Fang Mingyuan bowed slightly, and his humble views on the development prospects of the global shipbuilding industry in the next few years can be said to be deeply approved by him. Pu Chouhou has such a clear understanding, no wonder he will be appreciated by Li Jianxi.

"I asked you to come over this time mainly to hear your views on the future development of the shipbuilding industry. Although Samsung Heavy Industries still has a lot of ship orders, the number of new orders fell last year. President Park can't let his guard down just because last year's profits were good. Fang Mingyuan said, "I also think that the shipbuilding industry will have a hard life for a few years." ”

"Yes, I must keep Fang Shao's teachings in mind!" Pu Humble was ecstatic in his heart, but he didn't show it on the surface, stood up and bowed.

"Sit down, you don't have to be so polite. Fang Mingyuan waved his hand and said, just a few words and a salute, even after so many years, he is still not very used to it.

"Yes!" Pu Chuhou sat down, his attitude a little more respectful.

Fang Mingyuan thought for a while and asked, "How is the contract between the company and Shell for the construction of a new floating LNG facility?"

Pu Chou was immediately in good spirits, and said happily: "The main content has basically been agreed, and there are still some details to be discussed. If there is no accident, it should be able to officially sign the contract in this half month. ”

Floating LNG facility, also known as FLNG, is a floating production device for offshore natural gas field development, which is positioned offshore through a mooring system, has the functions of extracting, processing, liquefiing, storing and loading and unloading natural gas, and is a new type of offshore natural gas field development technology by using it with liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships to realize the exploitation and transportation of offshore natural gas fields.

At present, the exploitation of offshore natural gas fields is generally carried out by means of production platforms and submarine pipelines, and compared with the development of natural gas fields by floating LNG facilities, the traditional development methods have obvious limitations. For example, if a natural gas field is too far from shore or has a small gas storage, the economics of exploiting it will be greatly reduced or even the investment will not be recovered. If there are insurmountable difficulties in laying the submarine pipeline, this gas field will basically be impossible to exploit.

The emergence of floating LNG facilities has put an end to the single mode in which offshore gas fields can only be transported ashore by pipelines, without laying long-distance submarine pipelines, which saves a lot of transportation costs. Moreover, floating LNG facilities are located at sea, far from crowded places, which greatly increases safety. In addition, floating LNG facilities can be placed in other gas fields by tugboats after the gas fields are depleted, making the development of small and medium-sized marginal gas fields far from the coast a feasible project.

Floating LNG facilities can also be used to develop deepwater natural gas fields, and their sheer size makes all-weather mining a reality, unlike now, when extreme weather occurs at sea, production platforms have to be suspended to avoid strong winds and waves.

At present, there are two offshore natural gas field projects in the world that have been determined to be exploited by floating LNG facilities, and dozens of offshore natural gas projects are planned to be exploited by floating LNG facilities, and relevant personnel are conducting preliminary demonstrations and tenders for these projects. One of the two offshore gas fields identified for a floating LNG facility is Shell's Prelude development in Western Australia, which is in talks with Samsung Heavy Industries.

Shell is one of the world's leading suppliers of liquefied natural gas, with fields in Indonesia, Australia, Qatar and one of the world's largest owners and operators of LNG carriers, supplying LNG to many countries around the world. The floating LNG facility it plans to build is like a giant ship, with a length of more than 480 meters, a width of more than 70 meters, and a height of more than 110 meters, which can produce about 5 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas per year, as well as 1.3 million tons of concentrated oil and 400,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas. The empty weight is more than 200,000 tons, and the full load weight is more than 600,000 tons! The fact that Shell chose to build such an unprecedented floating LNG facility by Samsung Heavy Industries is also a recognition of Samsung Heavy Industries' shipbuilding technology.

And Park believes that as long as the first two floating LNG facilities can be put into normal production, then the follow-up orders will continue to flow, after all, the demand for LNG for global economic development is increasing year by year, which is an indisputable fact. The advent of floating LNG facilities could make exploitable marginal gas fields that were previously difficult to profit. In addition, the floating LNG facility is also suitable for early production in the gas field, which can ensure that the development company can reap the benefits as soon as possible. When it is profitable, capital has always been swift and decisive.

Fang Mingyuan nodded, Pu Chouhou's judgment is still quite accurate, he is also quite optimistic about the future of the LNG market, compared with coal and oil, LNG is undoubtedly a clean energy, Huaxia has now paid attention to the problem of environmental pollution, especially the haze in the north, has reached the point where it has to be remediated. For example, the coal-to-electricity and coal-to-gas projects in Beijing have been underway, and the demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) has grown by leaps and bounds, as evidenced by the growing number of LNG carriers around the world. The demand for LNG is great, so naturally these companies will have to increase their exploitation efforts, and floating LNG facilities have many advantages, so naturally there is no need to worry about future orders. And the time it takes to build a huge ship like a floating LNG facility is quite long, and the investment is extremely staggering.

After obtaining the construction technology for high-end ships such as supertankers, the Kwok Shipping Group Company has authorized it to a number of shipbuilding enterprises in China, which has caused a marked decline in the market prices of high-end ships such as supertankers. If the technology to build floating LNG facilities is diffused, Samsung Heavy Industries will have an even harder time. Huaxia's shipbuilding industry has been booming over the years, but it has really snatched a large number of ship orders from South Korean shipbuilders, including Samsung Heavy Industries, which has also forced South Korean shipbuilding companies to set up branches in Huaxia to reduce the cost of ship construction and only keep the construction of high-end ships in China. Although Samsung Heavy Industries and Xiangjiang Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Group Co., Ltd. are both enterprises under the Fang family, it is normal for people to stand on a humble position and be unwilling to spread their technology to affect the performance of Samsung Heavy Industries.

Fang Mingyuan took out a folder from the briefcase behind him, pushed it to Pu Humble and said, "This is the information of a private shipbuilding enterprise located in Donghai Province, China, you can take it and take a look." It is now in serious losses, and the Donghai provincial government wants the Kwok Shipping Group to buy it, and I would like to hear your opinion on this. ”

Pu was stunned for a moment, and then happily took it over and said, "I will understand the current situation of the company as soon as possible and report back to you." ”

Fang Mingyuan nodded, filled him with the coffee in front of him, and Pu Zhuohou took it with both hands with some flattery. Fang Mingyuan said again: "Clumsy, President Li has a high overall evaluation of you, and I hope you will not live up to his and my expectations of you." ”

Pu Zhuohou left happily, Fang Mingyuan pulled out the performance report of Samsung Heavy Industries, looked at it for a long time, and his brows twisted.

Although the performance of Samsung Heavy Industries Company is still quite good, although Xiangjiang Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Group Co., Ltd. is still maintaining considerable profits, and although Feldspar Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. also has gratifying profits, Fang Mingyuan has a sense of crisis in his heart for a long time. The outlook for the global shipping and shipbuilding industry in the next few years is certainly not good, but it is difficult to say how bad it will be.

The overcapacity of the global shipping industry and the overcapacity of the shipbuilding industry, both of which erupted during the global economic crisis, are definitely not as simple as one plus one. As far as Fang Mingyuan knows, a new round of reshuffle in the shipping industry has begun to take shape, although Guo's shipping group company does not have to worry about being acquired by peers, but to ensure that its market share is not squeezed is the bottom line.

He vetoed the continued expansion of the fleet business of the Kwok Shipping Group, and the problem of excess capacity does not exist for the current Kwok Shipping Group. However, he was a little unsure whether Samsung Heavy Industries, Heung Kong Shipbuilding Industry Group Co., Ltd., and Feldspar Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. would be able to survive the cold winter of the shipbuilding industry independently and smoothly without the help of their parent companies, and turn the disadvantage into an advantage.

"It's a pity!" Fang Mingyuan sighed, although Xiangjiang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co., Ltd. can be called the shipyard with the top technical level in China, but domestic warships have never been handed over to private enterprises for construction, otherwise, if they can get orders from the military, this life will be more nourishing. I didn't see that Hyundai Heavy Industries relied on orders from the South Korean military, and even during the economic crisis, the performance was good. What's more, judging from the information he knows, the next few years will become an intensive construction period for naval warships, and a large number of new warships will start construction. Such a big cake, but can only watch it being eaten by other manufacturers, without its own share, it is also more aggrieved. In Europe and the United States, the large shipyards that still remain today are mainly engaged in the construction of military ships, which is also a decisive factor in their survival.

The request made by the Donghai Provincial Government and Shangguan Yi, Fang Mingyuan has officially considered the fact that the Donghai Shipbuilding Industry Group Company was made difficult by the Belgian shipping company, which is not a difficult thing for him at all, he has already greeted Angelina, and I believe that soon the Belgian shipping company will have a correct attitude to solve the matter. It was Rongsheng Heavy Industry Group Company, which made him scratch his head.

If it is purely from the perspective of interests, Fang Mingyuan does not want to get involved in the troubled waters of Rongsheng Heavy Industry Group Company, even if he is not short of funds now, and wants to continue to expand Xiangjiang Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Group Co., Ltd., there are better acquisition targets. He just asked Park about the current situation of South Korea's STX Group Company. Pu's humble answer is that although everything is still normal on the surface, as a colleague, he has heard a lot of rumors that are unfavorable to STX Group, and some of them have been confirmed. It's just that it wasn't released to the Korean public.

If STX Group does not have strong financial support in the short term, it is likely that a debt crisis will erupt in the next year or two, after STX Group acquired five domestic companies and two foreign companies in the previous years, but most of the funds invested in the acquisition relied on different forms of borrowing and loans. Prior to 2008, shipbuilders had a large number of ship orders in their hands due to the rapid development of the global shipping industry, and it was quite easy to obtain loans from the financial community. However, after 2008, due to the severe tightening of the financial market due to the strong impact on the Korean financial industry, it became impossible for the STX group to easily obtain loans.

Although the current STX group of companies has not yet reached that point, if the operating conditions have not been significantly improved in this year, or if there is no strong financial support, then the future of the STX group of companies is worrying. On this point, Fang Mingyuan and Pu Chouhou's views are quite consistent.

If the future prospects of STX Group are not good, Fang Mingyuan is still very interested in the equity of STX Sanshan Shipyard and Aker Shipbuilding Group in his hands. However, the equity of Aker Shipbuilding Group Co., Ltd., Xiangjiang Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Group Co., Ltd. is not to worry about, Europeans are still very wary of Huaxia capital entering the shipbuilding industry, but Samsung Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. can consider acquiring it, so as to enter the construction field of luxury cruise ships. STX Sanshan Shipyard is the acquisition target that Fang Mingyuan values and intends to use to expand the production capacity of Xiangjiang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co., Ltd., so as to complete the industrial layout of Xiangjiang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co., Ltd. in the north.

However, the Donghai Provincial Government pushed Rongsheng Heavy Industry Group Company in front of itself, even if it was to refuse in the end, it was necessary to consider the face of the Donghai Provincial Government and Shangguanyi.