Chapter 1472: Manipulating the global mining market

'Dad, mom, welcome to Xiangjiang, I've missed you so much.'

'My beloved Kumiko, mom misses you too.'

At the new Xiangjiang International Airport, Xia Yu welcomed his parents-in-law with his wife, Sumitomo Kumiko. Watching his mother-in-law, Jiang Pu Lisha, and his wife, Sumitomo Kumiko, embrace each other deeply, Xia Yu gave a small smile, before setting his gaze on his father-in-law, Sumitomo Kosuke.

Unlike the emotional women, the greeting between the two men was much more formal. Although they were father-in-law and son-in-law, they were not particularly close.

'Father-in-law, welcome to Xiangjiang.'

'Haha, it's been a long time.'

...

After all, the airport is not home. After a brief greeting, the group boarded the convoy and drove to Xia Yu's home.

Upon arrival, they met their granddaughter Xia Siqi. Sumitomo Kosuke and Jiang Pu Lisha couldn't help but tease her again, and laughter filled the house.

After the whole family enjoyed a sumptuous lunch together at noon, Xia Yu and Sumitomo Kosuke, father-in-law and son-in-law, went to the study on the second floor to chat and drink tea.

The topic, naturally, was the current capital war in Europe.

'Xia Yu, I want to discuss something with you. I hope we can exchange a hunting target.'

Sumitomo Kosuke didn't beat around the bush and got straight to the point.

Xia Yu's smile didn't change, and he asked with a smile, 'Which target?'

'We want Rio Tinto Group to give up on the acquisition of BHP,'

Sumitomo Kosuke said, looking at Xia Yu with burning eyes.

Previously, Xia Yu and Sumitomo Kosuke had negotiated many times via satellite phone and decided to cooperate in the field of mineral resources. Xia Yu had selected four targets: Anglo American, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and De Beers.

The Sumitomo consortium's targets, on the other hand, were BHP Billiton and Antofagasta.

Xia Yu frowned slightly and asked, 'Father-in-law, why do you want to change the target?'

The target of Antofagasta had not been moved, and Xia Yu knew without having to guess that this company was a Chilean copper giant headquartered in London. With the Sumitomo consortium's influence in the copper sector, it would never give up coveting this company.

As for the company BHP Billiton, its current strength is similar to that of Rio Tinto Group. However, BHP Billiton's main business is in the field of iron, aluminium, copper and other ores, while Rio Tinto Group, in addition to the field of mineral resources, also has a certain strength in the fields of ocean shipping and petroleum, with more comprehensive business.

Kousuke Sumitomo also had no intention of deceiving Xia Yu. He said frankly, 'I think being able to acquire Antofagasta is enough to skyrocket our influence in the world copper industry. Increasing the influence of the BHP Billiton in the copper industry is not particularly necessary. Why don't we let you have it, and the two of us will dominate the world copper resources market together.'

'Furthermore, we need to strengthen our energy mining and transportation, so I hope to be able to acquire Rio Tinto.'

Xia Yu nodded after a moment's thought and agreed to Sumitomo Kosuke's request: 'Okay, but I hope you can give me more help on this later.'

Sumitomo Kosuke nodded with a smile: "Of course, even if you didn't say it, I would still do my best to acquire more shares for you.'

Xia Yu smiled and poured some tea for Sumitomo Kosuke: "Father-in-law, are you guys ready? We have to do it tomorrow.'

'Of course we are ready. This time, the world economy will be affected by our actions.' A smile appeared on Kosuke Sumitomo's face. Thinking about the actions that would begin tomorrow, even he, who had seen many storms, could not help but feel anticipation.

After all, their actions had never occurred before in history.

...

The next day.

A shocking piece of news broke out in the global mining market: Roy Hill, Australia's fourth largest iron ore mine, announced a plan to increase production by 50% and lower the selling price of iron ore by 20%.

Then it was as if they had made an appointment.

A whole host of well-known mining companies, such as Teck Resources of Canada, Freeport-McMoRan of the United States, Sumitomo Metal Mining, John Lee Shah of Australia, Torbjørnmark of Australia, Buchanan Bolher Coal Mine, Monte Gunson Mining, Goff Bauxite, Pibara Iron Ore, Northern Mining of Australia, and many more, all announced production increases and price cuts.

These companies are influential in many different segments of the mineral resources industry.

The combined effect of increased production and lower prices is that

the prices of copper futures, iron ore futures, coal futures, aluminium futures and many other futures plummeted.

I don't know how many small and medium-sized countries cheered.

Because they can buy industrial raw materials at low prices.

However, the industries of small and medium-sized countries are not well developed, and their demand for industrial raw materials is not very high.

On the contrary, those economically developed countries reacted more strongly to this news, with both good and bad news.

They were happy because they could import large quantities of industrial raw materials at low prices, but they were worried that their own mining companies would face enormous competitive pressure.

But there was nothing the governments of these countries could do about this market behaviour. After all, they could not prevent domestic industrial companies from purchasing low-cost mineral resources, could they?

The financial elites certainly knew what was at stake.

They immediately voted with their feet.

They quickly downgraded the ratings of mining companies listed on the stock market, raised the risk value of this market, and quickly arranged to withdraw their funds and sell off the stocks of many mining companies.

While the world economy has not yet fully recovered, the global consumption of industrial raw materials will definitely not surge.

Therefore, these mining companies that announce production increases and price cuts are definitely hurting themselves. Even if they gain market share, their profit margins will definitely not be high enough to support a high market value.

And those mining companies that have not responded for the time being will fall into a vicious competition if they follow suit, with production costs soaring and profits plummeting.

If they don't follow suit, then their market share will be taken by other competitors, their revenue will fall, and their financial reports will not look good.

Therefore, this market, which is destined to become a quagmire, will either have to be abandoned quickly or else it will be left to rot.

Anglo American headquarters in London, UK.

Garwin Riley, Harry Oppenheimer's son-in-law, who took over from Harry Oppenheimer in 1982 and became chairman of Anglo American, is presiding over an urgent senior management meeting.

'Chairman, more than six of our regular customers have called to ask me whether the price of coal will fall in the future. One customer almost signed an agreement but has chosen to wait and see for now.'

'Chairman, we're facing the same problem in our iron ore business...'

'Chairman, the copper ore business has also been greatly affected...'

'Chairman, today the stock market opened for five minutes, and our company's stock price fell by more than 5%. As of the latest data I know, the decline has reached 12.72%. There are a lot of investors selling stocks, most of them are institutions. Do we need to repurchase the stocks to stabilize the company's stock price?'

'Chairman, before the meeting, I received a phone call from the vice president of Unicredit Bank. The review of a loan we are negotiating will take some time...'

'...'

One executive after another quickly reported on the work in their respective areas, and none of it was good news.

A swarm of bad news flooded into his mind, and Garvin Reilly could feel a group of bees buzzing around in his head. He was extremely irritated and unable to remain calm.