheng?

Quite simply, checks and balances of power.

"Listen...... Li, when I took a fast cruise to Australia, I sent you two sets of coking coal plant equipment from Auckland, which is estimated to arrive in half a month, and we are responsible for the commissioning and installation of the whole process. ”

"How big is the ship?"

"Uh...... 8 thousand tons, dear Lee...... Don't worry, I also brought you 1,500 tons of cane sugar, which is the best cane sugar from Cuba. ”

Is that about the same?

Li Fushou's face eased, and the two sets of coking coal equipment can greatly increase the output, from 70,000 tons to 200,000 tons per year, greatly alleviating the contradiction between supply and demand.

Add to this the 1,500 tonnes of souvenir sugar, which is in short supply, and the raw materials for the production of milk candy are available for a year, and other cheap lump sugars, fruit candies, as well as cookies and packaged sweets, can be developed.

In terms of value

Fischer gave the 8,000 tonnes of high-quality coking coal equivalent to US$14.6 a tonne, not forgetting that this was picked up in the Red River Valley.

If you add the freight to Auckland, it is almost $18.5 a ton, which is not far from the market price of $20, showing full sincerity.

After all, such a large amount of cane sugar is also in short supply, and two sets of coking coal equipment are also in demand now, which is cost-effective from any point of view.

Don't think that the United States only needs such a little high-quality steel to expand its two-ocean navy, that is purely a blind leaf.

With the vigorous construction of the navy by the United States, the subtle changes in the national development policy have been followed, which have become more aggressive and expansive, with a strong naval force to protect trade interests, promote the opening of the market, and escort American businessmen overseas.

The introduction of a major policy is by no means decided at the moment of the brain.

There is no doubt that there are profound strategic considerations behind the change in national policy.

The large-scale shipbuilding program will inevitably promote the rise of overseas trade, factories need equipment, ocean-going trade needs ships, and the production of high-quality products is inseparable from steel, which is a great benefit for the Red River Valley.

Old Mr. Fischer had the usual shrewdness of a Jew, and a keen sense of the great business opportunity.

If you want to take it, you must give it first.

He really succeeded, and Li Fushou nodded in agreement.

The two-month production plan allocates 8,000 tons of coking coal, which can be regarded as a return to Fischer Import and Export Company, and there will be no more.

With the current channels and capabilities of the Normandy Import and Export Company, such a scarce coking coal can only be sold for $212, and it is impossible to sell higher.

And when the coking coal came to the old Fischer, it could be sold for a high price of 25 US dollars a ton, and he didn't dare to go any higher, for fear that he would have a life to earn and not to enjoy.

Don't look at the Fischer family has a congressman sir, which of those big steel companies has no congressman behind it?

Annoying the West Coast steelworks tycoons, it's easy to spend a few hundred dollars to hire a gunslinger, and a lot of destitute Irish people are willing to fight, maybe Italians or whatever.

To be honest, the security in the United States is not much better than that in Australia, as long as you are not caught red-handed, you can leave the scene of the crime safely.

Obviously, the 8,000 tons of coking coal have not yet satisfied the appetite of old Fischer, and he wants more.

"Li, your plant and coal resources here are ready-made, and there is no shortage of electricity, and the newly arrived coking coal equipment workers can be put into operation after working overtime for two months, and the production at full capacity is green US dollars."

"Fischer, I'm worried that too much coking coal resources will drive down prices."

"No, no, no, the North American continent's appetite for high-quality coking coal is definitely far greater than you think."

"Oh, it's just part of the West Coast."

"Hey, hey, hey...... To tell you the truth, in just over a month, this part of the West Coast you are talking about has ordered 6 sets of open-hearth steelmaking equipment from Fischer Trading Company, which will add 600,000 tons of high-quality steel production capacity every year, and this is just the beginning. ”

"And that includes you, too?"

"As you can see, yes, it's a God-given opportunity, and we can all make a lot of money."

Li Fushou smiled and didn't make a sound, opportunities are always left to those who are prepared, the most critical driving force for the operation of coking coal plants is electricity, and only the Red River Valley has this condition in the entire Australian continent.

Every day, hundreds of thousands of tons of finely washed coal are smelted into coke through blast furnaces, and it is impossible to rely on human or animal power.

After high-temperature smelting, the coke reaches thousands of degrees Celsius, who can go up and carry it down?

Steam power is also impossible, because the whole production process of a coking plant requires power, and if dozens of sets of steam power equipment are required, the cost will increase to an alarming extent.

The coking coal plant unloads the coal from the truck, finely washes, and transports the coal trestle into the coal tower, and the coal loading truck travels to the bottom of the coal tower, and the coal tower shakes the feeder to feed the material evenly layer by layer......

The following process also has crushing and layering and tamping to make briquettes, and the pounded briquettes are loaded into the carbonization chamber and distilled at high temperature at a temperature of 950~1050 °C.

More than 20 hours later, the mature coke is pushed out by the coke cart, pushed out through the coke guide grid and falls into the coke quenching car, and then sent to the coke quenching tower to spray the coke quenching with water, and finally sent to the cool coke platform, which is pushed to the coke field by the scraper coke machine.

In particular, it is important to emphasize that thousands of tons of coal raw materials are produced.

This series of production processes requires a lot of electricity, and the cost of electricity is one of the main costs.

Generally speaking, thermal power plants are built near coal mines, which are specially used for the production of coal mining machinery and chemical products such as coking.

It is a misconception that coking plants are not just a product of coal and coke.

Coke can be used as fuel for blast furnace smelting, and can also be used for casting, non-ferrous metal smelting, water gas, furnace gas for the production of synthetic ammonia, and calcium carbide to obtain raw materials for the organic synthesis industry.

The chemical products produced in the coking process can be recovered and processed to extract tar, ammonia, naphthalene, hydrogen sulfide, crude benzene and other products, and obtain net coke oven gas and coal tar, which are all chemical products with great use.

After crude benzene refining and deep processing, benzene, toluene, xylene, carbon disulfide, etc. can be prepared, which are widely used in chemical, pharmaceutical, refractory and military industries.

Touching his conscience, Li Fushou insisted on building a large-scale Honghe Valley reservoir, but he never thought of this aspect at all, and he could not have thought so far-reaching, but he just wanted to develop an industrial base.

Unexpectedly, the US government cooperated in this way and introduced an ambitious 10-year shipbuilding plan, which was really a big pie on the head.

Looking around the Pacific region, from East Asia to South Asia, from Kolkata to Sydney, from Havana to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, no one can provide high-quality coking coal in large quantities.

Unless Europe's regional industrial powerhouse passes through the newly opened Suez Canal and sends high-quality coking coal halfway around the world to the West Coast, the Red River Valley is the only one.