Reborn Industrial Tycoon

Chapter 339 Canned goods in exchange for everything (please subscribe)

Li Weidong dared to spend more than 20 million to buy the loader factory, so he naturally had a way to revitalize the loader factory. Before acquiring the loader factory, he had already planned to purchase the technology from Russia.

The heavy industry technology of the former Soviet Union was still world-class at that time. In terms of construction machinery, even if it could not compare with the United States, Japan and Germany, the gap was not huge and they were basically on the same starting line.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia and Ukraine were the two largest successors to the former Soviet heavy industry system.

Then both countries began to use shock therapy, and Ukraine completely destroyed its martial arts, destroying its originally strong industry.

In the process of large-scale privatization, Russia also abolished more than half of its heavy industries, leaving only a few industries such as military industry, mining and oil.

In 1992, the Soviet Union had just disintegrated. Relying on the legacy of the former Soviet Union, Russia's heavy machinery manufacturing industry was still very strong at this time.

The key is that it is relatively easy to import technology from Russia and the price is cheaper.

In this era, if you go to Russia to buy technology, you will open the vodka and take a few sips of it to get the old man high. Then he will throw the box of US dollars in front of the old man and the matter will be done.

If you import technology from the United States, Japan or Germany, you will inevitably have to engage in protracted negotiations, and then you have to accept various additional conditions. After all the negotiations are over, the other party may regret it, and even the delivery will not be so pleasant.

Think about Huanghai Petrochemical's introduction of equipment from Mobil. The negotiations lasted for a year, but there was no result yet. If Li Weidong hadn't used the hot sauce oil field to threaten Huanghai Petrochemical, Huanghai Petrochemical would have had to wait two or three years to buy the equipment it needed.

Another important reason why Li Weidong purchased technology from Russia was that he knew acquaintances.

When Li Weidong was engaged in second-hand machinery and equipment in his previous life, he met several Russian colleagues who were also engaged in second-hand machinery and equipment, but they mainly targeted the market in Eastern Europe and the CIS countries, while Li Weidong targeted the Chinese market.

Due to the different markets they face, there is no competitive relationship between Li Weidong and Russian businessmen. Instead, there are many opportunities for cooperation.

Now that Li Weidong needs to purchase technology from Russia, it is perfect to go to those acquaintances from his previous life.

…

The trains between China and Russia are much more comfortable than domestic trains. They are all soft-sleeper standard. There are also a lot of Chinese gangsters on the trains. It is not boring to watch the scenery and play poker along the way.

Li Weidong didn't understand Russian, so he hired a Russian translator named Liu.

Translator Liu is in his thirties. He also worked as a banker in the past few years. At first, he made some money. But one time he was unlucky. The goods were confiscated by the Russian checkpoint with an excuse, and he was also pointed at the head with a gun.

, beat him half to death, and from then on Liu Yiyi never dared to be a traitor again.

After the train entered Russia, more and more Chinese people began to get off the train, while more and more Russians got on the train.

In the evening, Li Weidong came to the dining car and looked at the Russian food on the table, feeling somewhat unappetized.

"It's a good mushroom soup, why do you put cream and lemon in it!" Li Weidong resisted and took two sips of the soup, and finally focused on the mashed potatoes.

In the dining car, many Russians were also dining, and the food was pretty good, including fish, meat, and red wine.

"This old man eats well! I feel like he eats better than us." Li Weidong said subconsciously.

"Isn't this normal? I'm already richer than us Chinese!" Translator Liu replied.

Li Weidong frowned inexplicably. In his opinion, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia's economy plummeted, and Russians should also be living in dire straits. It is said that they can't even buy a piece of bread, so how can they still have a big fish and meat meal?

Red wine? This is not a poor man's lifestyle at all.

But translator Liu on the opposite side opened his mouth and introduced: "I heard from the Russians before that their country wants to give everyone money, which is 10,000 rubles!"

"Ten thousand rubles? That's so much! It's probably equivalent to a year's salary of an ordinary Russian!" Li Weidong asked in surprise.

"But what was issued was not cash, but something called privatization coupons, which seem to be used to purchase company shares. They are anonymous, cannot be reported as lost, and can be transferred." Translator Liu said.

Li Weidong instantly understood that Russia was about to start privatization.

The privatization of Russian enterprises began in 1992. The strategy adopted at that time was gratuitous privatization. Russia evaluated the state-owned assets accumulated by the former Soviet Union over more than 70 years. Based on a population of 149 million and a population of 10,000 rubles per person, the privatization coupon was used.

form, distributed to every citizen free of charge.

With privatization coupons, citizens can purchase shares of privatized companies and transfer them.

Ordinary people didn't know which private companies to buy shares in, so more than 600 privatized bond investment funds popped up in Russia, and eventually two-thirds of the privatized bonds fell into the hands of privatized bond investment funds.

This kind of indiscriminate money distribution will inevitably lead to inflation. Inflation reached as high as 2,600% in two years, causing most investment funds to eventually collapse and the privatization bonds of the entrusters to be in vain.

After the failure of free privatization, Russia adopted a strategy of paid privatization, mainly targeting large state-owned enterprises. As a result, large enterprises were sold off at a low price, eventually creating a large number of rich people and oligarchs.

Today's Russia has not yet begun privatization, and there has been no inflation. Russia's economic situation is not bad. Although there is no economic growth, it still has a GDP of more than 500 billion US dollars.

In comparison, China's GDP at that time was only 400 billion U.S. dollars, which was 100 billion U.S. dollars less than Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. On average, Russia's per capita GDP was almost ten times that of China!

As the self-media said, once the Soviet Union collapsed, Russians could not even afford bread. It is obviously impossible. The so-called centipede is dead but not stiff. When the Soviet Union just collapsed, Russia was still a skinny camel compared to a horse.

big.

From an economic point of view, the larger the economy, the stronger its ability to resist risks and the slower its decline.

Just like Japan, after thirty years of loss, the people's living standards are still very high. This is because they have a high starting point and a solid foundation and can withstand hardships.

Therefore, given the size of Russia's economy at that time, even economic collapse would be a process that would take several years.

This is not the time to buy the bottom of Russia, because Russia’s economy is still very strong.

At least based on the income of the Chinese people, it is obviously very difficult to buy a country whose total GDP is a quarter greater than our own and whose per capita GDP is ten times our own.

Although the landowners in the village have declined, their houses are still beyond the reach of poor tenant farmers.

…

Li Weidong got off the train in Yekaterinburg.

Yekaterinburg is the third largest city in Russia and the central city of the Ural Industrial Zone.

Russia has four major industrial zones, the largest and most developed of which is the Moscow Industrial Zone. Its industries are mainly automobiles, aircraft, rockets, steel, electronics, military industry, etc.

Next is the St. Petersburg Industrial Zone, which is mainly engaged in the food, textile, papermaking, shipbuilding, aerospace, and petrochemical industries.

The Ural Industrial Zone is the third largest industrial zone in Russia, mainly engaged in petroleum, steel, and machinery.

The fourth largest industrial zone is the Novosibirsk Industrial Zone, whose main industries are coal, oil, natural gas and steel.

What Li Weidong wanted to buy was loader technology, so he naturally wanted to work in the Ural Industrial Zone in the machinery industry.

Moreover, the acquaintance Li Weidong was looking for happened to be in Yekaterinburg.

The man's name was Alexander Berisovsky, and his father was a local bureaucrat in Yekaterinburg.

In his previous life, Li Weidong helped Alexander buy a set of second-hand oil drilling equipment, and earned a sum of matchmaking information fees from it.

In the late 1980s, when it was still the Soviet era, Alexander Berisovsky began to engage in the business of "trafficking".

However, unlike Chinese tycoons, Alexander is not plundering light industrial products such as clothes, shoes, and socks, but electronic products such as video game consoles, Walkmans, and VCRs.

At that time, Japanese electronic products were popular all over the world, and due to ideological reasons, the Soviet Union would not import Japanese electronic products. Therefore, Japanese electronic products entered the Soviet Union only through smuggling.

Those who had the ability to bring Japanese electronic products into the Soviet Union were definitely not ordinary people with ordinary status. They were often people with backgrounds like Alexander.

It is not difficult to find Alexander. Since Alexander is a tycoon who sells electronic products, Li Weidong only needs to find a small vendor selling Walkmans and follow the clues to find Alexander.

At this time, Alexander was thinking about buying a small business through privatization and then expanding his foreign trade business.

Although Alexander is a well-known "tramp" in Yekaterinburg, he is based on his status as a self-employed person.

There were also self-employed people in the former Soviet Union, but the Soviet Union did not allow the legal existence of self-employed people until 1986, so Russia's private economy was not as developed as China at that time.

The private economies of the two countries have also taken two different paths.

China's private economy has grown from small to large, from weak to strong, and has developed step by step along with the entire process of reform and opening up.

Russia's private economy relies on privatization in "shock therapy" to forcibly transform state-owned enterprises into a private economy.

There was a knock on the door, and a beautiful young female secretary walked in. She winked at Alexander first, and then said: "Sir, there are two Chinese people outside who want to see you and say they have business to discuss with you.

.”

"Chinese? Are they also squandering supplies?" Alexander immediately thought of China's swindlers.

Then Alexander nodded: "Invite them in!"

After a while, Li Weidong and Translator Liu walked in.

After the two parties introduced each other, Li Weidong first handed over the gifts he had prepared, two boxes of beautifully packaged black tea.

"Mr. Berisovsky, this is Chinese black tea, I hope you like it!" Li Weidong said.

"Black tea! I like black tea best!" Alexander took the black tea with a satisfied look on his face.

Alexander told the truth. He really liked black tea. Li Weidong knew this, so he gave him black tea. However, Alexander had a strong taste, and he liked to drink black tea with yogurt.

Alexander was also quick to talk. After accepting the tea, he asked: "Mr. Li, I heard that you have business to discuss with me. What kind of business is it?"

"I want to buy some technology and equipment related to heavy machinery from Russia. I heard that Mr. Berisovsky is very well-connected in this area, so I would like to ask you for a favor." Li Weidong said, handing over a Russian document

The purchase list was handed to Alexander, which contained the technology and equipment Li Weidong wanted to purchase.

Alexander showed a surprised expression and said, "Mr. Li, you are so well-informed that you actually know that my uncle is the director of the Iset River Engineering Machinery Factory!"

"The Iset River should be the river that passes through Yekaterinburg! I didn't expect that Alexander would later make second-hand machinery and equipment. It turns out that his uncle was the director of a construction machinery factory!"

Li Weidong thought to himself, but his face did not reveal any information.

Although Li Weidong didn't know the technology of the Iset River Engineering Machinery Factory, as a heavy industry enterprise in Yekaterinburg, the technology should be better than that in China.

Alexander smiled slightly, and then said, "Mr. Li, I don't know much about heavy machinery, but according to my guess, the things you want to buy should involve core technologies, right?"

Li Weidong nodded: "If it weren't for the core technology, there would be no need for me to come all the way to Yekaterinburg."

Alexander replied: "Mr. Li, with all due respect, if it involves core technology, you may be disappointed. This kind of core technology and related equipment cannot be easily sold to other countries."

"It all depends on people! I won't let you work in vain." Li Weidong smiled calmly and continued;

"I heard that your country plans to implement the policy of privatizing enterprises. Once the Iset River Engineering Machinery Factory is privatized, it is still unknown whether your uncle can continue to be the director of the factory. So it is better to take advantage of it now.

Your uncle is still the director of the factory, and when he has the power, he can make a lot of money for himself!"

Alexander shook his head: "This privatization is only for small and medium-sized enterprises. Iset River Engineering Machinery Factory is a large enterprise and is not within the scope of privatization."

"Even if this year is not within the scope of privatization, what about next year? What about the year after next? Once the precedent of privatization is set, it cannot be stopped in the future. The privatization of large enterprises will be lost sooner or later." Li Weidong said.

Alexander suddenly fell into silence. He knew that what Li Weidong said was true. According to the government's propaganda on privatization, the privatization of small and medium-sized enterprises is indeed the first step, followed by the privatization of large enterprises.

Instead of waiting for the company to be privatized, it is better to make a profit now, while my uncle still has his words!

Alexander took a deep breath, pointed to the purchase list in his hand, and asked: "Mr. Li, how much are you willing to pay for this, and how much can my uncle and I get from it?"

"I can pay one million US dollars for this thing!" Li Weidong replied with a smile.

"These things are worth one million US dollars? That's a lot!" Alexander couldn't help but look at the purchase list carefully.

The purchase list includes not only loader-related technologies, but also excavators, cranes, hydraulics, pile hammers, transfer pumps and other technologies.

Li Weidong continued: "In addition, I will not pay in US dollars."

"You don't want U.S. dollars? Do you want to use rubles? We don't care about those things!" Alexander shook his head and said, obviously hating rubles.

"It's not rubles either." Li Weidong denied.

"Isn't it your RMB? It's not as good as the ruble!" Alexander said with a smile.

"To be precise, I don't plan to pay with currency." Li Weidong explained: "I plan to use cans of equal value in exchange for these things on the purchase list!"

"Canned?" Alexander was slightly startled.

Li Weidong nodded: "Yes, it's delicious canned fruit!"

…

There was once a legendary businessman who traded cans for airplanes from the Soviet Union and made a net profit of hundreds of millions.

Now Li Weidong also plans to exchange cans for loader technology and equipment from Russia.

Russia is relatively cold, and fruit has always been a relatively expensive commodity in Russia. Fortunately, during the Soviet era, Ukraine provided fruits to Russia. Now that the Soviet Union has disintegrated, Russia relies entirely on imports to obtain fruits.

Russia alone can probably only produce apples, strawberries and blueberries, which is obviously not enough to meet Russia's needs.

At that time, refrigerated transportation was not well developed, and there was always a market for imported canned fruits in Russia. As long as the price was reasonable, there was no need to worry about not being able to sell them.

Alexander frowned and said, "Why do I need so many canned fruits? I might as well just give them US dollars!"

"Mr. Berisovsky, if I were you, I would choose canned fruit!" Li Weidong then explained: "Do you know how many canned fruits can be bought with one million US dollars in China?"

"How much can I buy?" Alexander asked cooperatively.

Li Weidong held out five fingers and then said: "Five thousand tons! If it is loaded on a train, it will take almost eighty carriages!"

"So many!" Alexander was a little surprised.

Li Weidong continued: "If it were in Russia, how much would five thousand tons of canned fruit be sold for?"

Fruits are expensive in Russia, and canned fruits are also expensive. If 5,000 tons of canned fruits are shipped to Russia, the price will increase several times, which means there will be several times the profit.

Of course, it is not an easy task to transport 5,000 tons of canned fruits to Russia. Russian customs, border quarantine, checkpoints, etc. are all obstacles.

However, Li Weidong believes that all this will definitely not be a problem for Alexander, the bad guy. He has a background, and it is not easy to get through the connections on the way.

At this time, Alexander also realized that if he could transport these 5,000 tons of canned fruits to Russia, it would bring him several times the profit. Even if he had to spend some time to make some connections, he could still make a lot of money.

This is much more cost-effective than giving one million US dollars directly!

Li Weidong then advised: "If I pay directly in US dollars, it is nothing more than cash and remittance. These two payment methods will cause some trouble for you, right?

But it's different when we barter. There is no financial exchange between us, and if you sell the canned fruit, it is also a legal income, and you don't need to worry about laundering the money."

This sentence instantly moved Alexander.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a large number of wealthy people were born in the CIS countries, and most of them were engaged in shady business.

Just like what is described in the movie "Lord of War", let alone guns and tanks, armed helicopters with missiles can be sold!

Since the source of the money is unknown, we must find ways to launder the money, so money laundering crimes in Russia have always been very rampant.

It was later reported that financial giants such as Bank of America, Bank of America, Citigroup, HSBC, and Standard Chartered were also involved in the criminal money laundering activities of Russian wealthy people.

In this transaction, if Li Weidong directly paid Alexander a favor, then the money could also be regarded as commercial bribery and illegal income.

But if the money earned from selling cans is considered legal income, buying and selling to make a profit is a normal business practice in any country as long as there is no hoarding.

If you ship 5,000 tons of cans, you can earn several times the price difference. The key is that this income can be directly laundered. This deal is so cost-effective!

As a senior businessman, Alexander made a decision in an instant.

This business must be done!

It’s more than 5,500 words, so I can barely count it as two in one. Thank you all parents for subscribing! Please give me a guaranteed monthly pass, thank you for passing the test!