Chapter 56: A Losing Deal

On the way, Manager Li Tao gave Zheng Qian another detailed introduction to Jinxiu Group.

"Chairman Xu Chengye of Jinxiu Group had a daughter late in life; he was fifty when she was born. He is advanced in age now and has already stepped behind the scenes. The person we are meeting today is Chairman Xu Chengye's daughter, Xu Shuyun."

"Jinxiu Group's reputation is bigger than its actual strength. For a company like this, we won't be able to negotiate a high shipping fee; just breaking even and earning a bit of hard-earned money will be enough."

Zheng Qian nodded. Since Manager Li Tao knew this, Chen Weiqiang must have known it too.

Zheng Qian, however, felt this was a good opportunity to train himself.

After arriving at Jinxiu Group, Zheng Qian and Manager Li Tao were led by a secretary to meet Xu Shuyun.

Xu Shuyun had regular, well-defined features. In her high heels, she was about the same height as Zheng Qian. Her thick, jet-black hair was pinned up elegantly, and she wore a women's suit, giving off an impression of shrewdness and capability.

"Hello, Manager Xu. I am the Vice President of Zhengxin Shipyard. I am here today to discuss business with you. This is our company's Business Manager, Manager Li Tao."

"Hello, I am Xu Shuyun." She smiled and took the initiative to extend her hand, shaking hands lightly with both of them. "Please, have a seat."

Xu Shuyun was very young; she looked only two or three years older than Zheng Qian. She had ascended to the position of General Manager at such a young age and taken over the family business.

She was the General Manager in name, but in reality, Chairman Xu Chengye only held the title of Chairman, while Xu Shuyun was actually responsible for all the company's affairs, big and small.

Zheng Qian was a Vice President and Manager Li Tao was a Business Manager. On the surface, they appeared to have higher positions than Xu Shuyun, but in reality, their combined weight did not equal hers.

Xu Shuyun did not waste time and went straight to the point. After briefly explaining the needs of Jinxiu Group, she moved on to discussing the price.

On the way, Manager Li Tao had told Zheng Qian that as long as they could earn some hard-earned money, it would be fine, with a minimum shipping fee of 750,000 from Xu Shuyun.

However, the price Xu Shuyun offered was far too low. She was only willing to pay 250,000, a difference of a full 500,000. The company would lose money if they accepted this order.

Right from the start, the negotiation hit a deadlock.

Xu Shuyun remained calm throughout, with an attitude of "take it or leave it." Zheng Qian felt she was difficult to deal with, and negotiating the price to a mutually acceptable level seemed virtually impossible.

For a company like Jinxiu Group, transportation was usually outsourced to a large contractor, who would then find a semi-trailer fleet or private operators. They generally didn't spend much effort on the logistics themselves.

Since she had sought out a shipyard and wanted to use water transport, there must have been some trouble with the land transport, forcing her to consider the waterways.

"Manager Xu, your price is far below our costs. Forgive my bluntness, but the company truly cannot bear that." Manager Li Tao had been negotiating business for many years, and this was his strong suit.

Although the company had just been established, it had not reached the point of being desperate. It was impossible to accept a shipping order that would lose money. Even if Chen Weiqiang were here, he certainly wouldn't have been able to negotiate it either.

Manager Li Tao gave Zheng Qian a wink, signaling him to find an opportunity to just slip away.

But Zheng Qian did not think so. He felt that there was a necessity to secure this order.

"Manager Xu, Jinxiu Group has been using land transport for years, and the transportation aspect has always been outsourced. Why, when everything was fine on land, have you suddenly decided to use water transport?"

This question went straight to the heart of the matter for Xu Shuyun.

In reality, Jinxiu Group was preparing to expand its business, but the cost of outsourcing was too expensive every year. Xu Shuyun wanted to cut out the outsourcing and handle the transportation herself.

The 250,000 they had just discussed was roughly the cost of each order that needed to be outsourced.

Shipping in batches like this was too inefficient. Customers usually placed orders for thousands or tens of thousands of tons. It was impossible to increase efficiency relying on those semi-trailers. Unless they used large transport ships, which could carry several thousand to ten thousand tons at a time, efficiency would instantly improve.

As long as the steel was transported to the city wharf required by the customer, everything else would be easy to handle.

Xu Shuyun herself knew that wanting to use water transport at the price of land transport was certainly unrealistic. However, she hadn't intended to close the deal today anyway; she was still in the exploratory and comparison stage, intending to choose whichever company was suitable.

Manager Li Tao thought about it carefully and felt that what Zheng Qian said made sense. Why hadn't he noticed that?

At this moment, he looked at Zheng Qian with a bit of newfound respect.

Xu Shuyun could not tell Zheng Qian the truth, so she casually told a lie: "I just wanted to try and develop a new method of operation, but if the cost is too high, then forget it."

"Since you are trying to use water transport, you must have already talked to other shipyards. What was their attitude toward the 250,000 you offered?"

Before meeting Zheng Qian, Xu Shuyun had already met with representatives from several other shipyards. But after hearing that she was only willing to pay 250,000, they had just turned around and left, without even bothering to acknowledge her.

On one hand, it was because Jinxiu Group was not very large and didn't ship that many times a year.

On the other hand, it was naturally the price.

250,000 was simply too low.

Once a cargo ship starts moving, it burns fuel every second, calculated by the ton.

A fully loaded seven-thousand-ton cargo ship burns about half a ton of fuel per hour. At current fuel prices, that's 100,000 per day.

For the destinations Xu Shuyun mentioned, the cost price was between 500,000 and 850,000.

"I might as well be transparent with you."

"Running to Jiangnan: 200,000 for seven thousand tons, 300,000 for twelve thousand tons."

"Running to Modu: 350,000 for seven thousand tons, 500,000 for twelve thousand tons."

"These are our cost prices. There is no shipping company on the market that could offer a lower price than us."

Zheng Qian took two thick stacks of contracts out of Manager Li Tao's briefcase. "If that works for you, we can sign the contract right now."

"President Zheng..." Manager Li Tao wanted to say something but held back.

Could Zheng Qian have remembered it wrong? The price he quoted was completely different from the company's costs. Every trip was 300,000 to 400,000 lower.

This was a complete losing business!

He had originally thought that making a small profit would be fine, and if they couldn't negotiate, they just wouldn't. Why did Zheng Qian have to do this? Every time a cargo ship ran less, the time taken was longer, and annual maintenance for the ship was also a huge expense.

What's more, this was a losing business.

Xu Shuyun naturally understood some of the market rates and knew that for these two cities, the price for seven thousand tons was basically around 600,000, and for twelve thousand tons, it was around 1,000,000.

Just as Zheng Qian had said, he was the cheapest cargo ship company Xu Shuyun had ever seen, far below the market price.

The price of 250,000 she had quoted earlier was just to try to suppress the price and test where Zheng Qian's bottom line was.

Her goal had been achieved, and naturally, she would not refuse.