Chapter 86: Fighting Motivation

Zeng Quanjun showed a hint of surprise on his face, but Zhao Guodong could feel that the other party's surprise was not aimed at the relationship between him and Guoquan Energy, but at the latter sentence.

"Guodong, are you saying that a few years ago you suggested that private enterprises invest in upstream iron ore enterprises?" Zeng Quanjun's question undoubtedly proved this.

"Well, the boss of Guoquan Energy, that is, my classmate, happened to meet the boss of Fosterke Metal Group when he was selling coal in Hebei Province. He learned that Fosterke Metal Group was in poor condition and urgently needed financing. He was a little interested and came to ask for my opinion. I suggested that he could enter Fosterke Metal Group by investing in the way. He said that the capital was insufficient, so it was boring to be a small shareholder. I suggested that he could join the stock in a private steel enterprise. Because he had coal transactions with private steel enterprises for a long time, it was easy to gain the trust of private steel enterprises. In this case, he reached a shareholding agreement with Fosterke Metal Group on behalf of domestic enterprises, ensuring that these private steel enterprises have a relatively stable source of iron ore for a long time in the future, and at the same time, it also avoided the impact of the floating iron ore price on corporate benefits."

Zhao Guodong said it very plainly, but it caused an uproar in Zeng Quanjun's heart.

If this guy said it was true, it would be too shocking.

Guoquan Energy's development has become a jewel of private enterprises in the north in recent years. Zeng Quanjun, as the director of the National Development and Reform Commission, has also paid attention to this enterprise. It is not only because of the rapid development of this enterprise in recent years, but more importantly, this enterprise has invested huge investments in overseas development under the hot domestic coal market, such as Mongolia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia, and has achieved great success. In addition, Guoquan Coal Industry, a subsidiary of Guoquan Energy Group, has also been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last year and became a public listed company.

This also caused Jin Province to face the problem of coal integration in the province. Facing a public listed company with a huge market value, the controlling party does not belong to state-owned assets. If state-owned assets want to achieve controlling, they have to measure their value according to the stock market value. Facing the alternative of Guoquan Coal Industry, many private coal companies that are about to face integration have taken the initiative to move closer to Guoquan Coal Industry and seek mergers. This has also caused Jin Province's coal mine integration plan to show such a big loophole, forcing Jin Province to adjust the integration plan.

In addition to this, Guoquan Energy has joined forces with many other famous private steel companies in China to enter Australia's third largest mining company, Fosterke Metal Group, and become the second largest shareholder. This feat has also aroused the exclamation of many domestic economists, saying that Guoquan Energy is a model for private enterprises to go overseas to start businesses in the new era, and calls on state-owned enterprises to learn from private enterprises like Guoquan Energy.

"Guodong, did you expect the current situation of iron ore at that time?" Zeng Quanjun turned his head and stared at Zhao Guodong and asked in a deep voice, not even noticed that Vice Premier Qian Yue had turned his eyes.

"Well, I felt that the domestic economic growth rate would still maintain a rapid growth momentum for many years. The demand for steel in industries such as automobiles, shipbuilding and infrastructure construction will drive the surge in iron ore imports. In this case, it should be a relatively wise choice to seek stable channels or control upstream raw material channels." Zhao Guodong explained patiently, "Facts prove that my judgment is basically in line with the development situation in recent years."

It should have happened more than two years ago that Guoquan Energy joined forces with domestic private enterprises to enter the Australian iron ore project. Zhao Guodong was still the municipal party committee member in Anyuan Ningling at that time. At that time, Zhao Guodong had such keen insight and decisiveness, which shows his sense of smell and courage. Zeng Quanjun even knew that the largest shareholder behind Guoquan Energy was Canglang Group, and the founder of Canglang Group is said to be Zhao Guodong's younger brother, and Zeng Quanjun also vaguely knew about this.

Canglang Group is also a very famous private enterprise in China. It started with mineral water and has gone step by step to a comprehensive enterprise group focusing on biopharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical retail chains, health products, water industry and commercial real estate. It is also a miracle among private enterprises.

Because of these factors, Zeng Quanjun never underestimated the newly promoted Director Zhao, but he also learned about the history of Canglang Group's founding. At that time, Zhao Guodong seemed to be a policeman in a certain countryside. Canglang did not work for Zhao Guodong. The implication was that it had little to do with Zhao Guodong. However, with such a huge enterprise as a backing, at least Zhao Guodong could not be ashamed of his personal economic rating. He could withstand silver bullet attacks that many cadres could not resist, which to some extent was also a good thing.

"Well, you can see and make accurate judgments at that time, which is quite not simple." Zeng Quanjun nodded and sighed: "Many of our large state-owned enterprises lack vision in this regard, or are afraid of taking risks, and would rather seek stability than take the initiative to go out. When you realize the seriousness of the problem, it is too late. At this point, the steel industry has taught us a considerable lesson and paid a considerable price."

"Director Quan Jun, it's not too late to make up for the loss. As for the steel industry alone, I feel that my country's demand for imported iron ore will continue to increase in the next few years, which means that foreign iron ore giants will still take various measures against us to raise prices and force our corporate profits to flow into their pockets. Instead of being controlled by others in the future, it's better to go out boldly now. Even if you encounter some setbacks or even pay some price, it's better to sit at home and wait for death now."

Zhao Guodong expressed his opinions quite frankly.

"Well, I think so too. Even if the price of iron ore has risen a lot compared to the previous two years, domestic demand is still strong, which means that we will not react, and the future path will be more difficult and we will have to pay a more painful price." Zeng Quanjun was quite rational and did not ask about anything else.

Zhao Guodong has such a complex background, but the above still put him in the position of deputy director of the Development and Reform Commission, which shows that Zhao Guodong must have passed the inspection of the Commission for Discipline Inspection. Otherwise, with the central government's strict review system for deputy ministerial-level cadres, the things behind him would have really had problems or doubts, and if they were not taken down, they would have been wiped out and sent to the cold palace long ago.

It is precisely because of this that Zeng Quanjun also realized that Zhao Guodong was able to serve as his deputy at the National Development and Reform Commission. Not only did he say that there must be some views and practices that have been recognized by senior officials. Therefore, when Zhao Guodong proposed to open the import rights of raw materials for fertilizers, and in the foreign cooperation at the national level, private enterprises and large state-owned enterprises were treated equally. Although he had some doubts about these practices, he still did not object to these practices.

After the introduction of the comrades from the Ministry of Commerce, two comrades from the Policy Research Center of the State Council also expressed some views, mainly talking about some views on the issue of iron ore import mechanism, which are similar, mainly focusing on how to solve the problem of mining giants and Japanese and Korean companies attacking China's steel industry.

"The whole army, I think you and Guodong have been having a secret conversation. It seems that they have some opinions. Let's talk about your views on the iron ore mechanism." Qian Yue started to click.

Zeng Quanjun and Zhao Guodong exchanged glances, and Zeng Quanjun signaled that Zhao Guodong would still talk about this issue. After all, Zhao Guodong is responsible for industrial coordination.

"Premier Wen, Vice Premier Qian, Vice Premier Su, colleagues, Director Quan Jun and I just listened to your discussions and opinions. Director Quan Jun and I also conducted some discussions in private. We think that in the final analysis, there are two core issues that restrict us."

Zhao Guodong was not humble either. Since Zeng Quanjun gave him such a chance, he would seize it. This was the first time he performed in front of his colleagues from other departments in front of three big bosses.

"First, as several comrades from the Ministry of Commerce and the State Council Policy Research Center just mentioned, my country's steel industry production capacity and structural problems, and steel production capacity is generally oversupply, but special steels with high technical content are still short of them, and there are still considerable defects in product structure. The scale of steel companies is uneven, the distribution is scattered, and the scale effect has not been formed. In the face of the scale momentum of the international steel industry, it is weak to deal with it."

"Secondly, the industrial chain is incomplete and lacks voice and control over upstream industries, especially the raw materials industry. This leads to insufficient confidence in the negotiations. Japanese and Korean companies can accept the price increase of international iron ore giants. Why? Because they already have the right to gain profits in the iron ore industry, they lose the east corner and gain the worst. Their early layout in the upstream of iron ore can effectively resolve and resist the risk of iron ore price fluctuations, while we can only endure the pain and passively bear it."

"Third, in fact, this third evolved from the first one. Due to the dispersed structure, many companies, and different interests, it is difficult to reconcile. Faced with strong iron ore giants, it is difficult for us to form a joint force to deal with it. No matter which company is the representative or an association organization takes the lead, it involves many interests and many participants. In addition, the intelligence network of iron ore giants has already penetrated into our domestic steel companies, so they can easily obtain a large amount of first-hand information. Facing us, iron ore giants have an absolute advantage, and in this case, they are already invincible."
Chapter completed!