Chapter 67: Ten Thousand Tons of Cargo Containers
Never give up! Never back down! Continue to move forward! Still 10,000 words a day!
Hurd and Thomas were indeed the shrewdest businessmen of their time, and they soon discovered many subtleties in it after a brief observation. Thomas first gave his brain a daze with this huge sandbox, then quickly came out of shock and concentrated his energy on carefully observing the scenes and symbols above, he didn't think Chen Xiaoqi would waste time and money to perform something mediocre for them, there must be a "huge fortune" hidden in it as he had exaggeratedly said.
"Klayne, I don't know if you're trying to get us to guess some riddle or what, but I can see that you've got some pretty strange and interesting models up there. Like those ships docked in New York and Chicago harbors - they look really weird. And those square-shaped boxes all lined up neatly... and that huge crane thingy that doesn't quite look like a dragon gate crane, it's more complicated than that. And the cars, oh man, they're so weird with such short heads and long bodies? Won't they tip over?"
"Ah, yes indeed, these ships are quite rare in appearance, with such a flat surface, I wonder what they can carry, don't they need to avoid the rain? Oh, and those vehicles look strange too, they're carrying cylindrical tanks? What is this? Oil tanks? Ah, that terrifying skull logo, does it mean there's toxic stuff inside? Hmm? Maybe chemical drugs? Sulfuric acid? Caustic soda?"
As soon as Thomas heard the word "oil", he immediately pricked up his ears, and then he found the difference between those long cars, and those few ships also made him re-examine them. Except for a few with particularly flat surfaces, there were several that seemed to bulge upwards, with very complex pipes, derricks, and more strangely, the superstructures of these ships were all placed at the stern, completely unlike the warships commonly seen today.
He immediately guessed from the surface structure of the ship that had been miniaturized countless times, but because the model was made with sufficient precision, it could be seen clearly. Those were pressure tanks, and some entire square surfaces, which can be assumed to be huge empty warehouses below. What can such a large space hold? The most valuable thing is certainly something like oil!
"Thomas hastily asked Chen Xiaoqi: "Klayne, these models of yours, I can see that they are for transporting oil, but the shape and volume of this ship leave me quite perplexed. Can you explain it to me?"
Chen Xiaoqi held a long pole in his hand, and from a distance, he hooked over a model of a 100,000-ton large oil tanker commonly seen in later generations, placing it in front of everyone. Then, with a leisurely tone, he said: "Thomas, your observation skills are quite good. This is indeed an oil tanker, but it's not just an oil tanker. It's a new type of oil tanker jointly researched by our company's transportation department and shipbuilding department. Not only does it have a unique shape, but it also pioneered a double-hull structure, ensuring the safety and stability of the entire ship, preventing petroleum leaks and damage caused by sudden collisions. Its power is provided by a steam turbine engine, which not only guarantees navigation speed and range but also ensures that internal oil does not solidify. The special inflatable structure can fill non-flammable gases in spaces without full oil loads, preventing explosions from mixing oil and gas. Most importantly, it's huge! You know? In our design, this oil tanker can reach a maximum load capacity of 100,000 tons!"
One million tons! What a concept is this? In this era, a 10,000-ton ship was already a behemoth, and an oil tanker at that time was only about 10,000 tons in size. Even a 20,000-ton oil tanker was the largest after World War II. Chen Xiaoqi's boastful words came so suddenly, isn't this just nonsense? Does he have such large boilers and engines? Does he have steel plates strong enough? Most importantly, can he even design a ship of that size?
Thomas's eyes widened in amazement as he exclaimed, "Oh! Good heavens! Crazy Klein, you're not kidding me, are you? You mean to say this ship can carry ten million tons of oil? What a huge amount that is! Are you sure you're not joking?"
"Beloved Thomas, you should have confidence in me, a genius inventor and my excellent laboratory team! Right now, at the shipyard I just acquired, a brand new 20,000-ton oil tanker is being built. She will be the largest oil tanker in the world. Based on this foundation, it won't take long for us to build even larger ones. And that's just the beginning! I think your financial group should be very interested in buying her!"
Thomas clenched his fist and shook it vigorously: "Clayton, if what you're saying is true, I can assure you that we will definitely buy this ship! Not only that, I can promise you today that as long as you can build an even bigger oil tanker, no matter how big, the first one must be sold to us! Ah! It's truly unimaginable!"
"Ha ha, no problem at all," said Chen Xiaoqi with a smile. "I think only your consortium is worthy of the honor of being the world's number one, especially in the petroleum industry. I don't think Mr. Rockefeller can tolerate anyone walking ahead of him, no one! However, I can tell you, Thomas, that these oil tankers are not just capable of transporting crude oil, but also refined gasoline, diesel fuel, coal tar, lubricating oil and other refined oils. They can also transport sulfuric acid, caustic soda, benzene and other highly corrosive hazardous chemicals. Of course, I think Herd should be familiar with this, right?"
Herd's eyes widened, as the largest chemical group in the US, their chemical products and raw materials were among the most numerous, but the transportation problem of these chemicals had not been well solved for a long time, which made them lose a lot of money. In the Far East, China and Japan, two emerging markets, chemical products were in short supply, but due to the high danger of chemical raw materials themselves, almost no transport ships were willing to carry these dangerous goods on board, so not only were acid-base chemicals and other raw materials extremely expensive in those markets, but also it was unbearable that they couldn't sell their products even with something in hand. Chen Xiaoqi's invention seemed to be the straw that saved them!
But Hurd furrowed his brow as soon as he thought further, because he immediately remembered that such a large transport ship would have to be loaded with chemical products to go over there, and according to the consumption on the other side, it would take until the year of the monkey to make it worthwhile, which didn't seem like a very good deal!
He immediately threw the question to Chen Xiaoqi, who pulled over another model with a pole and showed it to the two people: "Hede, I've already thought of your question for you. Indeed, at this stage, the Far East market's capacity is very limited. Such a large ship carrying chemical products, if the variety is too single, it will be difficult to sell out in a short time. We have solved this problem. Look at this ship, part of it is used to load different chemicals into separate tanks, each tank has a certain space isolation between them, ensuring their own safety! And the remaining huge space can hold a large amount of bulk cargo. Haven't you noticed these strangely shaped boxes? This is specially made for this purpose and is also an important product that I want to introduce to you today - containers!"
Container transportation, which did not really take shape until the 1950s and 1960s, has since dominated global ocean and road transportation, developing into a giant industry that spans the globe. Today, Chen Xiaoqi has prematurely given birth to this industry and grasped a series of invention patents in his hands, and at the same time, he has also brought this industry to maturity as much as possible.
"Look at this," Chen Xiaoqi said, holding up a 10-centimeter-long model. "This is a typical 'container'. It's 40 feet long, 8 feet wide and 8 feet 6 inches high, with a capacity of 50 cubic meters and a maximum weight of 36 tons. Depending on its use, it can be divided into dry cargo containers, open-top containers, flat rack containers, platform containers, ventilated containers, refrigerated containers, bulk containers, animal containers, tank containers, car containers, and so on. It covers almost all types of goods that need to be transported. Its biggest feature is that it has a uniform size and shape, which can maximize the use of space on the surface of ships during loading, and various products can be effectively separated and transported conveniently. This eliminates many troubles associated with traditional bulk cargo ships. The design of this container is reasonable, and through our designed cranes and forklifts, it can be easily loaded and unloaded. Its regular shape also makes it easy to store and manage. And the best part is that these containers can be pulled by our group's soon-to-be-launched transport trucks on highways around the world, or transported long distances by train. How high do you think its efficiency will be? You can guess for yourselves!"
Two people looked at the container, then looked at the strange container transport ship, and then looked at the long container cargo truck. They looked at the small car with two vertical rods and two horizontal forks on its head. Suddenly they understood, the two people's eyes met, and their eyes couldn't hide the bright divine light shining out!
As seasoned businessmen from a large financial group, they immediately realized what a revolutionary move this was! This is not only a fundamental change in the efficiency and way of global ocean transportation, but also maximizes the simplification and centralization of various aspects such as cargo loading, stacking, classification management, transportation, unloading, transfer warehousing, highway transportation, etc. The efficiency has also been improved several times or even dozens of times, and it solves the trouble of transporting and concentrating most of the world's materials.
Especially for DuPont, the various chemicals they produce are too dangerous and have a small single transportation volume, making long-distance transportation troublesome. Ocean transportation is even more difficult, with repeated loading and unloading causing massive leaks and losses, bringing unnecessary trouble! But with this kind of chemical tank container, it's different. Those small-quantity long-distance orders can be directly loaded at the chemical plant, and then the entire box can be transported intact without changing the outer packaging, no matter how many times it is transferred. With specialized vehicles for loading and unloading and transportation, this is not a problem, as long as the container is strong enough to prevent corrosion and leakage, accidents and losses are minimized, which is simply solving their big problem!
They have a point that is not visible, which is the great principle of Chen Xiaoqi's later generations - the importance of standards! As the founder and pioneer, as long as he can unite with large financial groups at the starting point, he will occupy an absolute advantage. All followers, unless they have greater strength than them, can only follow in their footsteps. In this way, Chen Xiaoqi, who occupies the standard advantage, no matter how he tosses and turns, ultimately benefits the most from himself. This is a good deal that makes a profit of one hundred thousand!
