106: Chapter 106 The Emergence of Eighteen Dollar Steel

However, the cruel reality gave him no chance to catch his breath.

Early the next morning, the Mesabi Iron Range issued a second price hike notice targeted at Carnegie Steel Company.

This time, the quote soared directly to forty cents per ton!

On the third day, the price continued to skyrocket, breaking through forty-five cents per ton!

Meanwhile, a dark horse suddenly emerged in the entire steel market.

Someone began frantically dumping raw steel at the low price of eighteen dollars per ton.

At first, many downstream enterprises that needed to purchase steel thought this was poorly made, defective merchandise, and out of a desire to save money, they tried buying a small batch.

As soon as the goods arrived, everyone was stunned.

This batch of eighteen-dollar raw steel not only had no quality defects, but it was also even better to use than the vast majority of high-priced steel on the market!

There are no fools in business.

On one side was ordinary merchandise at the market price of twenty-five dollars, and on the other was top-quality goods that were better and a full seven dollars cheaper per ton.

For those major steel consumers who typically purchased tens of thousands of tons, this was simply a windfall!

In the blink of an eye, huge orders poured into Lin Steel Company like snowflakes.

Conversely, Carnegie Steel Company's steel, which they had originally been proud of and priced at twenty-two dollars, instantly became unwanted garbage.

Old customers canceled orders in droves to switch to other suppliers.

In just a few short days, Andrew Carnegie was so anxious that a large patch of his hair turned white.

Misfortune followed one after another.

The purchasing manager scrambled into the office to report: The Mesabi Iron Range had completely cut off the supply of raw ore to Carnegie Steel Company, citing "insufficient production capacity" as the reason!

Immediately following that, all railway networks and shipping routes around the Great Lakes went on strike, refusing to transport even a single carload of ore for Carnegie Steel Company!

Under this series of devastating combination blows.

Those banks and small families that had invested in Carnegie Steel Company could no longer sit still.

They sent representatives to storm into Andrew Carnegie's office, slamming the table and demanding to know if he could still hold on.

Before Andrew Carnegie could even think of an excuse to appease these investors.

The New York Times suddenly published an explosive news story on its front page.

The report stated: Mr. Bruce Lin will join forces with oil tycoon Mr. Rockefeller to jointly invest fifty million dollars and aggressively enter the steel industry!

The newly established giant enterprise will adopt brand-new, cross-era steelmaking technology.

It is expected that within the next three years, an invincible steel empire with an annual production capacity of up to five million tons will be built!

At the same time, even more startling is that they have promised to drive the market price of raw steel down to fifteen dollars per ton!

Once the news was out, all downstream steel-consuming enterprises celebrated collectively.

Meanwhile, the stocks and valuations of major steel manufacturing enterprises suffered an unprecedented collapse!

Even a fool could see that once such a behemoth—possessing dimensionality-reduction strike technology, endless financial power, and terrifyingly high production capacity—entered the market.

The only fate for those small and medium-sized steel mills still using outdated technology and having tight capital chains would be bankruptcy and liquidation!

Amidst this panic sweeping across the USA, Carnegie Steel Company's valuation plummeted like a high-dive, crashing directly from twenty-five million dollars to fifteen million dollars.

Those small families and banking institutions, already scared out of their wits, began frantically looking for buyers, wanting to dump their Carnegie shares at any cost.

Because if things continued to develop at this rate, the entire steel industry of the USA would inevitably face a brutal bloodbath.

Could Carnegie Steel Company survive this ordeal?

No one dared to gamble their own hard-earned money on a hopeless situation that couldn't be won.

...

It didn't take long for Lin Tian and Rockefeller to join forces and sweep up nearly forty percent of Carnegie Steel Company's shares from those families and enterprises that were desperate to sell.

Meanwhile, because the entire steel sector was plummeting.

Lin Steel Company took the opportunity to buy at the bottom, acquiring Bethlehem Steel, which would eventually become one of the top three steel giants in the USA.

Of course, at the moment, Bethlehem was still just a mediocre large-to-medium-sized steel mill.

After experiencing a brutal stock price crash, its market value had been trampled down to a mere three million dollars.

Just like that, in this man-made industry panic.

Lin Steel Company swallowed up several unlucky companies in succession and transformed into a super steel overlord with over three thousand workers.

The situation was lost, and Andrew Carnegie finally had to lower his proud head, holding his nose to agree to transfer twenty-five percent of the shares in his hands.

This high-stakes gamble came to an end.

Lin Tian and Rockefeller had only shelled out fourteen million dollars to forcibly forge an invincible steel empire with an annual output of 1.5 million tons.

This figure was already approaching half of the total steel production of the entire USA last year.

From the source of iron ore supply to the terminal steel production, a complete industrial chain had been completely integrated.

...

However, Lin Tian was in no rush to make these newly acquired companies change their branding.

Bethlehem was still called Bethlehem, and Carnegie Steel still hung its original sign.

Because Lin Tian and Rockefeller both knew clearly that their behavior this time had been truly unsightly.

Swallowing nearly half of the USA' steel production capacity in one go!

If this matter were exposed by the media, it would definitely invite overwhelming criticism.

You have to know that in the political arena of the USA, besides the Republican Party they supported, there was also the Democratic Party, which specifically worked against them.

Who was the base behind the Democratic Party?

They were all poor farmers from the countryside and low-level laborers in the city.

These people were naturally averse to elite rule and those blood-sucking bankers.

Their biggest demand was to impose heavy taxes on the rich, and the reason was simple: since you earn more, you must cut off more flesh.

To put it bluntly, it was a typical mentality of hating the rich!

Rockefeller had the ability to handle the Republican Party, but he couldn't shut the mouth of the Democratic Party.

If the inside story of monopolizing the steel industry were broken, it would definitely stir up a storm among the grassroots population.

After all, for ordinary people, the monopoly of the steel trust was more lethal in terms of oppression than that of the oil trust.

Therefore, once the acquisition was completed, Lin Tian and Rockefeller very tacitly chose to keep a low profile and completely fade from the public eye.

The outside world had no idea that these two behind-the-scenes big shots had quietly and imperceptibly seized control of half of the USA' steel production capacity.

...

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was Christmas.

Goose-feather-sized snowflakes drifted over New York.

Inside Lin Manor, located on the banks of the South Hudson River.

Early in the morning, under the direction of Butler John, the servants were energetically clearing away the snow.

Jiang Meier, along with the head maid Helen, led several young maids to busy themselves up and down the main building, hanging up various decorations.

They also brought in a small pine tree and carefully decorated it as a Christmas tree, wrapping it with colorful ribbons and hanging red stockings stuffed with small gifts.

To tell the truth, as a Chinese person at heart, Lin Tian didn't take Christmas seriously at all.

However, considering that Anna and Elizabeth would run over to spend the holiday with him every year.

To accommodate the feelings of the foreign girls, he followed the local customs and let the servants create a little festive atmosphere.

Of course, Anna and Elizabeth would also stay on New Year's Eve to keep Lin Tian company as he watched the old year out.

More than two months had passed, and the backroom operations to annex the steel industry hadn't caused a single ripple.

The general public seemed to be completely kept in the dark, and some even naively thought that Lin Tian and Rockefeller were only just preparing to enter the steel field.

Although it was a holiday.

But Lin Tian couldn't sit still; he was even busier than usual.

He hired several large carriages in one go and braved the wind and snow to rush to Brooklyn.

Following the practice of previous years, he would take his subordinates to wander through various slums in New York, specifically to visit those poor families at the bottom who were working their lives away for him.

Mandel was a German immigrant with a high-level academic background from the University of Hamburg.

After arriving in the USA, he was quickly hired by Lin Electrical Company. Logically speaking, with a weekly salary of twenty-five dollars, his life should have been quite comfortable.

But sadly, he had to unfailingly remit fifty dollars to his home in Germany every month.

Because back home, there were not only his elderly parents who had lost their ability to work but also four underage younger siblings waiting to be fed.

With the remaining fifty dollars, besides paying rent, Mandel also had to support his wife and six children.

This meager salary could only barely ensure that his whole family wouldn't starve to death.

When Christmas arrived, his third daughter, Mansa, clamored to have a turkey feast, but the family couldn't even scrape together a single coin.

In the evening, when Mandel dragged his exhausted body home, he was surprised to see the whole family gathered around the dining table, drooling over a glistening, giant roasted turkey.

Mandel immediately frowned.

This completely exceeded the spending budget he and his wife had; they had no spare money to buy a turkey this year.

"Where did this thing come from?!" Mandel sternly questioned his wife.

His heart was in a panic, fearing that his wife had gone behind his back to borrow from loan sharks. Those lenders were all bloodsuckers; once you got involved, you couldn't shake them off.

His wife, however, smiled brilliantly and hurriedly explained:

"Just after you left this morning, a young Chinese man who claimed to be your boss came to the door in person. Not only did he bring this big turkey, but he also left this envelope!"

As she spoke, she handed an envelope to her husband.

Mandel reached out to take it and saw a line of calligraphy written in a sweeping hand on the envelope.

"Wishing your whole family a Merry Christmas — Bruce Lin!"

Inside the envelope was a short note.

"Mr. Mandel, thank you for your hard work during your tenure at the Electrical Company. You have repeatedly proposed highly constructive improvement plans, saving the company significant operating costs. To express my gratitude, I hereby present you with a bonus of one hundred dollars!"

Looking at the hundred-dollar bill that had fallen out with the letter, Mandel's eyes grew hot, and he almost burst into tears.

For him, this was not just life-saving money, but a huge recognition from his top boss.

That legendary tycoon, Mr. Bruce, who shook Wall Street, actually remembered the name of a small fry like him and had personally braved the snow to deliver a gift.

This made him feel incredibly shocked, and at the same time, a huge sense of pride surged from the bottom of his heart.

"Dear, let's quickly take the children and say grace before dinner!" his wife urged from the side.

Mandel, however, shook his head.

"You all go ahead and eat; I need to rush back to the company! A flash of inspiration just hit me, and the blueprints for the controller can be improved even further!"

After saying this, he grabbed the trench coat he had just taken off and turned to rush out into the wind and snow.