What did a poverty-stricken county look like in 2006?
Yicheng, as a prefecture-level city with 3 districts, 1 city, and 7 counties, had as many as five national-level poverty-stricken counties within its jurisdiction, demonstrating the severe economic difficulties.
Having five national-level poverty-stricken counties out of 11 counties and districts within its jurisdiction was also quite outlandish.
Taking Tan Jincheng's hometown, Wangjiang County, as an example, its total GDP for 2005 was 2.415 billion yuan, with a per capita GDP barely exceeding 4,000 yuan, and an annual fiscal revenue of 52 million yuan.
Yes, you read that right, the annual fiscal revenue was only 52 million yuan, less than what Jinpeng Trade earned.
However, fiscal expenditure reached 285 million yuan.
The secondary industry, which supported the local economy, only generated 500 million yuan in GDP for the entire year, and the total annual import and export volume was even less than Jinpeng Trade's average for two months.
Even with subsidies for poverty-stricken counties, life was a struggle.
At this time, what was it like to hear news that an entrepreneur from the county wanted to donate a sum of money to the county?
Especially after learning that this company achieved over 60 million yuan in sales in just half a year, and this year's sales target was a staggering 300 million yuan!
Wow, the sales volume of one company was equivalent to three-fifths of the county's secondary industry last year, and what was even more surprising was that the owner of this company actually owned two other import and export trade companies!
Furthermore, the other party also intended to establish a logistics transfer center in Yicheng, so what were they waiting for?
They should quickly seize the opportunity! Although logistics was a tertiary industry, it was better than nothing, and besides, with this start, it was also an opportunity to build closer relationships.
Even if they couldn't persuade the other party to build a factory in their hometown, the other party had import and export channels, and if they could entrust some specialty products for export, it could also bring in more foreign exchange income.
As for the precondition for the other party's donation and establishment of a logistics center being the acquisition of Andaer's intangible assets, just give them to him.
Anyway, it wouldn't affect the county, but it could bring benefits to the county.
This cooperation must be facilitated no matter what, and the negotiation of this cooperation intention itself had the shadow of Wangjiang County involved.
Speaking of Andaer, it's a long story.
As the first automobile enterprise in Anhui Province, it had four models listed in the National Automobile Product Catalog in 1995.
Its early development was smooth sailing, carrying the automobile dream of Yicheng people, and receiving green lights in all aspects.
Andaer, much earlier than Chery and JAC, was truly the No. 1 in the province in the late 1990s, but unfortunately, it went bankrupt.
After gaining fame, Andaer not only produced cars but also ventured into semi-trailers, agricultural vehicles, and micro-vehicles.
Especially for micro-vehicles, which it didn't have the production capacity for, it still carried out costly modifications, changing models several times, but stopped production after only producing a few hundred units.
In 1997, after being required to rectify due to not having car production qualifications, although it eventually obtained the qualifications, it ultimately missed the best development opportunity, and the tide had turned.
At that time, Chery had already been established in Wuhu.
Furthermore, Andaer's production line was not advanced; it could only roll out over a hundred units per month, severely lacking in self-production capacity, but Andaer stubbornly adhered to its own production strategy.
Low R&D capability, blind assembly, coupled with crazy loans, ultimately led the company to collapse and go bankrupt.
In fact, since 2000, Andaer had been looking for buyers.
Five state-owned enterprises, including FAW, had come to inspect it, but the final outcome was merely ending up with nothing after some wining and dining.
In 2003, Yicheng Automobile Factory, with its capital chain completely broken, officially went bankrupt.
This company, once hailed as one of Yicheng's best-performing old state-owned enterprises, was once a dream workplace for countless Yicheng people.
After its 150,000 square meter factory area was acquired by the Leaf Spring Factory.
Its employees also became employees of the Leaf Spring Factory. Its glory lasted only 10 years, which was regrettable.
Up to now, the Leaf Spring Factory could no longer sustain itself.
The Leaf Spring Factory, eager to transfer, and the Wangjiang County government, wanting to develop the local economy, had been contacting buyers from various parties since last year.
Currently, the interested parties were Tan Jincheng's Flash Drive Technology and Mr. Lin from Taizhou.
Both of these companies originated from electric vehicle manufacturing.
Compared to the one in Taizhou, Flash Drive Technology, besides not intending to build factories for car manufacturing, was much more generous, and its strength was also much greater than that of the Taizhou company.
The amount of the donation has not been disclosed for now, but since it has been mentioned, it must be a good figure.
In addition, the logistics transfer center could also solve some employment and tax issues.
Furthermore, giving the Leaf Spring Factory 5 million yuan as acquisition fee was also quite generous.
With this 5 million yuan transfer fee, the Leaf Spring Factory would be able to solve most of its occupational pension problems.
From the perspective of the county government, this was already the best current plan.
Both the county government and the precarious Leaf Spring Factory believed that this cooperation should be facilitated.
"Call the driver, and come with me to the petrochemical factory in the city,"
The second boss said decisively after listening to the report from the negotiation team and the head of the finance bureau.
"To the petrochemical factory?"
The secretary was startled for a moment.
"Yes, to the petrochemical factory, to find Comrade Tan Lihua, an employee of their factory."
"Okay, I'll go arrange it right away,"
The secretary, who had come to his senses, quickly replied, and then went out to make arrangements.
The head of the finance bureau smiled and said,
"Leader, this is a clever move. Going directly to his father might get us more donations. But isn't it inappropriate for you to go in person? What if the other party is insensible, it would seem unreasonable. How about I go on your behalf, so there's some room for maneuver?"
The leader shook his head and said,
"No need. You should be able to tell from the report that this young man is quite decisive. If it works, it works; if not, so be it. Finding his father first is also to put in a good word for us and try to get a little more."
"Besides, the people he can meet in Beicang are much higher ranked than you. His company earns more in a year than our fiscal revenue. How can we challenge him? When you ask for something, you should act like you're asking for something."
"But since you've said so, you should come along too. Discussing the donation is indeed more suitable for you than for me."
"Alright, then I'll go back immediately to prepare and bring the materials."
"Hmm, do it as soon as possible. Pick up Comrade Tan Lihua, and we'll head straight to Yongcheng. Don't delay. Young people are impatient; if we drag it out too long, I'm afraid something might change."
——
"With Lithium, You Can Go Anywhere? President Tan's statement is quite novel, but it's true. To develop lithium battery technology, we must have lithium mines in our hands so that costs can be minimized."
In the Imperial Capital, Lu Ruifeng, who was discussing the future development trend of Hangxin New Energy with Tan Jincheng behind closed doors, said with flickering eyes.
Now, the cooperation between the research institute and Flash Drive Technology had been officially reached, and his small team had also signed a formal contract with Hangxin New Energy.
They were now in the same boat, and it was appropriate for both parties to discuss the future development trends of the company for the sake of Hangxin's future.
To say that this President Tan was truly generous, he originally thought that renting an office building of two to three hundred square meters would be enough.
As it turned out, the other party directly bought an office worth 12 million yuan and nearly 800 square meters.
Indeed, he was rich and powerful, no wonder he dared to undertake the lithium battery project.
It was no surprise that he was now thinking about lithium mines.
"Currently, the price of lithium ore is basically around 20,000 yuan per ton, and it has maintained that level for a long time."
After sorting out his thoughts and pausing for a moment, Lu Ruifeng continued,
"As mobile phone shipments increase, driving the demand for lithium, a rise in lithium prices is inevitable. Therefore, acquiring a lithium mine at this time is indeed a surefire profitable business."
"President Tan's idea is good. Compared to making products, controlling upstream resources is most beneficial to the company. However, the investment will be much larger, and the timeline will be longer. If not handled well, the company's capital chain could break."
"That's true, our biggest problem right now is in this area,"
Tan Jincheng nodded.
After all, it still came down to a lack of money.
If he had money, he wouldn't mind directly launching an automobile project.
Like Zotye, making a few similar fuel-powered cars first would also work.
The "Porsche" Taycan hadn't appeared yet; if he had money, he'd develop it first.
How awesome would that be?
"But what if we invest in one or more companies that own lithium mine resources? Do you think this plan is feasible?"
The commonly used lithium extraction technologies are mainly brine lithium extraction and ore lithium extraction.
Brine lithium extraction, due to immature technology, yields lower quality lithium and requires large-scale brine extraction, thus its construction cost is relatively high, and cost restricts its development prospects.
Compared to brine lithium extraction, ore lithium extraction is currently the mainstream.
Among China's existing proven lithium mine distributions, brine lithium accounts for 70%.
In 2004, the world's lithium output was 20,200 tons, of which we extracted 2,630 tons, accounting for about 13% of the world's total.
However, there was still a large amount of unexploited lithium, most of which was controlled by some lithium mining companies.
Although resources are abundant, lithium mine resources are currently still dominated by foreign, especially South American, enterprises.
Domestic enterprises currently have no intention of going overseas on a large scale to acquire lithium mines or lithium mining companies.
Currently, the mobile phone market is still dominated by Nokia and Motorola, and the application of lithium batteries is not widespread, let alone the concept of new energy vehicles.
Therefore, lithium ore is not a very popular metal raw material right now.
Therefore, the plan to control lithium mines by acquiring or investing in domestic lithium mining enterprises is feasible.
Perhaps the other party could see the development opportunities for lithium batteries in the era of smartphones, but they certainly couldn't imagine what the future landscape of new energy vehicles would be like, otherwise, large-scale global mergers and acquisitions wouldn't have started only around 2017.
In the era when lithium mines were undervalued, taking control of lithium mining enterprises and controlling the upstream industry chain through capital operations?
Tan Jincheng's words made Lu Ruifeng think of a phrase: "snake swallowing an elephant"!
(End of chapter)