Since March 7 this year, the price of nickel metals, an important industrial raw material in the world, has begun to soar.
By March 8, the global nickel price had risen 248 percent, two times higher than the previous record high.
And a metal price increase boom has made a domestic "world nickel king" surface.
Tsingshan Group.
The company has 18% of the world's nickel reserves.
That is to say, for every 100 nickel metal suppliers, at least 18 need to find Tsingshan Group to purchase raw materials.
It is precisely because it controls the important supply of nickel metal in the world, Tsingshan Group also has the pricing power of global nickel metal.
Often, as long as companies announce that there will be an adequate supply of nickel metal worldwide, the price of nickel will fall.
As long as Qingshan tightens the scale of nickel mining, the international nickel price will soar.
Behind the seemingly wind and rain, Tsingshan Group has become the "eye nail" of many enterprises.
For the price increase of nickel ore this time, many people speculate that American companies have reacted in order to impact the position of Chinese companies in the metal market.
Although Tsingshan Group did not disclose the specific reason, some statistical agencies have predicted that Tsingshan Group will suffer a loss of 50.4 billion yuan as a result.
As a result, many people began to sigh that the "generation of nickel kings" would eventually fall.
But what they did not expect was that Tsingshan Group was far more than just a "nickel king".
Founded in 1998, Tsingshan Group's main business is not only nickel metal mining and production, but also the manufacture of stainless steel.
According to the data of Tsingshan Group in the past, the annual output of stainless steel of the company has already exceeded 10 million tons, accounting for 20% of the world stainless steel supply market.
In other words, Tsingshan Group is not only the "nickel king", but also the "steel king".
In 2000, China's infrastructure industry boomed, which also directly led to the great development of the steel industry.
In August 2001, Qingshan Group opened a steel plant in Henan, directly using local scrap steel for secondary processing.
The following year, a local steel company was built in Zhejiang.
After three years, Tsingshan Group's average stainless steel production of a steel company can exceed 400,000 tons.
Until 2014, Tsingshan Group has become a champion enterprise in the field of stainless steel industry.
Even in 2020, Tsingshan Group became the largest private steel enterprise in China with an annual income of 290.8 billion yuan.
What is incredible is that Tsingshan Group has also successfully surpassed Shanghai Baosteel, and its strength has been certified again.
Why is the Qingshan Group, which is so huge, not well-known in China?
This has to start from the founding purpose of Tsingshan Group.
"Green mountains do not change, green water flows", this is the concept of the group at the beginning of its establishment.
Xiang Guangda, the founder of the group, explained this, "Only by being low-key can we not pay too much attention, can we invisibly reduce a large number of enemies, and achieve green mountains and green water." ”
In fact, Xiang Guangda did indeed practice it in this way.
In 1980, he was still a worker in a factory in Wenzhou, but the idea of starting a business and making a fortune had long been in his mind.
However, he did not say anything about this, but actively studied technology and observed the development of the industry.
In 1988, Xiang Guangda, who had been dormant for 8 years, took his relatives to start a business and quickly accumulated a sum of money.
Seeing that his industry has attracted the attention of many peers, Xiang Guangda quickly changed his development direction and entered the field of stainless steel production.
After that, Xiang Guangda is still a low-key person and a low-key work.
If you want to purchase a large amount of steel, you must quietly find acquaintances to help.
There is even a partner who, after working with Xiang Guangda for 4 and a half years, did not know how big his business was.
After choosing the nickel metal industry, Xiang Guangda also advocated learning technology first and then expanding the scale.
So in 2009, Xiang Guangda, who already has considerable technical and financial strength, will suddenly buy 47,000 hectares of nickel ore in Southeast Asia, which is a blockbuster.
By 2017, Xiang Guangda was already one of the top five entrepreneurs in China's lithium battery industry, but his popularity had not been improved.
He didn't care about this light, and he could even say that this was exactly what he wanted.
In 2021, Xiang Guangda's asset strength reached 21 billion.
Compared with other local rich people in Wenzhou, Xiang Guangda can simply be called an "invisible rich man".
However, today, Xiang Guangda and the Tsingshan Group he founded have been mired in the dilemma of soaring nickel metal prices.
Some people have analyzed that if Tsingshan Group does not deliver the futures order in its hand in its entirety, it will have to bear the liquidated damages.
On the one hand, there is the soaring price of nickel metal, and on the other hand, there is the sky-high liquidated damages.
Tsingshan Group, can it still flow green water?