Empire of the Ring

There was a time when grain exporters had more authority but in recent years, importers had become more vocal.

It was because large farming companies produced more yields per unit area due to mechanization farming. Naturally, overproduced grains made exporters compete with each other to secure buyers. Grain price hit the bottom within the next half-century.

At last, precious grains were converted into feedstuff when people in underdeveloped countries still suffered starvation. It would make sense that all people around the globe would have plenty of food to eat if there was an overproduction of grains, but the fact was that there were more people who suffered hunger in the world now.

Even if it was difficult to buy grains in the year of poor harvest due to an extreme weather event, a country with rich natural resources as Azerbaijan had no difficulty in making international arrangements with governments of other countries to import grains since its resources were its weapons.

However, private grain traders strictly followed the law of supply and demand. In years of poor harvest due to an extreme weather event, exporters had an advantage and in years of good harvest, importers had an advantage.

As for this year, it suffered global severe weather and grain production had been so poor. Many referred grains as ‘grain weapon,’ and naturally, the exporters held an advantageous position in the market. However, producers in Kazakhstan were not among them. It was because the charter vessel owners of the Caspian Sea all contracted with Youngho and their vessels were being remodeled to turn into mineral carriers causing trouble for the grain producers for shipping grains. Thus, they lost their chance to raise grain prices to the importers.

If they had enough room to store the grains, they could have displayed nerves but the small-scale grain producers did not have decent storage warehouses. It would be maddening for them if the grains stored in the open air storage yard at the Port of Atyrau were ruined from rains in the winter’s wet season.

Youngho was like a savior to the grain traders, as the grain traders heard that Arirang Shipping was running two 5,000-ton bulk freighters as grain carriers. A vessel in the 5,000-ton class was considered small in the Atlantic, but it was a mega ship in the Caspian.

Although he wanted to take as much time as possible before mobilizing his vessels, he had to run his vessels earlier after hearing grain traders were suffering because of his business decision. Not only grain silos but also open-air storage yards were completely filled with grains causing problems to many.

The grain traders shouted in joy as Youngho’s freighter was loaded with their grains. Their shouts represented their hardship meanwhile. When the winter’s wet season came, the wheat stored in the open-air would soon rot and all of them would be ruined, not even being able to be used as feedstuff. Since the Port of Baku was only 650 kilometers away from the Port of Atyrau, it would be dreadful if grains got rotten because there was no vessel to carry them. Thus, two vessels of Arirang Shipping were indeed saviors to them. If they did not deliver the grains in time, they would fail not only this year’s trades, but also trades to come in the future since they would lose buyers’ trust in them.

Slow old bulk freighters that were equipped with poor hatch covers could not compete with the fast, new bulk freighters that could travel in bad weathers.

Sailing at the average speed of 15 knots, it only took the new freighters 24 hours to get to Baku from Kazakhstan and the round trip could be completed in two days.

Since loading and unloading wheat took up two days as well, if the freighters were operated continuously, each could have seven round trips in a month, which was an unimaginable number of trips in the past.

If waves were high near the Port of Atyrau, ships had to wait for an indefinite period of time until they calmed down and even in great weathers, old and slow ships took double the travel time of the new ones. Likewise, if the waves near Baku’s port were high, they had to wait. The bad circle went on and it was even hard for them to travel three to four times a month. Besides, there had been many sinking of the freighters while carrying grains and shippers were frequently upset by it.

Many shippers were said to even feel sick when they saw bulk freighters. When communication environment was poor in the past, many said that they could only eat after seeing the freighters returning to the port as they waited for their safe returns with the knot of tension in their stomachs.

There were no vessels of good performance in the Caspian, due to the economic downturn. So, it was indeed surprising to shippers that two brand new 5,000-ton freighters were proudly sailing around the Caspian Sea.

As Arirang Shipping’s vessels were mobilized and the urgent problem was taken care of, the regional government of Atyrau and exporters praised Youngho.

Of course, Kim Chun played a key role in making Youngho a hero since he had drawn the longbow and told officials and exporters that Youngho had broken charter contracts with other shippers for his vessels and decided to save the city of Atyrau. Saying that now was the only time to take advantage of the situation to burden the city government and exporters with debts of heart, he bragged about it everywhere. In the end, Youngho had to force him to stop, because he was getting out of control.

Shamakhi also thanked Youngho and paid him a high shipping cost and vessel agency commission fee. Since fixed shipping fare rate and commission fee did not tend to shift easily, Shamakhi was not happy about it, but he could not raise his grain price indiscreetly because of the Azerbaijani government’s pressure. He had no other option, but to pay Youngho a high price.

Shamakhi promoted Arirang Shipping to the government officials and other shippers since he was still thankful for Youngho’s help. Because of his help, Arirang Shipping began to gain popularity as customizable tramp liners, not long after the vessels were mobilized.

Shippers liked the fact that the water route mobilized two vessels of the 3,000-ton class sailed to the Black Sea and from there a vessel in the 50,000-ton class was used to cross the Atlantic. Many general cargo shippers contacted the company.

Although it was the developing country, there were many different goods to export excluding minerals or oil crude. Since the labor costs were much cheaper than advanced countries, labor-intensive products had high price competitiveness against the products from advanced countries.

***

Youngho was at Zeynep Corporation’s office in downtown Baku. As he was discussing the shipping fares of vessels with Choi Sunkil, Zeynep visited him with a girlfriend of her age.

“Oops! I thought you were alone but Mr. Choi was here. Hi, Mr. Choi.”

Even though she already knew that Youngho was meeting someone, she pretended that she had no idea.

“Miss Zeynep. It’s been long since I saw you. The office is brightened by your presence.”

“Hahaha…”

Flattered by his compliment, Zeynep smiled and her eyes turned in the shape of half moon. After introducing her friend to both, she was reluctant to leave the room.

“Oppa, I had a favor to ask, but I should talk to you later.”

It was Zeynep’s plan to shake Youngho, who would be dying to know what she had to say.

“Come on, Mr. Choi is not a stranger. What is it?”

“Well, no. I’m going to tell you about it at home.”

She deliberately came to the office to ask, and it made him even curious.

“I’m dying to know. What on earth is it?”

“Will you agree to do this favor?”

She was asking for his answer without even asking him a question.

“Phew, hey. I can only decide after hearing what it is.”

The tail of her eyes rose. It seemed that Youngho was upsetting her. So Youngho changed his words quickly.

“Fine. I don’t know whatever you need, but I’ll help you. Say it already. You’re making me frustrated.”

Only then she let out a relaxed smile, as she leaned close to the table toward Youngho.

It was more beneficial for Youngho to accept whatever she wanted, rather than having to face sulky Zeynep for days. She was not a girl who would demand a ridiculous favor. It seemed that she had brought her friend over for a reason. Even though Youngho knew that she would not have come to him if she could have dealt with an issue by herself, he was still worried about what she would have to say. She could be quite random sometimes.

“Oppa. My friend here is about to go bankrupt, because of our Arirang Shipping. Because all shippers turned to our company, her father’s ships have no jobs to do. They’re all just anchored at the harbor. It’s my friend’s dad’s company, you know? It’s not fair for a larger company to trample on small-scale enterprise, right?”

According to Zeynep, Youngho was an unethical businessman and a public enemy for small-scale business owners. Arirang Shipping had turned into a monster in her view.

At that moment, her friend from school was about to say something, but looking at her friend’s face, she closed her mouth. Youngho did not miss Zeynep’s expression. In that instant, she glared at her friend and bit her lower lip to stop her.

Pretending that he did not see her expression, he let out a satisfactory answer to Zeynep.

“Is that so? Then, it’s our mistake. I can’t make my princess suffer from injustice. Mr. Choi, did you hear that? Could you please check to see if there was any dumping of the shipping cost.”

“Of course. If Miss Zeynep thought that we have been unfair, we must’ve made mistakes. I will investigate this thoroughly and make sure that there will be no more disadvantages to small-scale shipping companies.”

Looking at Zeynep who walked out with hips swaying after getting a satisfactory answer, Youngho burst out laughing.

“It looks like she’s determined to hire her friend for the foundation or else, she wouldn’t have come to make a request with her. Don’t you think so, Mr. Choi?”

Zeynep was not someone who would do a favor to people without considering a return service.

“I had a hard time holding back my laughter. She said it dead seriously, but it was a windy argument.”

Then the two laughed for a long while.

“I don’t think there is any shipping company that would deliver goods to the Atlantic, in Baku. Her friend’s dad must be a foreign businessman. Among the parents of the international school, there is someone who owns a shipping company in Turkey, but it doesn’t have a point of contact with our company since its bulk grain carriers sailed directly to the Black Sea through the canal.”

“Ah-ha! It means that the Turkish grain bulk carrier company is getting nervous about us. They must be worried for us expanding our business to Turkey.”

“Hahaha… Miss Zeynep is a real trickster. She’s come to drive a wedge in ahead of time. Mr. Lee, then you shouldn’t do any grain delivery from Turkey.”

That shrewd Zeynep came to warn Youngho ahead of time, after learning about what her friend’s dad worried about. It seemed that Arirang Shipping had become quite successful in the Caspian since other companies are worried about their businesses.

In fact, if the company was seen as a threat to other business owners, it was not a good phenomenon. Youngho would rather want to be praised for his business, even if it was a dream. Since Zeynep Corporation was named after Zeynep, Youngho did not want her name to have a bad reputation.

Also, he knew that Zeynep was tricking him, but it was a good opportunity for him to make her settle down in Baku. Since he was doing her a favor and she would have another reason to stay, instead of going overseas for study.

Youngho smiled. Thinking about that, he was exuberated and could not help but hum.

This must be what people called ‘sister complex.’

He was ready to impress her.