Chapter 554 Price Increase Storm

Baosteel's price increase, as well as the international iron ore price increase, have caused domestic experts and scholars to discuss it for a while.

Many people also think that Baosteel's advance is reasonable. The reason is that when Baosteel is sensitive to the tendency of international iron ore prices to increase, then in order to digest this bad news in advance, the price increase is imperative, otherwise it will not be enough to offset it. Because of the economic losses caused by the increase in raw materials.

"As an enterprise with independent profits and losses, Baosteel's approach is in line with economic laws." At a seminar of economic experts held by the State Council, someone defended Baosteel.

Boss Zhu listened calmly. He had a long working experience in Shanghai. Emotionally, he hoped that Baosteel would make such a price increase decision. There were reasonable reasons. However, judging from the atmosphere at the venue, Look, it seems the experts don't agree on this either.

In particular, Yang Xusheng, a relatively radical domestic economic expert, loudly refuted the other party's statement, "As an enterprise with independent profits and losses, of course it has the freedom to decide to raise prices, but we must also take into account our national conditions. After all, our economic system and people are The difference is that Baosteel still has the majority of state-owned capital. We can't just do whatever we want, but we must also take into account the overall situation. It doesn't matter if he raises prices like that, the domestic economic situation has changed a lot. How about we? Inflation, which has been easily stabilized, is likely to come back.”

People on both sides express their own opinions. In short, everyone thinks that their opinions are correct.

Fan Wubing responded to Boss Zhu's invitation and came to listen. To be honest, it is quite interesting to listen to the debate among these experts. Even if you didn't know about this matter before and you haven't been in the situation. If you feel it, you can never tell which of them is correct.

But if people like Fan Wubing who know the details behind the scenes listen to their words, they can easily feel that these experts and scholars are actually speaking for certain interest groups. .

This is inevitable, just like an old saying, the history of science has no borders, but scientists have a motherland, and the same goes for these experts. Since we are not people living in a vacuum, then firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, etc. Problems all need someone to help them solve them. Otherwise, how can they afford the memorial hall of a well-known scholar or expert with just their own meager salary?

Youdao is short-handed when it comes to taking advantage of others, and soft-spoken when it comes to eating people. Since you have benefited from others, you need to put in a good word for them. Therefore, the ideas of experts are often very weird, and in most cases, they do not represent the public. benefits, this is expected and not surprising.

Boss Zhu felt a little headache after hearing this. He glanced at Fan Wubing and saw that Mr. Fan was sitting there with a big smile and his mouth wide open. He seemed to be in a good mood. He couldn't help but be curious, so he ordered Fan Wubing's. name,

Let him share his opinion.

Fan Wubing was joking with the young waitress who was serving tea and water. Suddenly, Boss Zhu called his name, which made him feel a little embarrassed. Boss Zhu also revealed that he could not take such seriousness seriously. meeting.

However, Fan Wubing's face has long been thicker. After being named by Boss Zhu, he stood up, smiled and nodded to the surrounding people, and then said, "After listening to what the seniors said just now, the juniors are still very good. What I have gained is that the seniors have a far-sighted vision, a commanding position, wisdom, and a broad mind. It is really admirable! After all, experts are experts and scholars are scholars. This theoretical level is really very high! "

Listening to Fan Wubing's vernacular here, everyone looked at each other a little bit. Everyone basically knew Fan Wubing, and they also knew that this man was the god of stocks when he entered the stock market, the god of business when he entered the shopping mall, and he was the god of business when he started to build entities. The god of management, the young hero Fan Wubing is also the god of PK even in the ring. Everyone never dares to underestimate such a character. Many people are even studying Fan Wubing's family history to find out more about him. Why can you become a ***?

But today Fan Wubing talked such a lot of nonsense that everyone was a little confused.

After all, this is an economic symposium hosted by the Premier of the State Council. It is not for us young and old men to sit under the big locust tree and chat when we have nothing to do. It is really irresponsible to talk nonsense like this. .

Mr. Fan, can you at least say something meaningful? There is so much truth in speaking like this! Many people think so.

The first person who couldn't stand listening was Boss Zhu. When he saw that Fan Wubing was still showing off his words, he frowned and knocked on the table and said, "Mr. Fan, let's get back to the topic. I'm not asking you to say something meaningful. Come to Tianqiao to tell stories!”

Everyone couldn't help laughing when they heard what Boss Zhu said. They thought that this meant that Boss Zhu had a close relationship with Fan Wubing, and it was at such an informal exchange meeting. Otherwise, Boss Zhu would never have spoken like this. , everyone is used to seeing him being ruthless, but suddenly having such a small episode at this time relaxed the somewhat tense atmosphere.

Fan Wubing chuckled, scratched his head and said, "Sorry, I often go to Tianqiao to read storytellers recently, and I got infected." Then Fan Wubing's face straightened and he said, "I just listened to the opinions of several experts, and they are all very useful. The truth is, my personal opinion is that everyone is right.”

"What does this mean? What does it mean that no one is wrong? Since there are two different opinions, there must be one right and one wrong." Many old experts expressed dissatisfaction.

It is good to have conflicts of interest, but it cannot be ruled out that many experts can stick to principles a little while speaking for interest groups. For example, in the debate of truth, there is no compromise. If you are right, then others are wrong, and vice versa.

If both sides are not wrong, wouldn't it be like giving each side a slap on the wrist, wanting to please both sides, but offending people on both sides? Experts don't tolerate sand in their eyes. They will never have a good impression of you just because you don't support him or oppose him. This is the most taboo thing.

In the eyes of experts, one is one and two is two.

Just when everyone was in a mess, Fan Wubing continued, "Why would I say such a muddy word? The fact is very simple. Everyone stands at a different angle, so they see different problems. No one is wrong. If we must find a mistake, it is that our domestic iron ore reserves are too small, our domestic iron ore refining technology is too poor, and our resource consumption is too high! Otherwise, if we have rich iron ore like the United States or Australia, and the kind of iron ore that can be directly mined and put into the furnace without being refined, do we still need to argue here whether to raise the price? If that's the case, I think everyone's mind is the same, that is, what should we do with so much iron ore? Export! What if the export price is not good? Raise the price! Unfortunately, we are now the one being slaughtered, so I said that no one is wrong, the mistake is that our resources are too scarce!"

The domestic iron ore resources are widely distributed, covering more than 700 counties and banners in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country. The national iron ore resource reserves are more than 60 billion tons.

However, the domestic iron ore resources are abundant but not rich, mainly medium and low grade ores, with rich ore reserves accounting for less than 2%, and poor ore reserves accounting for half. There are many small and medium-sized mines, few large mines, and even fewer super-large mines. The ore types are complex, and difficult-to-select ores and multi-component symbiotic ores account for a large proportion.

Some mines are difficult to select and recycle, resulting in low iron ore recovery rates and a large amount of useful components lost to tailings. Some magnetite deposits that are mainly medium and low grade but easy to mine and select contain a large amount of low-grade ores with marginal benefits.

Moreover, the domestic iron ore technology and equipment level is low. Although large and medium-sized iron ore enterprises have some large-scale advanced mining equipment, the number is very small. Most of them are small in size, miscellaneous in model, in poor condition, unmatched, in service, and severely aged, resulting in high energy consumption and low efficiency of equipment, and generally facing technical transformation and maintenance problems. The ore dressing process equipment is backward and the automation level is low. Many ore dressing plants are basically manually operated with very low efficiency.

At present, there are still some large iron and polymetallic deposits in China that have not been developed and utilized. One of the main reasons is that the mineral processing technology is not up to standard. It is necessary to carry out mineral processing experiments and research on the difficult-to-process ores that have not been developed, seek effective mineral processing technology, and provide technical support for their development and utilization.

Another point is that the comprehensive utilization and harmless treatment of mining waste rock and mineral processing tailings are imminent. At present, iron ore enterprises strip 600 million tons of excavation waste rock and discharge about 500 million tons of tailings each year, which has an increasing negative impact on the ecological environment. Although there has been progress in the re-selection of tailings, the overall scale is still small and not very common.

Another is that the comprehensive recycling and utilization of co-existing resources is not strong enough. Comprehensively recovering the beneficial elements associated with iron ore is an important measure to make full use of mineral resources and improve the economic benefits of mines.

At present, mines such as Panzhihua, Daye, Chengchao, Jinshandian, Shandong Jinling, Laigang Mazhuang, etc. have carried out comprehensive recycling and utilization of the beneficial elements rich in ores. In particular, the titanium in Panzhihua vanadium-titanium magnetite is an extremely important beneficial component, and its economic value far exceeds that of iron itself.

Although certain achievements and economic benefits have been made in comprehensive utilization, the types and recycling rates of recycled materials are not ideal. Key recycling technologies have not been broken through, resulting in the inability to recycle some important metal elements. For example, most of the niobium, tantalum and rare earths in the Bayan Obo iron ore have not been recycled.

All these factors have resulted in the domestic demand for iron ore always being greater than the output. With the development of the economy and the continuous increase in infrastructure, the demand for steel is increasing day by day, and the country is more dependent on the import of overseas iron ore.

"Steel is a basic project of national economic construction and an indispensable and important part. Unfortunately, although our domestic iron ore reserves are quite large, very little can be mined and utilized. This is probably a test from God, not giving us the opportunity to live an easy life." Fan Wubing continued, "But it doesn't matter. If there is no domestic iron ore, we can go abroad to get it! Australia and Brazil both have high-grade iron ore. Since we have determined that the domestic demand for iron ore will continue to grow, why not prepare for the rainy day and go overseas to open up the international market first? It is always better than sitting here to discuss whether we should raise prices or not, right?" After Fan Wubing said this, everyone suddenly calmed down and fell into thinking.

What Fan Wubing said actually pointed out a common shortcoming in China, that is, the research on the international market is not thorough enough. What many so-called economic experts study is nothing more than what Americans have long ago A few old things that had been rummaged through were picked up and worshiped like gods by Ruo Gui's order, as if by understanding these things, they knew the reason for the rise of the Americans.

In fact, the national conditions of Americans are different from ours, so there are many things that cannot be directly copied and used. Many financial derivatives are extremely dangerous projects in the United States, and ordinary people are not allowed to get involved, but After moving to China, he tried his best to sell it to ordinary people. This is completely irresponsible.

Boss Zhu also listened carefully to Fan Wubing's story. He was very sensitive to Fan Wubing's theme, which was to expand to overseas markets and build mines overseas to reverse the decline in domestically imported iron ore. The unfavorable situation of rising prices year after year.

But Boss Zhu also knows one thing very well. When it comes to fighting each other at home, these experts are very reasonable. But if they really want to go overseas to fight, there are not many people who have the courage to take on this task. It is easy to talk on paper. , it’s so hard to fight on the battlefield!

However, opening up overseas markets is indeed a good medicine to solve the serious shortage of domestic iron ore demand. Fan Wubing pointed out the shortcomings in domestic policies from this aspect, and he can indeed be called a good doctor.

But if we really want to explore overseas markets, who should be responsible? Boss Zhu was thinking in his mind that Baosteel was definitely going to die. From these incidents, it could be seen that the Japanese chaebols were deeply penetrating into all areas of Baosteel. To put it bluntly, they had lost their independent power and power. I have lost my ability, but I can’t count on it.

"Does this matter need to be solved by Fan Wubing?" Boss Zhu frowned and looked at Fan Wubing who was sitting down to drink tea to soothe his throat, feeling a little hesitant in his heart.

Fan Wubing didn't expect that the lofty talk he couldn't help but express would get him involved again.