The above-mentioned five shipyards, three government-run and two private-run, have almost occupied more than 90% of the warship orders. The reason why some other shipyards can still get about 10% of the share is purely because many warships do not use them. The technology is too good, such as some transport ships, inland river gunboats, offshore patrol ships and other warships, but the technology content is not very high.
Out of support and also to spread risks, the navy will give some low-tech ships to some medium-sized shipyards for construction.
In the field of warships, Songjiang Naval Shipyard takes the lead, and Guangzhou Shipyard takes the second place. Although the profit ratio of warships is not very high, the total price is high. This profit is actually quite a lot. In the end, the orders for warships are particularly stable. …
The expansion of the Da Chu Empire Navy and the subsequent replacement and update of warships require a large number of warships to be put into service every year, so Songjiang Naval Shipyard does not have to worry about running out of orders...
Relying on the stimulation of naval orders, Songjiang Naval Shipyard also has the highest technical level, which in turn has allowed them to achieve great success in the field of merchant ships!
Today, the market for various new types of sea-going ships, namely Galen's improved civilian ships, including armed merchant ships, is the main market in the shipbuilding industry of the Dachu Empire.
Because the prices of these ships are high and the profits are high, those trading companies will not hesitate to throw money into them for the huge profits in ocean trade, and they will not even blink at huge orders of hundreds of thousands or millions.
Among them, the ones with the largest market share and the highest profits belong to the armed merchant ships in the tonnage range from 500 tons to 1,000 tons.
Armed merchant ships in this range have achieved a relatively good balance in terms of construction costs, operating costs, and cargo capacity. Major trading companies particularly like this kind of armed merchant ships.
Therefore, merchant ships of this level also occupy the mainstream market.
As for the market for armed merchant ships with larger tonnage, there are actually not many.
It’s not that big ships are bad, but they are too expensive. Currently, only the three major government-run trading companies will order such super-large armed merchant ships. In many cases, they are not for trade, but to act as force bearers and as the leader of the trade fleet. Flagship use.
Therefore, ultra-large armed merchant ships may seem to have high single-ship prices and high profits, but in fact their total market share is not large.
In the improved Galen shipbuilding market of less than 500 tons, there is also a lot of demand for ships in this field, which are mainly used for local coastal navigation. As for ocean navigation, the tonnage is too small and the restrictions are too great. As long as there is some strength in the trade No company wants such a small-tonnage ship today.
Nowadays, the wealthy customers in the shipbuilding industry are all these trading companies. As for other customers, especially those who run local coastal routes, they don’t have much money in their pockets, so they are not generous with their money, and the prices are also very low.
Moreover, many shipyards can build small Galen-improved ships of several hundred tons, and the market competition is greater, which also leads to lower prices and lower profits.
This means that the market for Galen-improved ships in the 500-ton to 1,000-ton class is currently the main profit source of the shipbuilding industry, and in this field, Songjiang Shipyard alone holds 55% of the market share.
The profits of various factories in the shipbuilding industry in the past two years are: Songjiang Naval Shipyard > Guangzhou Shipyard + Qingdao Naval Shipyard + Lishi Shipyard + Luohua Shipyard.
This shows the strength of Songjiang Naval Shipyard!
Songjiang Shipyard, which makes a lot of money, in addition to turning over profits, also reinvests a large amount of profits, such as building more and more professional shipyards, processing plants, etc.
The investment amount of Songjiang Naval Shipyard in shipbuilding and related upstream and downstream fields is more than the official direct investment in the shipbuilding industry over the years combined.
However, in the past two years, as the shipbuilding industry continues to boom, more and more funds, especially private funds, have begun to pour into the shipbuilding industry.
The shipbuilding industry has been hailed as a new gold mine after the textile industry. Moreover, the entry threshold for the shipbuilding industry is not as high as that of the steel industry and machinery industry. It can be regarded as an industry friendly to private capital in the field of heavy industry. .
In a series of heavy industrial fields, many industries are not very friendly to private capital. It does not mean that official capital does not allow them to enter, nor does it mean that many barriers are deliberately set up. It means that the investment is large, the return of capital is slow, and the competition is also high.
Perhaps the simplest among them is the mining industry. There is basically no technical threshold for this thing. You can just hire people to mine. This is also an industry in which many private capitals are involved. However, low threshold means high competition and low profits.
In the mining industry, it may seem that you are making money while lying down, but in fact, the officials often use auctions to auction mines, and the auction method does not mean direct buyout, but revenue sharing... The officials are not even in harmony with each other. Whatever profit sharing you do, we will share the revenue directly with you.
Then the taxes in the mining industry are not low either.
If you want to make an investment and just sit back and make money, that is actually possible, but the profit is not high and it will take many years to get back the capital, which is considered a relatively stable type of investment.
Then there are some small-scale machinery industries. The barriers to entry are also quite low. Just find a few skilled craftsmen and build a few pieces of equipment, and you can even become a machinery factory. But again, it is Because the threshold is low, there are many people doing it. No matter what, if there are too many people doing it, then naturally there will be no money.
Those who thrive better in the machinery industry are small and medium-sized enterprises with their own unique advanced technologies, or simply large factories that use comprehensive scale to reduce costs. Without technology and scale, they will often die ugly.
Technical and financial issues are major obstacles for private capital to enter the heavy industry.
But in the shipbuilding industry, these two major obstacles have disappeared...
As for technology, after more than ten years of technological cultivation, there are now a lot of engineers and even skilled craftsmen in China who can build new types of sea-going ships.
As for funds, in fact, you don’t need a lot of money to build a shipyard. It doesn’t cost much to build a small shipyard. You can build a decent shipyard with just a few thousand yuan.
If you have a technical team, a lot of wealthy businessmen with no way to invest can wave their checks and seek investment. This is the path taken by Songjiang Luohua Shipyard. Today, the shipyard is the fourth largest shipyard in the Dachu Empire. Big shipyard.
If you have money, you can also directly recruit people to form your own technical team. This is the development path of Guangzhou Li's Shipyard. Today, Li's Shipyard is the third largest shipyard in China.
One is third and the other is fourth. These two shipyards are both purely privately funded shipyards. They have squeezed the unlucky Qingdao Naval Shipyard behind them, second only to Guangzhou Shipyard and Songjiang Naval Shipyard.
The shipbuilding industry is also the first time in the heavy industry of the Da Chu Empire that a pure private capital investment company has entered a first-class industry.
This also stimulated the hearts of those businessmen even more!
Two major examples have proved that private capital can make a big difference in the shipbuilding industry. Therefore, countless landowners, gentry or businessmen in new industries, after seeing the popularity of the shipbuilding industry, waved cashier's checks from financial banks and wanted to Join it.
In just a few years, thousands of shipyards of various types have emerged in the Chu Empire.
In addition, at least hundreds of shipyards are registered every year... Similarly, a large number of shipyards that cannot continue to operate go bankrupt or are merged and acquired every year.
The prosperity of the shipbuilding industry attracted the influx of countless people and funds, but also swallowed up the wealth of countless people. Many businessmen lost all their money because of their investment in shipbuilding.
In this case, a very special shipbuilding company also appeared in the sight of a large number of trading companies or shipping companies!
This is Zhenjiang No. 1 Shipbuilding Company!
Many people are wondering why this shipbuilding company became famous all of a sudden. Before that, except for the local people in Zhenjiang Prefecture, no one else had even heard of this name.
But the first ship they built caused a sensation in the entire shipping and shipbuilding industry!
This is a ship with a V-shaped cross section and a clipper bow... Well, that's not unusual, because the V-shaped clipper bow ship type is no longer news. The stamp express ships are all of this type.
They are all V-shaped clipper bows, and the length-to-width ratio is often extremely exaggerated, often six to one or even seven to one.
Such a large aspect ratio is naturally intended to achieve extremely high speeds!
Therefore, these two typical representative ships are very fast... However, in addition to being extremely fast, these ships with clipper bows also have a lot of shortcomings in other aspects.
For example, for the sake of speed, the cargo capacity is very small. Don't expect bulk cargo. At most, it can only transport letters or small items.
It is still for the sake of speed, so the aspect ratio is very large, so that the lateral stability is too poor to deploy the artillery for shooting.
It's still for speed, so the ship looks big, but compared to battleships or armed merchant ships, the materials used are relatively 'economical'.
That is to say, there is no so-called thick wooden shell armor and thick deck support structure, so it is not suitable for combat use at all.
Why do you think there are so many problems? It's because when the Naval Ship Administration Department designed this new ship type, it didn't consider loading or combat. Everything was just for speed!
This is a fast communication ship...not a battleship or a transport ship. Its only mission is to cross the sea and carry information from one part of the distant sea to another part of the sea at the fastest speed.
Therefore, speed is its most important and only performance requirement, and other performances are abandoned for the sake of speed!
At the same time, the navigation performance is not very good. Although the ship itself has a good ability to withstand high sea conditions due to the clipper bow, and can even continue racing in strong winds and waves, but the ship can withstand it does not mean that people can withstand it...
The feeling of riding on this kind of boat is so uncomfortable...it's bumping around and swaying from side to side, it's as uncomfortable as you want it to be.
Not to mention ordinary people, even veteran sailors who have been drifting at sea all year round will vomit to death if they cannot adapt to this kind of ship for a period of time!
Therefore, the crews of such postal express ships and communication ships often need to undergo long-term specialized training before they can serve for a long time on any rocking ship!
Therefore, in recent years, although there are some ships using V-shaped clipper bows, they are only limited to ships that pursue extreme speed, and are basically not used by other ship types.
Generally speaking, ships sailing on oceans are U-shaped boats, and they are still U-shaped with a wider bottom and a narrower top. This is true whether they are warships or armed merchant ships. Well, that is, the improved cover of the Naval Ship Administration Department of the Dachu Empire Lun ship type.
As an aside, it was because of this type of ship that the Chu Empire searched all over the world for naturally curved shipbuilding timber to serve as ship ribs.
If it is an early traditional V-shaped structure, the naturally curved ribs can be used without such trouble.
The advantage of this U-shaped ship is very prominent, that is, it has very good stability and is suitable for deploying a large number of artillery for naval artillery battles. At the same time, the loading capacity can also be very large, making it suitable as a cargo ship.
This is also the reason why the ships used by navies or trading companies all over the world are all Galenic ship types. It is also the reason why the Chu Empire improved more excellent ship types based on the Galenic ship type.
However, the new ship type that caused a sensation in Zhenjiang First Shipbuilding Company is the V-shaped arrow-shaped bow ship type, and it is different from the exaggerated length-to-width ratio of the clipper ships in the Navy or the Postal Service. The new ship type of Zhenjiang First Shipbuilding Company The length-to-length ratio is only about five to one.
Of course, this five-to-one aspect ratio is considered a relatively large aspect ratio for contemporary ships.
For example, the aspect ratio of battleships is often only a few points, while only cruisers and frigates have an aspect ratio of four to one.
The length and width of Galen's improved merchant ship are almost the same.
First Shipbuilding Company's new ships have a length-to-width ratio of five to one, which naturally leads to higher speeds.
In addition to using a V-shaped clipper bow and a larger aspect ratio, this ship also uses a three-mast soft fore-and-aft sail... Soft fore-and-aft sails are very common on small ships, but very rare on large ships. , and this new ship built by the First Shipbuilding Company is not small, with a full load displacement of more than 500 tons.
V-shaped arrow-shaped bow, five to one aspect ratio, plus multi-mast soft longitudinal sails... no one has thought of these knot combinations before, or they have thought of them but no one has actually done them.
After the First Shipbuilding Company combined these features, it created a very special ship: the Changlin.
One was ordered by Jinling Shipping Company for express passenger transport on domestic short sea routes.
When Jinling Shipping Company held a design tender at that time, it put forward conflicting performance requirements. They required that the ship must have good upwind sailing capabilities so that it can be easily navigated throughout the year; it also needed to have good adaptability to complex offshore sea conditions. Ability; need to maintain high speed, the average speed cannot be less than eight knots;
Then you need to be able to carry some cargo. After all, in addition to carrying passengers, ships also need to transport cargo.
Then, the operating costs should not be too high, and the operating personnel should be reduced as much as possible!
The combination of this series of complex design requirements directly kicked out a large number of traditional Chinese ship types and the now popular Galen ship type... The reason is simple: the speed cannot meet the requirements.
In the end, the designers of Zhenjiang No. 1 Shipbuilding Company clicked their heads and began to imitate the navy's fast communication ships... Of course, they cannot be used directly. These communication ships are nothing but speed. Apart from the navy and No shipping company or trading company other than the Post Office is interested in them!
They lowered the ultra-large aspect ratio of the fast communication ship, and then found that the stability was acceptable. Although the cargo capacity was not as good as that of the Galen ship, it was there.
The sails were rigged, but they did not use the soft square sails of the Navy... Because the Jinling Shipping Company clearly required to reduce operating expenses, the soft square sails that consumed too many manpower were not enough.
At the beginning, the First Shipbuilding Company tried the traditional Chinese hard horizontal sail...the result was naturally unreliable.
In fact, pure hard sails also have characteristics and benefits, and they are even more mainstream in later generations. However, this thing requires good material technology as support. For example, hard sails are best made of nylon... and the masts must be made of hollow high-performance steel pipes.
The current technology of the Dachu Empire is far from home, so it is unreliable to use hard sails, so they can only use soft sails.
After some trial and error, they combined the soft longitudinal sails and traditional hard square sails used on many small ships, hung the square sail on the topmast and topmast, and hung the gaff jib on the topmast. They successfully The combination of Western-style soft sails and Chinese-style hard sails resulted in a new type of fore-and-aft rigging, which they called the 'sprit rigging'.
After successfully solving the sail rigging problem and combining many designs together, this new type of ship emerged.
In the end, this design impressed Jinling Shipping Company. In fact, it was the only ship design that met the design requirements of Jinling Shipping Company. Jinling Shipping Company had no choice...
In the end, an order was placed to build one... It was just one ship. Jinling Shipping Company also had to consider the risks. No matter how good the paper design was, it had to build one to try out first. If it didn't work, it would stop the loss in time and then find another one. method.
Then the 'Changlin' was built, and after its first sea trial, it suffered a huge shock!
In the first trial, the Changlin showed excellent performance, with extremely fast speed and excellent sailing ability against the wind. The clipper bow also had excellent sailing stability in high sea conditions, which prevented it from being hit by any waves. Situation swarming onto the deck.
And although the stability is not as good as the Galen ship, it is not too bad. It cannot deploy artillery, but it is not a big problem if it is just a crew.
At the same time, this kind of ship requires few sailors and the sailing cost is not high.
This time on trial, the new ship type was a huge success!
After the Jinling Shipping Company achieved great success in its first trial voyage, it did not waste half a second and directly signed an agreement with Zhenjiang No. 1 Shipbuilding Company, which owns the patent for top-sail and fore-sail sails, to add five more ships of the same class, as well as to Orders for five large 1,000-ton new ships were placed.
As soon as the order was signed, a group of shipping companies came to the door, and even trading companies that specialized in overseas trade came to try to purchase this new ship type.
In fact, they want to find other shipyards to directly purchase this new ship type, but in the 'Changlin ship type', other technical features are good, and there are basically no restrictions. For example, the special ship type of 'V-shaped clipper bow', then It was developed by the Ship Administration Department and has been made public for everyone to use.
But the 'upper edge gaff sail' is a patent developed by the First Shipbuilding Company. Even though it is just a sail layout method, they still applied for a patent and have the patent rights.
Don’t think it’s nonsense that this is just a sail layout method, and that it can be patented. In fact, it is not nonsense at all. As long as it is a first-of-its-kind new method, any new method can theoretically apply for a patent.
If this cannot be patented, then the patents on a lot of mechanical equipment cannot be applied for either, because many technological breakthroughs may sound grand, but in fact they may lie in some changes in the shape of the parts... And this change caused a huge breakthrough in technology.
Therefore, the upper edge gaff sail installation can be patented, and the patent protection has been for fifteen years!
In theory, as long as the First Shipbuilding Company did not license the patent to others, they would be the only ones able to produce and sell topsail sails within fifteen years.
Due to patent restrictions, those shipping companies that wanted new ship models had no choice but to find Zhenjiang First Shipbuilding Company. The arrival of countless personnel from shipping or trading companies made Zhenjiang First Shipbuilding Company instantly explosive in the shipbuilding industry and shipping trade circles. fire.
Even the Da Chu Di newspaper published the news that the First Shipbuilding Company's new ship type had achieved great success during its trial voyage, and an article commented that this Changlin ship type would change the empire's travel and life.
When people make long-distance sea journeys in the future, the time can be greatly shortened.
Some more expensive and time-sensitive goods, such as tea, can be transported from the place of origin to markets in various places more quickly.
In addition, the author of the article also consulted shipbuilding experts, and these shipbuilding experts pointed out that in addition to the extremely excellent speed of the Changlin ship, the powerful headwind and windward sailing capabilities brought by its 'upper edge gaff sail rig' are actually more powerful than the More suitable for use in rivers, lakes and offshore waters.
The upper edge girder sail can replace the traditional hard sail in the past and become the mainstream sail in the inland lake area. Even the Changlin ship type can replace the sand boat and become the new main ship type for inland lake transportation.
And this has also attracted the attention of a number of domestic shipping companies that are engaged in inland river and lake transportation.
Zhenjiang No. 1 Shipbuilding Company is completely popular!
Looking at the more than 30 orders for Changlin-type ships that have been signed, and hundreds of ordering intentions... Song Zuotie, the general manager of Zhenjiang No. 1 Shipbuilding Company, is happy and painful!
There are too many orders...
His shipyard simply can't do it. With just these orders and intention orders, the First Shipbuilding Company will not be able to build so many ships in ten years...
After all, his No. 1 Shipbuilding Company is just a small shipyard, with only a few hundred workers. It is considered to be quite strong among small shipyards, but looking at the nationwide shipbuilding industry, they cannot even get into the top 100. …
It is simply impossible to fulfill so many orders.
Maybe, it’s time to consider another way. The remaining orders don’t sell boats, but sell sails directly!
Anyway, these people basically came here to install the upper edge gaff sails, and they would be even happier if the sails were sold directly to them.
Although this gives away part of the hull's profits, it is still better than watching orders pile up and not daring to take orders.
You can also license the patent for sail rigs to other shipyards, let them directly produce new sail rigs, and then collect the patent fees yourself, but the licensing fee must be high.
This is a good thing that has caused a sensation. The licensing fee must not be too low, otherwise he will be sorry for the fact that he used to hold tea every day, cross-legged and stare at the few engineers under him who stayed up late and worked overtime to design the Changlin Hao.
During that time, I drank several kilograms of tea!
But no matter what, Song Zuotie knew very well that he was going to get rich, even more rich than he had ever dreamed of before...
I just want to be the emperor
