We are all reborn, who wants to be the richest man?

Chapter 622 Conch Cement Plant

"Our Conch Cement Factory was founded in the 60s and was a small third-tier industry in Shanghai at the time."

They had lunch in the cafeteria of Conch Cement Factory. Because there was no time to notify them in advance, when Luo Nianzhong and others arrived, the factory director Guo Wensan was still eating in the cafeteria. He thought that the inspection team would arrive in the afternoon as they had received the notification.

But before I could finish half of the steamed bun, the security guard came running over to inform us that the inspection team had arrived.

Knowing that the inspection team had not eaten, Guo Wensan originally wanted to prepare a special meal for them, but Luo Nianzhong refused on the grounds that he was too hungry to wait and ate whatever was available like the workers.

Since this person was like this, how could others dare to put on airs? There was even steamed buns and kimchi soup because there were not enough dishes.

Luo Nianzhong did not come here in disguise to experience the people's sentiments. He did this just to see whether the Guo Wensan in front of him was the same as he had heard of in his previous life.

After lunch, Luo Nianzhong gladly accepted the invitation to visit, which made Guo Wensan, who was just being polite to begin with, confused.

He was not a real outsider who came to visit. He believed that Luo Nianzhong must have read the information about the Conch Cement Factory before coming. There were only a few things and such a short history. What was there to see?

But since they are willing to listen and watch, we have to serve them.

There really isn’t much to tell, and the entire history can be told in a few minutes.

The Third Front Construction that began in the 60s required the use of a large amount of cement in order to develop national defense, science and technology, industry, and transportation.

To this end, the state established a building materials management department to support various regions in introducing foreign technology and building medium and large cement plants despite extremely difficult economic conditions.

In the late 60s, Shanghai received a task to build a small third line in Anhui, and a cement plant was one of the construction tasks.

The most important ingredient in cement production is limestone, which is then ground and fired with an appropriate amount of clay and iron ore powder. Therefore, the first step in building a cement plant is to find enough limestone resources.

In 1969, the Modu Cement Factory went to the southern mountainous area of ​​Anhui Province to look for a suitable mineral resource to build a factory. However, the mineral resources explored by the mineral processing team in six counties including Xiuning, Jixi and Qimen were not ideal.

Just when the mineral processing team was preparing to return to Shanghai to make further plans, they accidentally learned that Ningguo’s Big Conch Mountain and Small Conch Mountain had rich limestone resources.

The mineral processing team went to Ningguo for an investigation with a try-it attitude and found that the limestone resources in the Big and Small Conch Mountains were very rich, enough to be mined for 50 years, and the quality was excellent, which fully met the rigid conditions for building a cement plant.

In the end, Shanghai chose to build a factory in Ningguo’s Xiaoluoshan Mountain.

A year later, the Modu Victory Cement Plant, covering an area of ​​2051 acres, was officially put into production. The trademark it used was named the Conch trademark after the Big and Small Conch Mountains, and Conch Cement was born.

Because it used the relatively advanced Huaxin wet rotary kiln technology at the time, it was widely used due to its excellent quality.

As Shengli Cement Plant developed better and better, the original plant could no longer meet production needs and urgently needed to expand into a new plant.

Unexpectedly, at the end of the Third Front construction in the late 70s, the employees of Shengli Cement Factory in Shanghai returned to Shanghai one after another, and the task of expanding the new factory and the assets of Shengli Cement Factory were all handed over to Anhui Province.

The Shengli Cement Factory, which was taken over by Anhui Province, became the current Ningguo Cement Factory and was preparing for large-scale expansion, but the choice of technology became a problem.

Currently, the most advanced cement processes in the world are dry processes, but this requires a large amount of capital to introduce equipment and technology. It was also at this time that Qingzhou Yingni and Conch Cement Plant began to have contact.

After many negotiations, Qingzhou Yingni provided technical support and Far East Bank provided financial loans.

"I heard that you have installed another Mitsubishi wet process equipment?"

The first dry process production line of Conch Cement Plant was put into operation in 1987 and can produce 4000 tons of cement per day.

This also made Conch Cement Plant one of the first cement plants in China to introduce large-scale equipment and the largest cement production base at that time.

Relying on advanced technology, Conch Cement's products are widely popular in the market and are used in many large-scale construction projects in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, such as the Oriental Pearl Tower, Yangpu Bridge and Nanpu Bridge in Shanghai.

"That's right, we don't want to sit and wait for failure when funds do not allow. No matter what process we use, as long as our cement is produced, there will be no problem selling it. This is our advantage."

The funds do not allow it. It is not anyone else's fault that such a good business is having trouble with funds.

After the country abolished price controls in 92, the Conch Cement Factory, which had seen its profits increase and made a lot of money, began to get carried away and invested in a series of businesses including a marble factory, a gas plant, and a mineral water plant.

Good sales of cement does not mean that other businesses will also be doing well. These industries have become a complete burden to Conch Cement Plant.

Another thing is that the workers in today's cement factories, like those in state-owned enterprises across the country, are not very active at work, resulting in low production efficiency and an annual output of only 150 million tons.

The problem of having good equipment but lagging behind competitors has reached a point where it must be solved.

“Tell me what you think.”

Guo Wensan, the newly appointed factory director, knew that a big test was coming. Although the agreement between the two parties on the surface was that Conch Cement Factory acquired Qingzhou Yingni and completed the process of swallowing an elephant, anyone with a discerning eye knew what was going on behind the scenes.

Now Guo Wensan is not under the control of the other party, and the other party cannot control him, but he also knows that this acquisition of Anhui Province is a must-win. This is an event that will greatly increase Zhengzhi's bargaining chips, and he will not allow anyone to destroy it.

So Guo Wensan knew that even though the acquisition had not been completed yet, Luo Nianzhong's words could determine his life or death.

“First of all, all the industries we invested in must be withdrawn. Our main business is cement and we cannot put the cart before the horse.

Then there is the work system. There is no problem with our equipment. The insufficient output is entirely a problem of employee enthusiasm, so my idea is to adopt a reward and punishment system.

The more you work, the more you get; the less you work, the less you get. Our technology and equipment are well-known and our sales are stable.

The last part is R&D investment. We cannot always introduce foreign technology for production. In order to prevent our technology from falling behind, we must carry out technological transformation and innovation.

Qingzhou Yingni has experience in this regard, and we can form a technical department with Qingzhou Yingni's researchers as the base.

To be honest, I never dreamed that we would get such a good opportunity. Acquiring Qingzhou Yingni will enable us to become a world-class cement plant in terms of both funding and technology, which will save us a lot of detours."

After taking a look at Luo Nianzhong and the accompanying leaders, Guo Wensan continued.

"By the time we have money, technology and production, we can make long-term plans."

"Oh? Tell me about your long-term plan."

This is what Luo Nianzhong wanted to know most. He came here just to see whether the Conch Cement Factory would continue to develop as it did in history.

"No matter what, it is a fact that our factory is located in a remote corner of the Ningguo mountainous area with inconvenient transportation, which will restrict the sales radius. For example, we are unable to reach the northern market.

What I mean is to develop a T-shaped strategy, that is, to walk on two legs.

One way is to build a cement plant in an area with the raw material limestone and produce cement nearby.

Another way is to purchase a number of small cement plants in cities that do not have raw materials but have a large demand for cement, transform them into small cement stations, and produce the final product of cement on site.

I don’t know if it was because he was afraid that Luo Nianzhong wouldn’t understand and didn’t know how cement is produced, so Guo Wensan also gave him some popular science information.

“Cement is made by crushing and burning the basic raw materials such as limestone, clay, and iron ore powder into clinker, and then grinding the clinker into the corresponding particle size.

We want to build separate factories for clinker and grinding, and then combine the two by using the low-cost Yangtze River and sea transportation to break through geographical restrictions."

"Yeah." Luo Nianzhong nodded. At least the overall strategy was the same as what he remembered. This made him feel relieved.

Cement is like oil, or even more stable than oil. As the food of infrastructure, it is the most important and indispensable.

After a brief visit to the Conch Cement Factory, Luo Nianzhong handed over the follow-up to Charleson and left Ningguo carefully.