In the blink of an eye, it was March. After the recruitment for the distiller's grains fish factory was completed, Chen Yang returned to Shanghai. It wasn't just to attend classes; more importantly, the television factory needed to expand its production scale.
Both Shanghai No. 3 Radio Factory and Chen Yang's Zhenhua Electrical Appliances Factory were experiencing a basic shortage of televisions. Orders were already backlogged until the second half of the year, and the previous three production lines were far from sufficient.
Establishing the new Zhenhua Electrical Appliances Factory headquarters in Shanghai was the biggest decision Chen Yang had made since his rebirth.
Every inch of land occupied in Shanghai now would become a fortune in the future.
Currently, Shanghai No. 18 Radio Factory was the specialized factory producing "Feiyue" brand televisions. The entire factory covered an area of 35,200 square meters and had just received the title of Shanghai "Da Qing Style Enterprise" in 1979. In 1981, it would be recognized as an Excellent Enterprise Management Unit.
However, if Chen Yang's new factory began construction and could be put into smooth production in the latter half of this year, the latter honor might not go to them.
Chen Yang planned to establish the Zhenhua Electrical Appliances Factory headquarters in Pudong, covering an area of eighty mu. It was estimated to accommodate over a hundred production lines operating simultaneously at its maximum capacity. If completed, it would be a massive factory capable of housing over ten thousand workers. Sudancol.com
This investment would be enormous. For Chen Yang's current capital and financial resources, the construction of the Zhenhua Electrical Appliances General Factory was far from sufficient.
Even if the distiller's grains fish factory, Shanghai No. 3 Radio Factory, and Zhenhua Electrical Appliances Factory in Jinling were like printing machines, continuously generating wealth for him, building a factory of this scale would require an initial investment of fifteen million US dollars for the production lines alone.
The cost of labor, materials, steel, cement, and other necessities for constructing the factory would also be in the tens of millions. In contrast, the land, which would be most valuable in the future, had a negligible cost for Chen Yang at the moment.
If Chen Yang were to emulate Li Chaoren and buy this land, leaving it undeveloped for decades, the land alone could make him a billionaire.
However, Chen Yang would never be that kind of person. As a Chinese person, not only would he not contribute to the country's economic development, but he would also hoard land and impede local economic growth. Such a person would not be spared by the country in the future, and their reputation would suffer.
Chen Yang wasn't lacking in other ways to make money and disdained such actions.
Moreover, buying land and building a factory now would not only secure the land but also stimulate local economic development and expand his commercial empire. It was a win-win situation, and there was no reason not to do it.
The land was essentially half-bought and half-given by the Shanghai municipal government, as they heard Chen Yang planned to build such a large television factory, which would be undeniably beneficial to Shanghai's economic development.
It would not only increase employment opportunities in Shanghai but also help drive the development of Shanghai's television industry. For Shanghai, which had always strived to be the most developed region in the country, this was all benefit and no harm.
The biggest problem now was Chen Yang's lack of funds. Building the factory required money, buying equipment required money, everything required money.
Not only Chen Yang was short of money, but the Shanghai municipal government was also. If they had the money, Shanghai No. 3 Radio Factory wouldn't have needed Chen Yang to help purchase production lines.
Chen Yang initially considered taking out loans, but upon seeing the municipal government's financial situation, he simply stopped mentioning it. The central bank now was not like in later generations, where a simple monetary easing could amount to trillions.
The four major sons of the central bank – Industry, Agriculture, Construction, and Bank of China – had not yet separated. The deposits were not that substantial, and many people kept their money at home rather than in banks. Banks had money, but they couldn't lend it all to Chen Yang; there was no precedent for such a thing yet.
A domestic source of funds was temporarily unavailable, so Chen Yang had to shift his attention to Hong Kong. At HSBC, Chen Yang was now considered a VIP. The trading volume of distiller's grains fish had resulted in a Hong Kong dollar turnover of tens of millions at HSBC.
However, these were mere turnovers. As soon as the money came in, it was quickly converted into US dollars, raw materials, or production lines. It was essentially a constant inflow and outflow. To speak of actual deposits, there wasn't much.
Chen Yang hadn't considered asking Elder Zhou for help, but why would he help? Although Chen Yang had accompanied Miss Zhou from the Zhou family to thoroughly inspect several shops in Shanghai and Beijing after the New Year, preparing for the Zhou family's gold business to expand northward, this business was insignificant to the Zhou family, who had been in the gold market for generations. For such a minor matter, Chen Yang felt too embarrassed to ask Elder Zhou for a guarantee.
He envisioned the Zhenhua Electrical Appliances Factory headquarters in Shanghai reaching his desired scale, requiring an investment of tens of millions. One hundred production lines alone would cost fifteen million US dollars. Then there were the materials and labor costs for constructing the factory. A television factory was not like the distiller's grains fish factory in Anhui Province, where all materials were sourced locally.
Many construction techniques could not be compared to the small-scale operations of the distiller's grains fish factory. This factory was intended for use for ten, or even decades, so it naturally had to be a reinforced concrete structure, possibly with steel frames and corrugated iron roofing.
Chen Yang had initially planned for reinforced concrete pouring, but after a rough cost calculation, he immediately abandoned the idea. He couldn't afford it; it was simply too expensive to build.
Compared to later generations, steel bars and cement were incredibly expensive at the time, based on current price levels. It would be better to rebuild later when the economy developed.
Even with Chen Yang lowering his requirements, the total investment still amounted to tens of millions. This was tens of millions in the 1980s!
Keep in mind that even in the late 1980s, there was the honorable title of "Ten Thousand Yuan Households." At that time, monthly wages were only a few dozen yuan, and very few people earned over a hundred yuan a month.
At this time, a "Ten Thousand Yuan Household" was a top-tier wealthy individual, even rarer than a billionaire in later generations.
Even though Chen Yang's Zhenhua Electrical Appliances Factory and distiller's grains fish factory were generating immense profits, they still couldn't cover such a large sum.
Chen Yang currently had less than five million in his account. He planned to invest all of it in building the factory. One hundred workshops was Chen Yang's ultimate goal. They would build ten workshops first for immediate use, as the land had already been secured.
For the production lines, they would wait for the settlement of the distiller's grains fish factory's payments. After deducting wages and the cost of raw materials, he would leave nothing behind and directly use it to purchase production lines.
By piecing things together, in May, the first phase of ten workshops for the Zhenhua Electrical Appliances Factory headquarters began operations. The old workers from Shanghai No. 3 Radio Factory became masters in the new workshops, teaching the first batch of new employees at Shanghai Zhenhua Electrical Appliances Factory how to produce televisions on the assembly line.
Perhaps many workers from Shanghai No. 3 Radio Factory never imagined that one day they would voluntarily transition from state-owned enterprise workers to employees of a private enterprise, and even enjoy it immensely.