Twenty years of cold chain

Chapter 430 Overseas Region (2)

The establishment of the overseas market department is Tongxing's biggest structural change in recent years. The logic behind it is not complicated. Looking around, Tongxing has international departments in Sequoia Port and the airport, a long-established business group in Central Asia, and temporary offices in Southeast Asia.

These factors prevented Tongxing from establishing a sound human resources structure and added layers of procedures to many internal matters. While establishing an overseas market department, the international departments of various ports and transshipment centers were abolished, and instead, a large business group was established to coordinate the overall overseas market.

It must be said that this is a systemic transformation for Tongxing in order to build a global cold chain with an international perspective. In the past, Tongxing people often viewed the market as "just a matter of going in and out in both directions". Gradually, the overseas market, which they had never touched before, has entered Tongxing people's minds.

Currently, Tongxing's goods can reach Tatu City, Seram Island, and Bangladesh directly, each of which was once a point where Tongxing worked hard to expand its presence. However, as time went on, Hu Shutong realized that Tongxing lacked an overseas "cloud city." Purely one-way back-and-forth shipping could no longer satisfy Hu Shutong's appetite. If the cold chain could not be controlled and managed, it would forever remain a rigid business, unable to leverage the advantages of a hub, and profits would not be satisfactory.

The paper that appeared in front of Yang Chenghai was actually a map that couldn't be simpler. The two points marked on it were Zadar in Eastern Europe and Kuala Lumpur in Southeast Asia.

Tongxing plans to establish transshipment ports in these two cities, which is also the first challenge facing the overseas marketing department. Anyone familiar with the industry can easily see that these two locations, one by sea and one by land, both possess an astonishing radius of influence.

In Hu Shutong's heart, there has always been a grand and interconnected picture. It is not about the transformation of railway containers into refrigerated trucks on the road, nor about large ships docking and large trucks setting off. He envisions a world where the sea and land are truly interconnected, and he intends for a more unrestrained multimodal transport system that integrates sea, land and air in the world.

Zadar Port, located west of the Adriatic Sea, is a large bay in the Mediterranean Sea. It can handle goods from the Mediterranean and, via sea, can reach Tongxing Hongshan Port to the southeast. More importantly, it is also a crossroads of Europe, with access to the China-Europe Railway Express to the west. This means that Tongxing can distribute both sea and land transportation here. Isn't this a cloud city in another spatial dimension?

Kuala Lumpur Port is a golden central axis of maritime routes, a crucial point on the Maritime Silk Road fishing route, and also a hub for thriving nearshore aquaculture industries, including those around Seram Island. Goods from here can be shipped east or west, enriching domestic products or heading west to Europe to profit from price differences.

In terms of product segmentation, it's time for Tongxing Air Freight to really shine. Flying to deliver cutting-edge goods and strengthening the value of the cold chain is both a component and a powerful tool.

As a result, the overseas market department has become even more urgent, and it also shows people the real path of Tongxing for the next ten years. There is no end to what can be done. Many Tongxing people are not actually confused about the future, but rather they are too attached to the present and have lost the spirit of "how to break through" that they had back then. Instead, they have turned "whether or not" into a very profound contemplation.

This also explains from another perspective why the IPO was so popular. "We succeeded," "We even became so sought after," as if a sculptor had spent half his life creating a masterpiece, and then stood by and waited for the right price to go.

However, Hu Shutong dispelled people's hesitation at the meeting that day, summarizing his words in one sentence: "Look, we still have a lot to do."

Hu Shutong knew that Yang Chenghai had his own insurmountable obstacles, especially recently, his reputation as a "troublemaker" had been etched into the consensus of many Tongxing people.

However, at this moment, in this situation, he still only wanted to tell Yang Chenghai that he wasn't there to rest and recharge, but to meet the future commander of the Greater Overseas Region. And what he was doing now was the answer to everything.

Yang Chenghai was well aware of the implications. This appointment, which was like being parachuted in, and was in an independent overseas department, would allow him to immediately escape his current predicament and bring an abrupt end to the conflicting opinions within Tongxing.

Not long after, Hu Shutong brought up the story behind the scenes, which was his promise to Lu Jianhua: Tongxing needed to act like a non-listed company to demonstrate its confidence in not being listed. These two new ports and two massive warehousing and transshipment centers carry multiple layers of significance.

As he rambled on, Yang Chenghai's emotions were like a rollercoaster.

Writing a decent resignation letter would save him from experiencing the ups and downs of the present. After all, they are all businessmen, and there is nothing they cannot calculate. But Yang Chenghai would not calculate those things. At the very least, he would not put every single thing in terms of percentages and rates of return with the person in front of him.

Not far from this tavern is the long road he had walked many times, the end of which is where he paid five years' rent in one go with all his heart. The dejected man smashing a bottle in frustration late at night, the homeless man awakened by a downpour in his chair—all these things happened on this road.

Yang Chenghai took the paper, but didn't examine it closely. Instead, he folded it and put it in his pocket. He then called over a waiter and ordered more drinks, as well as a plate of prawns.

……

Autumn winds blow again, and another season of dazzling golden hues arrives.

With the 20th anniversary summit just around the corner, Tongxing has keynote speeches in both Qingning and Mingjiang, but Hu Shutong doesn't intend to address them separately. After all, how much difference can there be between Qingning and Mingjiang in industry-specific areas like markets, technology, and human resources?

He even considered not talking about these things at one point. The industry was already established, long ago, and people rarely discussed topics like "the first mile" or "the last mile" in that setting, nor did they focus their attention on green channels or fuel subsidies.

Concepts, systems, and models are becoming the real subjects of discussion. Although these things are very broad, if we are still living in the days of covering ourselves with ice with green cotton blankets and living in the days of worrying about the safety of cold storage, where do we get the confidence and awareness to study these things that lead to better and better?

Isn't this precisely an illustration of progress?

Mingjiang's schedule was a little later, but it held a special place in Hu Shutong's heart, as it had a different meaning.

He is a native of Qingyan and a long-time cold chain worker who has worked in the industry for many years. When talking about the hometown of cold chain, he must say it is Mingjiang.

To put it more gently—

That's where dreams begin.

I've loved cold chain logistics for twenty years.