Little Swift's sincere attitude made everyone hesitate.
Since he so readily admitted the figure, and I had proposed a cost of 1 trillion US dollars, he must have some reversal hidden somewhere.
Many directors were pleased by this way of speaking. One director directly said, "Mr. Chairman, please stop beating around the bush. Just tell us directly, what method do you have to reverse the 5 trillion US dollar cost to 1 trillion US dollars?"
"Mr. Little Swift, you're not going to ask us to pay the additional 4 trillion US dollars in construction costs again, are you?" another director couldn't help but say.
He had just said this as a jab, but after he spoke, the other directors present felt a chill.
Since Little Swift had the nerve to shift the land exchange work to them earlier, it was not impossible for him to dump the 4 trillion US dollars in construction costs on them now.
Thinking of this, many even considered running away.
Then Little Swift continued, "Not at all. This situation is impossible. This construction fund will definitely be borne by our company. You can all rest assured, I absolutely have no intention of making you pay 4 trillion US dollars. Instead, the construction cost of the entire pipeline railway can genuinely be reduced to below 1 trillion US dollars!"
"..." No one wanted to speak now. They all just quietly watched Little Swift's performance.
"Ahem, gentlemen, I wonder if you are all curious about who the friend I mentioned earlier, who told me the actual cost would increase by 25%, is?"
"..."
"That's right, this friend is my friend from China, and he is also the chief designer of China High-Speed Rail Development Co., Ltd. As everyone knows, our parent company, Jiangnan Group, is also a shareholder in this company. So when I returned to China for my annual report last year, I accompanied our Boss Huang to pay a New Year's visit to this chief designer and also chatted with him about the construction of the pipeline railway."
"At that time, the entire pipeline railway had already been completed, with only some finishing work left. So I was very curious and asked him, 'Mr. Chief Designer, how much did it cost you to build this pipeline?'"
"How much?" After only two moments of tacit silence, the directors found it difficult to maintain their tacit understanding, because they were all captivated by this question.
In fact, at that time, how much money Chinese people spent to build this vacuum ultra-high-speed maglev pipeline was a very hot topic worldwide.
China High-Speed Rail Development Company was not a listed company, so it did not need to disclose financial reports. Therefore, unless they could get inside information, it was difficult to figure out the construction cost from the company.
On the other hand, China's official media had never carried out any relevant reports, and other official news also tacitly avoided the issue of construction costs.
So everyone was very curious, how much did this earth-shattering pipeline railway cost?
In this regard, various organizations around the world made corresponding predictions. The most exaggerated were from European institutions, which predicted that China's railway cost at least an astonishing 6 trillion yuan.
This was why the Chinese had refused to disclose the cost from beginning to end. A cost of 6 trillion yuan would not be recouped even in a hundred years. If this news were released, it would likely immediately trigger public dissatisfaction.
US institutions concluded that it cost 5 trillion yuan, 1 trillion yuan less than Europe. The reason was that they believed Chinese technology was immature and used very cheap construction materials, so the price should be lower, but the lifespan of the entire pipeline was impressive, lasting only about 10 years. Even if they were being kind.
In comparison, the figures from Japan and South Korea were better. This was likely because they were closer to China and had significant investments in China. Therefore, these two countries had a deeper understanding of China's labor costs.
So they believed that the actual construction cost of this railway should be around 4 trillion yuan.
It is worth mentioning that whether it was the US, Europe, Japan, or South Korea, although their estimated costs varied, they all implicitly assumed that it was much lower than the cost of building it themselves in the US.
But the actual construction cost remained an unanswered question by any country or institution.
However, it seemed that the standard answer was about to emerge, as this was the answer given by the chief designer of China High-Speed Rail Development Company, and its authenticity should be beyond doubt.
"At that time, when I asked this question, he held up one finger to me," Little Swift said vividly. "Facing this finger, my first reaction was 1 trillion US dollars."
"But even Europeans believed that China's pipeline only needed 6 trillion yuan, so there was no reason to spend 1 trillion US dollars. Moreover, if 1 trillion US dollars were indeed used, China's economy should have experienced significant fluctuations, but this almost never happened."
"After much hesitation, I gave an answer that I myself considered unbelievable at the time, which was 1 trillion yuan!"
Little Swift's self-analysis was basically what the directors were thinking. If he held up one finger, it should mean 1 trillion yuan.
But then the cost seemed too exaggerated. Could such a magnificent project be built for 1 trillion yuan? Was that possible?
Just as everyone thought this chief designer might have had too much to drink and was habitually bragging, they heard Little Swift continue, "When I stated the answer of 1 trillion yuan, the chief designer shook his head and said, 'That's too much!'"
"I was stunned. If 1 trillion yuan was too much, then was he pointing to 100 billion yuan with that one finger? That was absolutely impossible."
"So I asked, was it 100 billion US dollars?"
"The chief designer shook his head again. Just as I was about to say the insane figure of 100 billion yuan, he told me, 'Alright, you don't need to guess anymore. We spent a total of 400 billion yuan!'"
"'What?' I was completely stunned and then angrily questioned him, 'Didn't you just hold up one finger?'"
Unexpectedly, he replied with displeasure, "Why did you only see the one finger I held up, but not the other four fingers I clenched together?"
"Hahaha!" The scene erupted in laughter. Although the joke was a bit stale, it was very funny.
However, after the laughter, everyone felt a bit unnerved. Could it be true that such a pipeline railway only cost 400 billion yuan? Was this really possible?
"Alright, the joke is over. I admit that the anecdote I just told was made up. The actual situation is that the Chairman of China High-Speed Rail Development Company personally invited me to visit their company and then revealed the entire construction cost to me!"
"I was very skeptical at the time, and it wasn't until this chairman presented me with the complete cost report that I believed that the Chinese really only spent 400 billion yuan to build such a pipeline."
"Let me briefly share with you how this 400 billion yuan cost came about. First, 150 billion yuan was for labor and construction costs. This is indeed where the Chinese have an advantage; their labor costs and machinery costs are astonishing!"
"But what is even more astonishing is that the funds used to build the pipelines were only 250 billion yuan. This translates to a cost of less than 60 million yuan per kilometer of pipeline!"
"I found this figure extremely hard to believe, and then they showed me a more detailed report on the pipeline's cost."
"First, as everyone knows, the Chinese considered cost issues to the extreme when designing the pipelines. Our pipelines have a diameter of over 5 meters, while the Chinese pipelines have a diameter of only one meter."
"As a result, the quality of these pipelines is only 1/9 of the quality of our pipelines, directly saving about 90% of the pipeline material costs."
"Secondly, to maintain the stability of the pipeline and achieve strong conductivity, our pipelines require an additional layer of high-conductivity material, over 0.5 millimeters thick, inside."
"The material cost of this thin 0.5-millimeter high-conductivity layer accounts for 48.2% of the entire pipeline cost."
"However, the Chinese have developed a special material technology. By simply plating this layer on the inner wall of the pipeline, similar to electroplating, the pipeline's interior can achieve a near-superconducting conductive effect. The material cost in this aspect is only 0.86% of ours."
"These two figures alone have directly helped the Chinese reduce pipeline material costs by 95%. Coupled with the technical breakthroughs and innovations the Chinese have made in other pipeline materials, and their completely different maglev design philosophy from ours, the overall construction cost can be further reduced by more than 70%."
"This ultimately results in our 1 kilometer of pipeline costing 1 billion US dollars, equivalent to 7 billion yuan. However, the Chinese only need 60 million yuan, less than 1% of ours."
"Gentlemen, imagine if we could fully adopt Chinese technology and build pipelines at Chinese prices. Even if our labor costs were twice as high as the Chinese, it would only double the cost from 400 billion yuan to 800 billion yuan. If we add 3000 kilometers to the distance, that would double again, from 800 billion yuan to 1.6 trillion yuan."
"But the final conversion to US dollars would be less than 200 billion US dollars. So tell me, is the 1 trillion US dollar cost I prepared enough?"