Chapter 284 New Route
Li Guming's surrender led to Sing Tao being controlled by the Zhiren Company all of a sudden.
Although the Sapiens Company has not yet formally established a management system, Luzon, Siam, Honsavady and Ceylon have already officially started the merger process.
It is expected that the official announcement of the establishment of Sapiens Company will be made on June 15th.
This marks the birth of the first giant enterprise on Earth in the history of human civilization.
But this kind of thing only attracted the attention of a number of major powers and regional tyrants, while ordinary people and private enterprises were still busy with their own small circles.
For example, the major shipping companies around the world at this time.
Especially in Asia, world-class shipping companies such as Evergreen International, COSCO Group, China Shipping Group, Neptune Orient, Hanjin Shipping, Mitsui Shipping, and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha.
These days they hold meetings almost every day, and the topics they discuss are the Strait of Malacca, the Lombok Strait, the Sunda Strait, the Kra Canal and the Dangmun Canal.
The New Luzon Shipping Group, which was an insider, was already sailing its transport ships through the Kra Canal and the Dangong Canal.
Consider safety.
Many shipping companies have doubts about the Kra Canal, but have no concerns about the Dangweng Canal, except that the Dangweng Canal can currently only accommodate ships of 30,000 tons.
In addition, from a geographical point of view, the Dangweng Canal should actually be an inland canal between Siam and Hongsavady, and a large proportion of the ships passing through it are inland vessels from the two places.
Therefore, the Kra Canal has become a shortcut that many shipping companies have to consider.
The first shipping company to take the plunge was Mitsui Shipping.
Mitsui Tomishige, the head of the Mitsui Zaibatsu, personally ordered the shipping company to send oil tankers to the Kra Canal . After all, the Japanese are not afraid of nuclear radiation.
Under the order of the head office, a tanker named Kirishima, fully loaded with 200,000 tons, slowly approached the western port of the Kra Canal.
The captain of the Kirishima, Mishima Aoara, was also feeling very nervous.
"Captain, the Canal Authority has sent a pilot over," shouted Second Mate Hirota Otake.
"Go and bring them up."
"Hi."
Twenty minutes later.
Two navigators boarded the tanker and came to the cockpit.
"Who is Captain Mishima?"
Mishima Qinglan was very surprised to hear the Japanese with a Tokyo accent, but he quickly replied: "I am Mishima Qinglan, the captain of the Kirishima."
"Hello! I am navigator Meng Lin, and this is the fee list." Navigator Meng Lin said as he handed over the fee list.
Mishima Qinglan quickly took it. There were contents in English, Chinese and Japanese on it. The single charge of the Kra Canal was calculated according to the displacement of the ship, 40,000 gold yuan for every 10,000 tons. If it was less than 10,000 tons, it would be calculated as 10,000 tons.
The Kirishima was fully loaded with 211,000 tons, and the total cost was 840,000 gold yuan.
Mishima Qinglan said that this fee was acceptable, which was only US$84,000.
If the route is detoured via the Strait of Malacca, the voyage distance will be increased by 1,200 kilometers and the transportation cost will increase by US$120,000. If the route is detoured via the Sunda Strait, the distance will be increased by 4,000 kilometers and the transportation cost will increase by US$400,000.
However, when Mishima Qinglan saw the clause on the fee list that only gold yuan can be used for payment, he asked with some embarrassment on his face: "Uh... I don't have gold yuan here. Can I use US dollars or euros?"
"Don't worry, you can sign the payment slip on behalf of Mitsui Shipping, and Mitsui Shipping will pay our company in cash. If you feel you can't make a decision, you can use a satellite phone to contact the people in your company." Meng Lin waved his hand.
Mishima Qinglan was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "I understand."
As for whether Mitsui Shipping will default on its debts afterwards, Zhiren Company is not afraid of others defaulting on their debts, and no one can default on Zhiren Company's debts.
After a while, Mishima Qinglan finished communicating with the subsidiary head office and signed the payment slip.
Meng Lin put away the payment slip and said, "Okay, weigh anchor and prepare to enter the canal."
Another navigator picked up the walkie-talkie and communicated with the management tower at the west entrance of the canal.
The Kra Canal is 100 kilometers long and has two waterways.
At this time, the Kirishima entered the northern channel. The two channels were actually separated by pillars and barbed wire in the middle, and there was only one river channel.
The West Mouth Channel is 35 meters deep and 200 meters wide. Even a 300,000-ton ship can pass through this level of channel easily.
Mishima Qinglan saw that many workers were installing navigation lighthouses on the embankments on both sides.
The Kirishima, with a speed of 12 knots, took 2 hours to pass through the West Exit Channel, and now they entered the Sunrise Channel.
The so-called Sunrise Channel is actually an 8.4-kilometer-long nuclear explosion crater area. The channel here is not divided into two north and south channels, but a direct one.
The width of the river here is between 700 and 900 meters, and the water depth in the middle is 100 to 120 meters.
As the first foreign ship to visit Sunrise Lake, Mishima Seiran saw very shocking scenes.
All trees within a radius of 10 kilometers were destroyed, leaving only a small number of charred tree stumps. Especially near Sunrise Lake, large areas of glass appeared on the ground, shining brightly in the sun.
Gulp! Mishima Qinglan swallowed his throat involuntarily: "Navigator Meng, is there really no problem here?"
Meng Lin took out the Geiger detector and pointed to the value on it: "Don't worry! The nuclear radiation level here is much safer than Fukushima. It is only 17% higher than ordinary sea areas. It will return to normal levels in about a few months."
“Hehe…” Mishima Qinglan laughed dryly.
Another pilot warned: "Be careful to avoid, do not cross the middle buoy, there is a container ship approaching ahead."
"Thank you for the reminder." Mishima Qinglan quickly blew the whistle and then stared at the waterway.
When they sailed to the middle of Sunrise Lake, they encountered a 6,000 standard container ship of New Luzon Shipping. The two ships were about 200 meters apart and slowly passed each other.
Twenty-three minutes later, Kirishima entered the eastern entrance channel of the canal. This section is 52 kilometers long and is divided into two north-south channels. It is 200 meters wide and 33 to 38 meters deep.
Along the way, Kirishima encountered many ships.
We also saw another waterway being excavated not far away.
Mishima Seiran was very surprised at the efficiency and planning of the Sapiens Company. In his opinion, the navigability of the Kra Canal was already very strong at this time.
However, he did not know that the lack of a separate double-track waterway was considered unqualified and unsafe according to the internal standards of the Sapiens company.
The excavation cost of the Sapiens Company is also very low, and there is no need to search and explore like the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal.
Two and a half hours later.
The Kirishima successfully passed through the Kra Canal, which not only saved 1,200 kilometers of distance and fuel compared to the detour via Malacca, but also reduced the sailing time by 60 hours.
In addition, security has also been greatly improved. After all, there are pirates in the Strait of Malacca, and the area around the Kra Canal is the territory of the Homo Sapiens company. If pirates come here to cause trouble, they will most likely become soldiers.
After receiving the report from Mishima Seiran, Mitsui Shipping headquarters immediately made up its mind to change all its transport ships carrying oil and natural gas from West Asia to use the Kra Canal.
Now that shipping costs have soared, Japan's import and export pressure continues to increase. If they can save on transportation costs, then a little nuclear radiation will be nothing.
In terms of radiation resistance, other shipping companies are really not as good as Japan's three major shipping companies.
Other companies were very concerned about the nuclear radiation problem in the Kra Canal and worried that their ships would be contaminated by radioactive materials. They could only watch Mitsui Shipping and New Luzon Shipping happily sailing in the Kra Canal.
