Chapter 371: Ship Cargo Cancellation Wave

Back when Yi Qing first emerged, it felt as if the world had turned upside down.
Under the shadow of the virus, everything withered, global financial markets were in turmoil, and panic selling swept everything away like a burst dam.
Factories shut down, flights were grounded, highways were deserted, and human civilization seemed to have been put on pause.
The precipitous collapse in energy demand even gave rise to one of the most absurd scenes in financial history—negative oil prices!
Against this backdrop, the price of international liquefied natural gas (LNG) suffered a severe blow.
Outside ports around the world, giant ships loaded with LNG resembled floating islands, nowhere to dock, nowhere to be received.
An unprecedented wave of LNG cargo cancellations swept through the entire industry, with countless buyers preferring to pay exorbitant penalties rather than accept these unsold and expensively stored LNG shipments.
Today, the world may be vast, but within the intricate web of finance, it has long been a interconnected community where a single event can have far-reaching consequences.
A hole poked anywhere can trigger a domino effect, leaving no one unscathed.
In the conference room of the energy giant E.ON in Düsseldorf, Germany, the atmosphere was colder than a Siberian chill.
“Those incompetent people in the financial investment department!”
The group’s CEO, Leonhard Byrne, a German man known for his composure, now had bloodshot eyes, like a trapped lion.
“Can anyone tell me why our exposure in the ‘Robin Hood’ incident is a staggering eight billion euros?!
Our main business is energy trading, not a Wall Street casino!”
“Mr. Byrne… we established financial derivatives positions to hedge some of the exchange rate and price risks associated with our energy purchases…”
The CFO's voice trembled.
"No one could have predicted that a financial turmoil triggered by the near collapse of 'Robin Hood' would destroy our meticulously designed financial model..."
"I don't want to hear excuses!" Byrne slammed his fist on the table.
"The banks are bombarding my office with collection calls!
They're threatening to downgrade our credit rating and tighten all our credit lines!
We need cash, now! Immediately! To fill this damn hole!"
An executive stood up, pale-faced, his voice hoarse:
“But… Mr. Bourne, it’s not just the ‘Robin Hood’ incident; we’re facing a double collapse.”
“What?!”
“On our core business side… due to the pandemic, all our industrial customers in Europe are shutting down, and demand for natural gas has plummeted.
But… but the long-term supply agreement we signed with Cheniere Energy two years ago is still in effect!
Every month, six giant tankers fully loaded with liquefied natural gas are sailing towards us from the Gulf of Mexico!”
The air in the meeting room froze instantly.
Everyone understood what this meant.
Amidst negative oil prices and a wave of cancellations, they were forced to spend hundreds of millions of euros every month to buy overpriced natural gas that they simply couldn’t sell or store!
Those energy sources once considered the lifeline of the future have now become the final straw that broke the camel's back!
“We can’t accept this shipment!” Byrne roared. “Like everyone else, pay the penalty and cancel the shipment!”
“But…we’re out of cash…” the CFO said desperately.
“The ‘Robin Hood’ hole is too big; we can’t even afford the penalty!
Any large expenditure now could bankrupt us instantly!”
“Then…then sell them!” Byrne, grabbing his hair, his eyes bloodshot, made a crazy decision.
“Accept the shipment, and then on the spot market! Sell off all the shipments still at sea, no matter the price!
What I need is ‘revenue’! Cash flow! Even if it’s at a loss!”
“But Mr. Byrne…in the current market, natural gas spot prices have already fallen below cost. Doing this will result in huge losses, a complete financial disaster!”
"If you don't cut your losses, we'll die now! That's an order!
I don't care what methods you use, turn that damned natural gas into cash! Now! Immediately!"
With Bourne's roar, the executives scrambled out of the building.
Who could have imagined that the first domino to fall in a financial turmoil across the ocean would land so precisely on the head of this German energy group!
***
Meanwhile, on the other side of the storm.
In Su Hao's office, Liang Haiyuan was giving a report.
"Chairman Su, Vitra, the large Canadian grain company, and its parent company Glencore, have responded."
"What was their reaction?" Su Hao asked without looking up.
"The word 'enthusiastic' doesn't even begin to describe it; they're practically desperate to sell.
Judging from their expressions, they're practically begging to sell the company to us immediately, afraid we'll back out.
It seems Vitara's operations are in dire straits.
Glencore accepted all our acquisition offers without even haggling."
"And the acquisition price?"
"Ten billion US dollars."
"Not bad." Su Hao nodded.
"In addition, as you instructed, we also inspected several other Canadian grain companies. Here's the list."
Last year's unprecedented drought in Canada severely damaged the entire grain industry, plunging many companies into serious financial crisis.
The recent "Robin Hood" financial turmoil has only exacerbated the plight of many struggling businesses.
Su Hao hadn't expected that his beating up a brokerage firm called "Robin Hood" would trigger such a huge butterfly effect.
He couldn't help but sigh; perhaps this is the terrifying aspect of finance.
One link in a chain leads to another; if one link breaks, no one knows how many behemoths it will drag down.
He took the list and glanced at it.
The severe drought coupled with the financial crisis—a double blow—had left quite a few companies eager to sell.
Several of them seemed to gleam with golden light on the list, desperately beckoning to him.
Su Hao casually circled a few and handed the list back.
"These companies you selected are all based in Alberta, aren't they?"
Alberta, a province in western Canada.
Su Hao wasn't going there because of the geographical location; it was purely intuition.
"Okay, tell the group to talk to these companies and secure them all.
Remember, this time it's not using our Fanghuan Investment's money; it's through the group's accounts."
"Ah, okay, I'll get right on it."