513: Chapter 513 Malacca Insurance Premiums Reach Zero

The pilot boat's foghorn sounded from the bow.

The captain stood on the left bridge wing of the wheelhouse, using binoculars to look at the waters ahead.

The canal's surface was as smooth as a mirror.

Buoys on both sides of the fairway were regularly distributed on the GPS nautical chart, each emitting a continuous low-frequency positioning signal.

"The main fairway depth is twenty-four meters. Current speed is zero point four knots. Navigation time is eleven hours — saving three days compared to detouring around the Strait of Malacca. Fuel costs are saved by six hundred and forty thousand US dollars."

He placed the binoculars on the console and opened the navigation logbook.

Flipping forward — tucked inside the exact same logbook from three months ago was a yellowed insurance policy.

For the war risk insurance premium of the Strait of Malacca, one hundred and ten thousand US dollars had been paid for that voyage.

He pulled out the insurance policy, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the wastebasket.

Then he picked up the walkie-talkie.

"Attention everyone — this is our first time taking the Kra Canal. From now on — we will take this route every time."

Cheers from the deck sailors came through the walkie-talkie.

The wave of sound traveled from the deck to the wheelhouse, from the wheelhouse to the cargo hold, from the cargo hold through the hull steel plates into the seawater, reflecting off the canal's rock walls and compounding into a reverberation.

Strait of Malacca Joint Administrative Zone.

The eastern entrance of the strait.

The waters outside Port of Tanjung Pelepas in Johor, Malaysia.

Myanmar's ten-thousand-ton destroyer "Bhamo" and two Type 052D destroyers from the Longguo Southern Theater Command formed a three-ship joint patrol formation, their bows cleaving through the warm ocean currents of the strait.

All naval guns were reset to zero to ensure a safe state.

Hanging in the bridge's joint command room were the naval flags of the four countries — Myanmar's baobab leaf flag, Thailand's white elephant flag, Malaysia's star and crescent flag, and Cambodia's Angkor Wat flag.

The flagship's public channel broadcast the same message on rotation in fourteen languages:

[The Strait of Malacca is an international navigable waterway. The Joint Administrative Zone is open to all merchant ships. The passage of military vessels requires declaration forty-eight hours in advance. The joint patrol is not directed against any third-party country or entity.]

Senior Colonel Lin Haisheng stood in front of the starboard window of the "Bhamo" bridge.

He was holding an enamel cup in his hand — the tea stain at the bottom of the cup had gained another ring, not even being this thick during the Mozambique Channel incident.

On the sea surface, the queue of merchant ships tied nose-to-tail ranged from one hundred thousand tons to three hundred thousand tons, flying national flags from Longguo, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, to Greece.

"It's thirty percent more than a month ago."

The officer on duty handed over a radar screenshot, "The southwest side of the strait's centerline — ships that used to detour around the Lombok Strait are also taking this route now."

Senior Colonel Lin Haisheng did not look at the screenshot.

He looked out the porthole at a Longguo LNG carrier slowly passing through the centerline of the strait, its hull exterior painted with the white vessel name: Kunlun Mountains.

Three months ago, this ship was still taking the Lombok Strait — because the pirate risk in Malacca was too high.

Now, the Joint Administrative Zone is regularly patrolled by the naval destroyers of the four countries, and maritime crime cases have dropped to zero under the coordinated actions of the police and coast guard.

He placed the enamel cup on the command console and pressed the encrypted channel.

"Chief Zhang. The maiden voyage of the joint patrol was smooth. The density of merchant ships at the eastern entrance of the strait increased by thirty-one percent year-on-year. Starting today, shipping insurance companies have reduced the war risk insurance premium for the Strait of Malacca to zero."

Singapore.

Lloyd's Asia Headquarters.

The head of the underwriting department stared at the system announcement popping up on the computer screen — the war risk insurance premium for the Strait of Malacca would drop to zero starting today.

Behind him, a wall was covered with shipping insurance claim records from the past three years.

In the column for the Strait of Malacca, the red marks were dense.

He picked up the extension phone.

"Notify London. The drop of the strait's insurance premium to zero takes effect immediately. Update the global shipping insurance actuarial model — re-list the Strait of Malacca as a safe waterway."

Hanging up the phone, he opened the draft of the monthly report on his desk.

Three months ago, the exact same report still wrote "Advise clients to detour around the Lombok Strait".

He used a red pen to cross out those words and wrote in the blank space beside them: Joint patrol effective. Risk level downgraded to zero.

Zhang Cheng's reply in the channel came quickly: "Remember this number. Thirty-one percent."

Naypyidaw Presidential Palace.

Li Lanzhi's tablet popped up with two messages.

The first one — the Vega financial monitoring interface refreshed.

One hour after the announcement, the exchange rate of the Asian digital currency against the US dollar at the Singapore Digital Currency Exchange rose by two point one percent, and the intraday trading volume exceeded one hundred and twenty billion coins.

In the hour following the announcement, the K-line chart traced an upward-sloping trajectory with an angle close to forty-five degrees.

The very top of the volume bar was marked: Total market value exceeded eighty trillion US dollars.

Global digital currency market share — forty-three percent.

The second one — an internal brief of the US Department of State intercepted by Vega, with a title of only one line: [Southeast Asia: Assessment of the decline rate of the US dollar reserves of the central banks of the four countries after the stripping of currency settlement rights].

Below it was a second line, marked by Vega as "high-frequency vocabulary": [Possible hedging measures — freezing the US dollar settlement transit account of the Strait of Malacca.].

Li Lanzhi turned the tablet to Zhang Cheng.

"They haven't admitted defeat yet."

She lowered her voice.

Zhang Cheng glanced at the screen.

"Let them freeze it. Starting tomorrow — the Strait of Malacca will use only Asian digital currency to settle toll fees."

At 4:00 AM the next day.

The Liquidation system of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York received a joint note from the central banks of the four countries — standard in format and ice-cold in wording:

[Starting today, the toll fee settlement account for the Strait of Malacca is migrated from the US dollar transit account to the Asian digital currency Liquidation system. The existing US dollar balance will drop to zero within forty-eight hours.]

The duty manager stared at the screen for five seconds and dialed the phone to Washington — busy tone.

On the other end of the phone, people from the Treasury Department were holding an emergency meeting.

The last document spread out on the conference table was titled: [The US dollar's final settlement node in Southeast Asia: Assessment of the breach timeline.].

He pushed the tablet back and continued flipping through the tech briefing.

"Two new coverage nodes for Shuguang Cloud quantum communication were added today. The quantum encrypted trading link between Phnom Penh and Naypyidaw has been established. The Liquidation speed dropped from zero point three seconds to zero point one second. The next step — covering Africa."

"Shuguang MX chip production capacity has doubled. Export controls are fully lifted starting today. The first batch of mass production from the wafer fab in Penang, Malaysia, has been shipped — with a yield rate of ninety-four point one percent. Purchase intention contracts for Shuguang MX from the global semiconductor market have been signed for one hundred and thirty-seven million pieces. Among them, thirty million pieces are orders from European automobile manufacturers."

Wolfsburg, Germany.

Volkswagen Group Procurement Headquarters.

The procurement director opened the encrypted email from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, with a title of only one line: Export controls on Myanmar's Shuguang MX chips are lifted immediately.

He grabbed the phone and dialed the wafer fab in Penang.

"That previous intention contract for thirty million pieces — convert it into a formal order today. The first batch of three million pieces will be delivered next quarter. The IGBT production line of our Munich factory has been shut down for two months, just waiting for this batch of goods from you."

The sound of typing flipping through order numbers came from the other end of the phone.

The procurement director covered the microphone with his hand and shouted to the office next door: "The chip ban has been lifted — notify the production line to resume work next week."

Zhang Cheng took the signature pen handed over by Li Lanzhi.