Hong Kong's manufacturing industry is very developed, but the core of this development is actually the production and assembly of light industry, the main focus is clothing, toys, watch OEM, electronic OEM, with low labor and a better tax environment, mixed or prosperous.

But the problem is that the two ends are sandwiched, the raw materials of the product can only be imported, the market is all abroad, the raw materials of clothing and toys come from the by-products of petroleum refining, and the main market for watches and electronic foundries is also abroad.

In addition, the price of crude oil has skyrocketed, the freight price of various types of sea and air transportation has also skyrocketed, plus the conflict in the Middle East, and the main market of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry is Europe and the United States.

Two months later, after the chain reaction of the oil crisis spread to Hong Kong, the stock prices of manufacturing companies listed in Hong Kong also entered the list of plummeting, and the supply of crude oil in Hong Kong also began to have problems, and oil prices remained high.

The power of inflation, with problems in the manufacturing sector, the largest employer, a large number of workers laid off or forced to lower their incomes, and a sharp increase in the cost of living, has plunged Hong Kong's society, which has been developing smoothly for decades, into an economic death spiral.

Even the busiest section of the Central Ring Road is clearly feeling the decrease in the number of people and traffic.

In the Prince Building, the headquarters of Galaxy Company, Chen Zhiwen stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking at the Harbour City under construction opposite Victoria Harbour, and fell into deep thought.

In the entire Hong Kong real estate industry, he is most interested in this future known as Asia's first shopping paradise Harbour City, both in terms of area and geographical location are unique in Hong Kong, not to mention the rent of tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars a year after a few decades, that is, after the construction in the 80s, the rent of a year can be as high as hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars, and it will not take 5 years to recover the cost of the entire investment.

Of course, there is only the construction cost here, because the most valuable land itself belongs to Wharf, and the land cost is counted as zero.

This kind of investment with such a high rate of return, if he is allowed to operate, he must go all out to finance from the bank, use other people's money to build it first and then operate it to repay the loan, but Wharf and the Jardine Matheson behind it are not very confident in this project, coupled with the conservative way of operation, unwilling to receive large-scale reception, just relying on the rental income from other places in Wharf and the money raised in the stock market to slowly build, the entire construction period is almost 10 years, in fact, 5 years is enough.

However, this also has certain benefits, Wharf has a large number of shares to raise funds, released a large number of shares, Chen Zhiwen will naturally not let go, the funds in his hands, in addition to the deposit paid to the major chemical and oil giants, there are 100 million funds in hand, through the period of Wharf's share increase, he also absorbed a lot of shares, but the current total is not very much, after all, the current Jardine is still at its peak, whether it is the real estate crisis or the oil crisis, it has not really hurt its bones.

After ......the knock on the door, the voice of assistant Anqi sounded outside the door: "Chen Sheng, Mr. Smith from Dow is here." ”

"Please come in." Chen Zhiwen turned his head and saw this familiar face that he had been looking forward to for a few months, and couldn't help but smile happily: "Mr. Smith, it's been a long time." ”

"Yes, Mr. Chen, it's been a long time." After shaking hands with Chen Zhiwen, Smith said, "I also just came back from the United States, and the first thing I did when I came to Hong Kong was to come to Mr. Chen's side." ”

"Could it be that there is something wrong with our cooperation?" Chen Zhiwen asked, and then led Smith to the sofa in the reception area and sat down.

Angel also served two cups of coffee, and Smith took a sip and said: "Mr. Chen, rest assured, there will be absolutely no problems in the cooperation between us, according to our agreement, this batch of plastic pellets will soon be on board the port of Los Angeles, and will arrive in Hong Kong at the end of next month." ”

"This incident in the Middle East has also had a great impact on your company, right?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Of course, there is a big impact, there are already three factories in Europe and the United States, and other factories have also reduced production, even the products that you will give this time are also in stock before October." Smith said peacefully on the surface, but there was a pain in his heart.

Major companies will have a certain inventory of common consumables, and plastics are a product with large market consumption, and they are not as flammable and explosive as other chemicals, and the storage cost is low, so there are a lot of them stored in the natural warehouse.

Theoretically speaking, if there is a problem with oil, it will actually take several months to affect the output of petroleum products at the end, but the capitalists are not fools, and in the case of skyrocketing raw materials, how can the end products still be calculated according to the previous cost.

Although companies like Dow have signed early agreements with a large number of customers, under normal circumstances, the general contract liquidated damages are not high, and the current international situation environment has sufficient reasons for breach of contract.

But customers are also graded, ordinary small customers in accordance with the contract breach of contract compensation, it doesn't matter, these small customers can only admit it, after all, there are big problems all over the world.

And there are some that must be supplied normally, such as automobile giants, household appliance giants, top companies in other industries, etc., at most an appropriate increase in the price, after all, for Dow, the previous inventory, at most, is a small profit, if it is stiff with the automobile, electrical giants, it will ruin the long-term business.

And Smith went to the United States, but also to find the company's senior management, many times to state the interests of the exchange, in exchange for the normal execution of this transaction, after all, the current northern hinterland, is the dream virgin land of all European and American companies, especially now that Western countries have fallen into recession.

Chen Zhiwen nodded and smiled, he naturally knew whose tiger skin he borrowed, and said: "Mr. Smith, for some reasons that I can't say, our cooperation may have to change, this batch of plastic particles, I want to entrust Dow to dispose of them in the international market, of course, you can also sell them to Dow at a discount, and you can resell them to others." ”

"This ......" Smith frowned, Chen Zhiwen said the reason why he couldn't say, then he must have asked him and wouldn't say, but he guessed that it may be that the northern inland government saw the price of plastic raw materials in the international market skyrocketing several times, so it wanted to sell it again, make a spread, and be a second-way dealer?

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