Reborn in 2012, building a new energy empire

The next day, Jiang Haoran sat down at his desk on time.

The computer screen lit up with a startup hum, casting a cold white light on his face.

He skillfully logged into the trading software, and his personal account interface popped up. In the total assets column, the number silently froze: 184,000,000.00.

One hundred and eighty-four million.

The number lay there quietly, without any movement, yet it seemed to carry a certain heavy weight.

Jiang Haoran glanced at it for a few seconds, his eyes showing neither the dazedness nor excitement of suddenly becoming rich; he remained as calm as if he were reviewing a routine report.

One hundred and eighty million sounds like an astronomical figure, but if you really want to expand into the manufacturing industry, you have to split every penny in half.

He first set aside 20 million yuan and deposited it separately into a newly opened bank card.

This is a special fund for upgrading and renovating the family factory.

The purpose of this money is clear and specific: to pay the remaining balance for the three Decker Maho machine tools, to pour high-standard earthquake-resistant foundations and epoxy flooring for the factory, to pay for the food and lodging allowances for newly recruited technicians going to Shanghai for training, and to purchase the first batch of high-end alloy raw materials...

The amount of money wasn't much, but with careful budgeting, it was enough to completely transform the old factory that was struggling to survive.

Then, he accessed his existing stock account and transferred 50 million into it.

The page redirects to the watchlist, where more than a dozen infrastructure stocks, including Qinglong Pipe Industry, Guangdong Hydropower, and Anhui Construction Engineering, are neatly arranged.

Unlike the stagnant trend two months ago, their candlestick charts have now quietly broken free from the bottom, with the moving averages slowly turning upwards, showing a gentle and slow climb.

They have gradually started to move out of the pure bottoming range, but have not yet entered the main upward wave accompanied by huge trading volume and consecutive large positive lines.

Without hesitation, he began buying in batches according to the proportions he had calculated beforehand.

Over the next few trading days, he needed to continue operating in this subtle and gradual manner until the 50 million yuan was transformed into quietly lurking chips in these targets.

Finally, there was one hundred million left.

His mouse moved to the futures trading terminal, the interface switched, and the product list expanded.

Rubber, coke, rebar... these names are associated with tires, steel, and real estate, all of which are typical cyclical commodities closely related to the macroeconomy and fixed asset investment.

Due to the disappointing GDP growth this year, some rumors have already begun to circulate in the market.

Some astute investors have already begun to enter the market, and the concept of "new urbanization" has started to be mentioned and developed by various funds.

This logic sounds appealing, but Jiang Haoran knows it's mostly speculative hype, with the fundamentals not yet keeping up. A sharp rise before the holiday will likely be followed by a complete mess afterward.

But for him, this was precisely an opportunity.

For him, the truth isn't the most important thing. What matters is what the market believes and where the money will flow.

What he wants to profit from is this most lucrative and chaotic market trend before "expectations become reality."

Without much hesitation, he divided the remaining funds into three equal parts and established long positions in rubber, coking coal, and rebar respectively.

When placing the order, he deliberately broke up the large order and placed it in batches at different price levels. The whole process lasted more than 20 minutes, making it as smooth as possible and avoiding leaving any abrupt marks on the order book.

When the last order was confirmed as completed, Jiang Haoran released the mouse, leaned back deeply into his chair, and exhaled a long, slow breath.

The capital deployment has temporarily come to an end. But what truly weighs heavily on our minds is another battlefield—the real economy, especially the photovoltaic industry, which is currently in dire straits.

As November 2012 arrived, a harsh winter was already upon China's photovoltaic companies.

In September, the European Union officially launched an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese photovoltaic products. This single document, like a guillotine, completely severed the export lifeline upon which most companies depended for survival.

To make matters worse, in October 2012, the U.S. Department of Commerce made a final ruling to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Chinese crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, with rates ranging from 18.32% to 249.96%.

The stock prices of those once-prosperous listed companies plummeted, and news of layoffs, production stoppages, and bankruptcy liquidations began to appear frequently in the media.

Industry leaders are still able to hold on with their existing resources, while countless small and medium-sized manufacturers have been driven to the brink of collapse overnight.

"The darkest hour." These four words came to Jiang Haoran's mind.

He recalled that in 2012, China's photovoltaic product exports plummeted by more than 40% year-on-year, and the situation worsened in the fourth quarter.

The industrial model that was highly dependent on the European and American markets collapsed instantly, resulting in severe overcapacity and a bloody price war, with losses occurring for every component sold.

The media is filled with pessimistic views, experts are talking about "industry collapse" and "overcapacity clearing", and capital is avoiding the industry like the plague.

Jiang Haoran closed the briefing and walked to the window. The sun was shining brightly outside, but he could almost see thousands of miles away: empty workshops, halted production lines, and countless bewildered faces of workers.

Crisis, crisis, but within crisis lies opportunity.

He recalled those well-known names from later generations—Longi, GCL, Foster… It was during this harsh winter that they either achieved technological rebirth or established their leading position.

When the industry was forced into a corner, it unexpectedly unleashed an amazing will to survive and a capacity for innovation.

The domestic market began to emerge under the impetus of policies, and technological routes were forced to break through in a life-or-death struggle, with cost reduction and efficiency improvement becoming the only way to survive.

A diamond wire, a silicon particle… these technologies, which will seem commonplace ten years later, were almost unattainable luxuries in 2012. Core technologies were monopolized by foreign countries, and import prices were despairingly high. But it was precisely because of this despair that some were willing to risk everything to overcome these challenges.

Jiang Haoran knew that the "Kirin Technology" he had invested in and Wang Qiming's team were currently tackling the tough challenge of diamond wire.

He knew the technical path, but the specific process details, material formulas, and equipment debugging—every step could lead to disastrous failures.

Under Gu Qiushi's leadership, the data in Professor Sun's team's laboratory and the repeated failures of samples in Wang Qiming's workshop... were all digging inch by inch towards that seemingly bleak future.

Transformation is always a perilous undertaking, especially in an industry that has been abandoned by everyone during a downturn.

But he had to persevere.

It wasn't just for that investment, but also because he knew that the dawn would surely come.

In 2013, the policy landscape will completely shift, and the domestic photovoltaic market will experience explosive growth. Those companies that survive this downturn will usher in an unprecedented golden age.

He sat back down at his desk and opened a new email from Chen Jingge.

The attached document contains a preliminary screening list that he had previously asked his uncle to compile, which lists three small photovoltaic module manufacturers and supporting enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region that are on the verge of bankruptcy but have certain technological accumulation or equipment assets.

At this point, the prices of photovoltaic industry assets have been driven down to rock bottom.

Jiang Haoran carefully examined the information of the three companies: one was in Wuxi, with two old component production lines and a group of skilled workers; one was in Changzhou, focusing on photovoltaic junction boxes and connectors, with a good reputation for technology, but its funding chain had broken down; and the other was in Suzhou, the smallest in scale, but possessing several practical patents related to frame profiles.

He replied to the email with only one short sentence: "Arrange due diligence, focusing on the technical team and patent value; price is negotiable."

Counter-cyclical strategy, acquisitions and integrations.

This is the lowest-cost way to expand during a crisis.

He wanted to take advantage of the industry's coldest period to gather these scattered "sparks" at the lowest cost and form the initial prototype of an industrial cluster.

By the time we finished doing all that, it was already getting dark.

Jiang Haoran didn't turn on the lights, letting the dimness envelop the study. The light from the computer screen flickered on his face.

On one hand, there's the speculative fire about to ignite in the futures market—bustling, noisy, and filled with the thrill of money rolling around at breakneck speed.

On the other hand, there is the stark reality of the real economy, especially the photovoltaic industry, where struggles and perseverance make every step heavy and difficult.

But he knew that the former was just a means, a process of accumulating ammunition.

The latter, the seemingly muddy and risky path of real industry, is the foundation he truly wants to build, the thing that can transcend cycles and carry the future.

This road is destined to be lonely and long.