"Then I'll leave this to you, Engineer Lu. If anything comes up, you can contact me anytime."
"No problem, Mr. Tan, rest assured."
"Later, I'll send someone to be your logistics manager so you can focus on R&D. For these next few days, you'll have to make do."
Lu Ruifeng nodded.
This was only right.
The company belonged to Mr. Tan, and even if the R&D team was his side, they should still listen to Mr. Tan's opinions.
Ever since he talked with Mr. Tan that day, Lu Ruifeng understood that this young man had great ambitions, already thinking about controlling upstream resources right after investing in the lithium battery project.
Ambitious people who start businesses will not be content with mediocrity; they either go bankrupt or rise to prominence, with no middle ground.
Working with such a boss was actually quite exciting.
If they succeeded, everyone would get rich; if not, they would find another job.
For Lu Ruifeng, following such a boss only had benefits and no drawbacks.
Firstly, his personnel affiliation was still with the institute.
Secondly, Tan Jincheng offered extremely high compensation, so he had no worries at all.
Therefore, the better the company developed, the more advantageous it was for him.
After Tan Jincheng demonstrated his strength by directly buying an office building and showcasing his ambition, it could be said that Lu Ruifeng's expectations for Hangxin New Energy's future development were no less than Tan Jincheng's.
The better the company developed, the more his status and income would rise.
Without Tan Jincheng needing to instruct him, Lu Ruifeng would proactively handle matters he could manage.
For example, when Tan Jincheng mentioned wanting to buy a small apartment near Zhongguancun for future stays in the Imperial Capital, Lu Ruifeng proactively offered to help him.
Matters like housing policies weren't as difficult as relocating household registrations; for some people, they were truly trivial.
However, the most important thing now was not these minor issues, but to help Mr. Tan collect information on domestic and international lithium mineral resources and lithium mining enterprises, compile them into a booklet, making it convenient for Mr. Tan to access later.
Speaking of lithium mineral resources, one must mention their background.
In fact, China's lithium mining began in the early 1950s, more than half a century ago.
Initially, the lime method was used to produce lithium hydroxide, and by the 1960s and 1970s, a reasonable industrial process had been established.
During this period, the industry was mainly led by the country; after the Reform and Opening-up, the lithium salt market began to shift towards civilian use, and enterprises' management models also started market regulation.
To adapt to these changes, technological transformation and upgrading were inevitable.
By the mid-1990s, China had built 13 lithium salt plants, with a designed production capacity for lithium carbonate reaching 18,000 tons per year, ranking third in the world.
Significant progress was also made in the spodumene lithium extraction process, and lithium salts could even be exported.
During this development stage, lithium salts primarily relied on lepidolite, and salt lake lithium extraction technology was not given importance.
Due to this lack of attention, over 90% of the ore supply for China's lithium salt plants was controlled by companies from the Kangaroo Country, and the development of these enterprises was quickly choked.
In 1997, the market price for lithium carbonate, using spodumene as raw material, was 4,100 to 4,300 US dollars per ton.
But when Minxal Company offered an FOB price of 1,950 to 2,200 US dollars per ton for lithium carbonate, the market landscape changed dramatically.
Global lithium extraction was severely impacted, with a large number of domestic and international lithium extraction enterprises going bankrupt.
Our enterprises were no exception; by early 2000, only three of the original 13 lithium salt producers remained.
From the late 1990s to early 2000s was a dark era for global lithium mines and ore-based lithium salt plants.
Lithium salt plants found it difficult to operate and underwent a very brutal reshuffle.
This major reshuffle was triggered by the progress in salt lake lithium extraction technology and the expansion of salt lake production, which had previously been overlooked by us.
Although the market still existed, the shares had begun to be reallocated, and we lost our third-place global share.
Learn from the past to guide the future; although the great reshuffle happened five or six years ago and we have recovered from it, the price paid and the market given up will not change, but learning lessons from these experiences is still very necessary.
Lu Ruifeng felt that compiling the historical development trajectory of these lithium mines into materials and handing them to Tan Jincheng, with his emphasis on technical talent, would surely inspire him.
Technology must never be underestimated; one oversight can lead to a heavy price.
In Lu Ruifeng's view, Tan Jincheng's vision, foresight, and decisiveness in making decisions all demonstrated the essential qualities of an excellent businessman.
However, his personal knowledge reserve was somewhat weak.
But this was unavoidable.
His age was a factor; even if he had gone to university, it wouldn't have changed much.
This could only be slowly accumulated over time.
For a young person, to be as outstanding as him was already very rare.
——
February 24th, Friday.
After spending four days in the Imperial Capital, Tan Jincheng hurriedly returned to Yongcheng.
He had temporarily entrusted the matters in the Imperial Capital to Lu Ruifeng.
However, Tan Jincheng had not yet decided who specifically to send to assist with management.
This person had to be someone he trusted.
Logically, Zhang Xuhui was the best candidate.
As his personal assistant, Zhang Xuhui understood his intentions, knew the company's development trends, and he could also trust him.
However, whether he could competently handle this position and deal with those old hands from the system was still somewhat questionable.
Don't think that technical talent doesn't understand social rules, especially within the system, where the average age is over 40.
If you underestimate them in this regard, you will ultimately be the one to suffer.
Even Tan Jincheng himself, besides paving the way with money, couldn't think of any good way to handle this group of old hands who had both technical skills and work experience.
Whether Zhang Xuhui could be competent was indeed a problem.
As for Sun Yuming, if Zhang Xuhui couldn't do it, Sun Yuming was even less capable.
Moreover, Sun Yuming's position was quite important, a critical link in controlling the supply chain, and he could not be easily replaced.
Another aspect was that if Zhang Xuhui left, he would have to find a new assistant, which would also be troublesome.
However, this time also made Tan Jincheng realize that he shouldn't hire just one assistant anymore.
He needed to cultivate more talent to send trusted people to supervise after opening branch companies or investing in certain companies in the future.
The enterprise management system was also being developed.
The makeshift team needed to be formalized as soon as possible, otherwise, it wouldn't keep up with the company's development pace.
"I've landed, but the county leaders from my hometown are here, so I won't come to your place today."
After turning on his phone, Tan Jincheng first sent a message to Gu Qingqing, informing her of his itinerary.
"Got it. Why are you back so early? Didn't you say you were going to stay in the Imperial Capital for a while?"
Gu Qingqing's message quickly came back.
"County leaders are here; there's an urgent matter. My dad is also coming. Do you want to meet him this weekend? If so, I'll pick you up tomorrow."
"Ah? Your dad is coming too? Then I won't go to Beicang this weekend, right? I'm a bit scared."
"Why don't we still meet? I've met your parents, and you've met my uncle. My dad rarely comes over; if you don't meet him, I guess my mom will kill him when he gets home. As for being scared, it's fine, I'm here."
"Then let me think about it and I'll give you an answer tonight."
"Okay, I'm heading back first. The driver's here."
With a driver, Tan Jincheng no longer had to park his car at the airport and pay expensive parking fees every time he traveled for business.
Zhang Xuhui had bought the ticket and knew his arrival time, so he had arranged for a driver to pick up Tan Jincheng early.
On the other side, Gu Qingqing was a little anxious.
Her boyfriend was right; he had met her family elders, and she had also met his uncle.
Now that her boyfriend's dad was coming, and it was also the weekend, it would indeed be awkward not to meet.
However, she really wasn't ready for such a meeting with her boyfriend's parents.
Gu Qingqing, who was usually very decisive, now felt a bit at a loss.
"Forget it, I'll ask Mom and Dad first and hear their opinions."
Meanwhile, after picking up Tan Jincheng, the driver headed straight for Beicang.
The county leaders were currently waiting for Tan Jincheng in the new factory office in the export processing zone.
To be honest, this feeling was somewhat surreal.
There was a time when leaders like these wouldn't even glance at Tan Jincheng, but now they were waiting in his office.
Even though Tan Jincheng was calm enough, he still felt a bit dreamy when he received the call yesterday.
This was somewhat different from what he had expected.
He had originally thought it would only be leaders from a higher level of the leaf spring factory or from its supervisory department contacting him, but he hadn't expected such an important figure to come.
It seemed the county leaders were not quite as he had imagined; their pragmatic style had a touch of Zhejiang Province.
Perhaps this was one of the reasons why Shenzhou later decided to locate its Anhui Province factory in Wangjiang?
He just didn't know if it was the current leader who brought it there.
The Wenshi Enterprise was too old, so it was unlikely to be him.
As the Foxconn of the global textile industry, a labor-intensive large enterprise like Shenzhou would receive high-level reception regardless of which province it went to.
For a poverty-stricken county to convince it to establish a provincial factory there, the investment promotion efforts must have been considerable.
It's important to know that since its inception, the Shenzhou Wangjiang factory has become the largest textile enterprise in Anhui Province, bringing many benefits to Wangjiang in terms of employment demand and tax revenue.
Traveling at a quick pace, Tan Jincheng arrived at the new factory area an hour later.
"I apologize for keeping all of you leaders waiting; I am truly sorry,"
Tan Jincheng said, clasping his hands together in apology as soon as he entered the room.
In the office, there were six people.
Besides Zhang Xuhui and his own father, Tan Jincheng only recognized Xu Xueming among the other four.
However, from their seating posture and positions, Tan Jincheng quickly identified who the main guest was today.
Seated prominently in the center of the sofa, flanked by the others, was a tall, middle-aged man in the standard jacket, who should be the second-in-command for this trip.
Based on age, this person should be roughly the same age as his own father.
As expected, the man stood up and said,
"Comrade Xiao Tan is back. We've been waiting for you for a long time. You truly are a talented young man."
(End of Chapter)