Chapter 75 Angola Civil War
Mikhail didn't stay in New York for a long time, and Bill Gross didn't make Mikhail wait too long. He quickly agreed to join Columbia Bank as the director of bond investment. After Mikhail had the result of this matter, he reported to Sergesha immediately, and Sergesha arranged for the staff of the Bank of Colombia in the United States to be responsible for handling Bill Gross' follow-up matters. Mikhail then flew back to Japan.
The reason why Mikhail came back to Japan in a hurry was for Glencore to expand its customers in the Japanese market. Although Mikhail was a foreigner, he relied on his own ability to infiltrate Minister Takeshita's political and economic circles. Under the protection of Minister Takeshita's relationship, Mikhail gradually gained a foothold in Japan and established relationships with some large Japanese manufacturing companies.
Mikhail had money in his hands, and the daily operations of those big companies were all maintained by bank loans. Building a good relationship with a powerful bank was naturally a must for these companies to survive and develop. However, well-known companies such as Toyota Motor and Matsushita Electric are all behind the old Japanese chaebols, and they have their own major banks. Foreign banks like Columbia Bank are just a supplement to their funding sources.
However, Glencore is different. Japan is a resource-poor country, and all kinds of industrial raw materials have to be imported. Although Japan is currently "real estate prospers the country, and industry harms the country", the demand for industrial raw materials has always been strong. However, the resource products replaced by Glencore from the Soviet Union, Iran, and South Africa are lacking a consumer market that can consume these resources. Now it seems that Japan is the best place to dump raw materials.
The electrolytic aluminum exported from the Soviet Union through barter trade, the gold transported from South Africa, and the oil transported from Iran and the Soviet Union can all be bought at a good price in the Japanese market. The import cost of Neng Ke Company can be kept very low, and the profits that can be obtained in the middle are naturally very considerable.
But Mark Rich didn't want to stop there. Because soon there is a better opportunity in front of you. According to the information sent back by Glencore's investigators and traders in South Africa, the South African government is planning to send troops to Angola and Mozambique to prevent the pro-Soviet faction in the Angola civil war from turning Angola into a second Cuba.
For South Africa's current ruling government, they are facing unprecedented pressure. The Angolan civil war in the north was fought between the People's Liberation Movement of Angola supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union, and the white regime in South Africa and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola supported by the United States on the other. Now it is clear that the Angola People's Liberation Movement has the upper hand in the civil war.
One of the main reasons why South Africa has to withstand pressure from all over the world and maintain the apartheid system is that the black movement in the country is more or less influenced by communist ideology. Because of the apartheid system, South Africa has suffered sanctions from all over the world, but arms are not on the list of sanctions. Now South Africa has become the forefront of the Iron Curtain in Africa,
Therefore, the United Kingdom released a batch of tanks purchased by the South African government before the sanctions and agreed to ship them to South Africa.
Glencore's branch in Johannesburg has signed a larger-scale fuel supply agreement with the South African Ministry of Energy. Because South Africa's own oil processing capacity is limited, the South African government hopes to purchase gasoline and diesel instead of crude oil. Mark Ritchie needed a place to process his smuggled crude oil for the South African market.
Mark Ridge's deputy Green once again ventured to Johannesburg to personally sit in and coordinate the fuel supply issue in the South African market. And Mikhail will sell spot crude oil in the Japanese market, and purchase finished gasoline and diesel to be shipped to South Africa. Mark Rich, on the other hand, must ensure that a steady stream of crude oil can be safely transported to Japan to maintain this triangular trade.
This action concerns the credibility of Glencore. If Glencore can maintain a stable supply of oil during South Africa’s invasion of Angola, more and more sanctioned countries will regard Glencore as their most reliable trading partners.
Mikhail hoped to cooperate with Itochu Trading Co., Ltd. in Japan at the beginning, but their president Ryuzo Sejima was not only a staff officer of the Japanese headquarters during World War II, but was also captured by the Soviet Red Army and tortured for 11 years in a labor camp in Siberia. So when he heard the name of the Russian, Ryuzo Seshima directly flipped the table. Death does not cooperate with Mikhail. Therefore, Mikhail could only find the weaker Marubeni Trading Company to be Glencore's partner.
The agreement between Mikhail and Marubeni mainly includes oil, electrolytic aluminum, Glencore’s products can be sold directly to Marubeni Trading Co., and Marubeni can directly settle with the Bank of Colombia in Japanese yen. This not only reduces the losses caused by foreign exchange, but also allows Marubeni to take the lead in the supply of oil and electrolytic aluminum in Japan.
Not long after everything had just come to a head, the South African government officially announced that it would send troops to Angola to support the Angolan Alliance, which was losing ground in the civil war.
The South African army soon had a fierce battle with the Cuban volunteers who were also foreign forces. The Cuban army dispatched tanks to teach the fledgling South African army a painful lesson. In an encounter, the tanks of the Cuban Volunteer Army beat the South African Army powerlessly, and 14 South African soldiers were killed on the spot. The South African army vowed revenge, and soon dispatched thousands of special operations troops to surprise Cuba. The coalition forces with the Anti-Angelian Movement wiped out most of the Cuban garrison in the southern city of Bissa, bringing the war back to a state of evenly matched forces.
The defeated Cubans were not to be outdone, and with the support of Castro, they began to send more troops to the front line in Angola. The Soviet Union also provided weapons and logistical support behind it. The battle gradually began to escalate, and the South African government continued to purchase more and more war materials from Glencore with gold.
Glencore is also happy to see its success. In order to obtain more oil, Glencore's grain trade must continue to keep up, and more and more grain is shipped from the United States to the Soviet Union. At this moment, several New York Times reporters posing as college students and tourists boarded an ocean-going freighter sailing from New York to Somalia, Africa. This freighter is the Goddess Athena belonging to the Mediterranean Shipping Company. (Both ocean-going cruise ships and cargo ships sell tickets for tourists, the price is much cheaper than cruise ships, and it is the first choice of many young people who love to travel abroad)
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