Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry

#318 - The beginning of the shipping king's plan

"Mr. Zhang, the main reason for my visit today is to discuss something with you," Ren Zhong certainly didn't come to Shanghai for no reason.

In fact, he had a very important matter to discuss with the Zhang family today. He had communicated with the Zhang family beforehand, but the final decision rested with Mr. Zhang. As the old man was too old to travel far, Ren Zhong paid a personal visit.

"Mr. Ren, please elaborate!" Mr. Zhang said with a face full of smiles.

"The post-war reconstruction will involve a large amount of international cargo transportation. In this market, we don't yet have a force that we can be proud of. I hope that the Zhang family can leverage its extensive overseas connections to take the lead in establishing a shipping company based in Hong Kong, primarily engaged in international transportation."

Ren Zhong didn't engage in lengthy rhetoric but went straight to the point.

"We offer two ways to cooperate with the Zhang family. First, we can provide large ro-ro transport ships for the Zhang family's shipping, helping the Zhang family build its own fleet."

"Second, we can jointly operate certain routes with the Zhang family. We provide the transport ships, and the Zhang family is responsible for personnel recruitment and operations, with profits split fifty-fifty."

In the historical timeline of the main world, the recovery of Asian shipping created several shipping magnates.

In this timeline, Ren Zhong certainly wouldn't miss this excellent opportunity. However, he was very clear that this business still needed to be done externally. This business is different from televisions; it's not technology-driven but driven by relationships. Therefore, Ren Zhong had to find an agent.

The Zhang family had been engaged in trade for many years, starting from the previous dynasty, doing business overseas, and had extensive connections. They had many contacts overseas, which was perfect for developing international shipping business.

Ren Zhong hoped to get a share of the pie from the shipping recovery, not just in shipbuilding but also in shipping.

But Ren Zhong couldn't do this himself.

In fact, neither the mainland's official nor semi-official entities were well-suited to do it, and they had no chance to grow into the top position in Asia.

In terms of international trade, it's currently difficult for the mainland to intervene. How could those capitalists be willing to entrust something as important as transportation to an official background?

Having the Zhang family come forward to establish a shipping company in Hong Kong would solve all the problems.

However, this was a large business with a huge investment. Although there was no shortage of adventurous young people in the Zhang family who advocated going out, they were still far from the high positions of power. Therefore, Ren Zhong needed to talk to the Old Master Zhang alone to know the result.

"Mr. Ren, we agree with what you said," Old Master Zhang said without hesitation. In fact, he had been waiting for this opportunity for decades.

"Not only in Hong Kong, but I also think we should open a shipping company in Singapore. From Southeast Asia to East Asia, from Southeast Asia to Africa and Europe, these routes will become busy with post-war reconstruction. As long as we seize the cargo market between Asia and the outside world, the future of this company will be limitless."

"However, the Zhang family is weak and unable to open two companies at the same time. Therefore, in this regard, I wonder if Mr. Ren can mediate and facilitate our cooperation with Mr. Chen."

Old Master Zhang was indeed shrewd. He not only took the lead in Asian maritime transport but also wanted Mr. Chen to endorse him.

This would naturally make development in Southeast Asia easier.

Moreover, the two locations he chose were excellent port locations. Of course, they were still barren and needed investment to develop docks and warehouses. This was not something that could be done overnight by a single family.

Therefore, Old Master Zhang wanted to find a big guy to watch over them and take the lead in blocking the bullets!

"Of course, no problem. In fact, the cake of shipping is so big that no one family can eat it all."

Once the intentions of both parties were settled, someone would naturally discuss the details.

For Ren Zhong, his task was completed at this point.

Currently, the most mature 3,000-ton ro-ro transport ship from Dalian Shipyard has no problem transporting in the Asian region.

But for long-distance trans-Pacific and Indian Ocean routes, it's a bit inadequate.

Therefore, after completing the 3,000-ton ro-ro transport ship, Dalian Shipyard then began research on a 5,000-ton ro-ro transport ship, which would soon evolve into a 10,000-ton ro-ro transport ship.

At that time, the 10,000-ton ro-ro giant ship will be the main player for these two shipping companies.

Ren Zhong personally came to finalize this matter, not only to firmly place the leadership of Asian shipping in the hands of his own people but also to take over the Asian shipbuilding industry in one fell swoop. After these two companies are established, relying on their external sales of transport ships, wouldn't that be completing the road of the Japanese and Korean shipbuilding industries in advance?

Ren Zhong's expectations for Dalian and Jiangnan factories are obviously not just to build Jianghai-class destroyers but also to intervene heavily in civilian shipping so that the huge costs of developing the navy can be recovered through civilian transportation.

Otherwise, even if dozens of Jianghai-class ships are cheap, each one will cost tens of millions, at least 30 million or more. If dozens of them are built, this expense will not be a small amount!

Entering the shipbuilding and shipping industries means making money through the industry and then feeding back to the professional side. This is the way to lasting success.

With ships in hand, there was not much difficulty in negotiating a deal with the Zhang family.

Although it is unknown whether a brand new shipping king will be created in this new space-time, for Ren Zhong, having such a cooperative big family will make the next things much easier.

Now is the golden age of shipping development. The three major shipping magnates of Hong Kong, Zhao, Bao, and Dong, are still struggling. Shipping King Zhao will not start buying his first ship until next year. Bao is even more miserable, he doesn't even have the money to buy, and he still needs to borrow money to rent ships. The Dong family is better, but the start is just one ship.

After the new companies are established in Hong Kong and Singapore, the Zhang family and Mr. Chen's connections in Southeast Asia and East Asia, and the freight representative offices set up in these places, will soon attract the first batch of business.

The current 3,000-ton Dawn-class ro-ro transport ships mainly use 20-foot small containers, designed to transport 500 containers.

Now Ren Zhong's approach is to eat all the upstream and downstream on an industrial chain!

According to the prior plan, the main routes to run first are Asian routes, with only one trans-Pacific route.

Bangkok - Hong Kong - Kobe port direct route.

Sumatra - Singapore - Hong Kong - Shanghai - Yokohama port route.

Hong Kong - San Francisco route.

Surabaya - Luzon - Busan - Yokohama route.

Four routes, with the first batch of 4 Dawn-class ro-ro transport ships put into operation. With this convenient ro-ro transport ship for getting on and off the ship, the container truck can be driven directly onto the ship to unload.

In this process, the efficiency of transshipment is more than ten times higher than those old cargo ships before!

First update, asking for recommendations