Chapter 252: Papermaking? A Dead End!

The research report provided by Kreel was entirely based on restoring factory capacity by more than seventy percent.

This report nearly gave Carter a brain hemorrhage from sheer frustration.

"What are you thinking?!" he exclaimed. "You haven't even solved the sales problem, yet you're desperately trying to ramp up production! What's the point of producing things if you can't sell them? Relying solely on loans to keep things running? Isn't that just feeding a bunch of leeches?"

Once these loans are disbursed, he'd have to ensure they repay on time, which means he'd have to hustle to solve their sales channel problems. Even if he could manage it, it's essentially just leeching off himself!

He's always been the one leeching off others. When will others leech off him?

"Your ideas are unrealistic. We need to cut at least half of this!"

Carter shook his head like a drum and threw the report down, slashing the loan budget in half.

"This, Mr. Blake! The paper produced in our Agil is nationally renowned. Whether it's smooth writing paper, soft and comfortable toilet paper, or special thermal paper and other products, they're all very competitive. Other businesses can reduce loans and maintain basic production, but these paper mills. They are the hope for the revitalization of our Agil!"

Watching Carter slash the assistance funds in half, Kreel's heart twitched. This wasn't just about cutting the budget; it was like stabbing him in the heart!

Just maintaining low-intensity production isn't useful. It might slightly reduce Agil's decline, but it won't affect the overall situation. It's not enough to reverse Agil's current downward trend.

"Enough beating around the bush! Besides discussing the road issue, I have another piece of news. You've been planning to offer free land to attract large companies to invest and set up factories, right? How's that progressing?"

Making paper the pillar

Carter didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

His hometown in his previous life, also known as Zhonghua Paper City. Hengan, Vinda, Jin Hongye, Zhongshun, and other four leading enterprises in the field of household paper were gathered there. The result of that development...

Carter had to admit, they did develop. When he was in elementary school, in a city with only five bus routes, in just over ten years, it had expanded to more than twenty routes.

Transportation is a very important aspect of urban development, so the expansion of bus routes indicates the objective existence of the city's development. But amidst this development, Carter had a more intuitive feeling—the sky always seemed gloomy.

Economic development was not even on the national radar, but they ranked at the top of the pollution index!

The pros and cons of this, let's not discuss them for now. Just in the United States, in the 1970s, there was one thing that couldn't be ignored—pollution control!

Even in the funds allocated for highway trusts, there was an environmental management fee. What about others?

In the future, some intellectuals would proclaim the strong environmental awareness and strict enforcement of environmental protection measures in the United States. The origin of this could be traced back to the 1970s!

If you vigorously develop the papermaking industry, how do you solve the environmental pollution problem? Either invest a large amount of money to control pollution, or wait to be fined heavily.

Either way, the bottom line is that the cost is too high! The profit margin is limited!

Every piece of paper product you sell requires a considerable portion of the profit to be reserved for environmental management. This indirectly makes your prices less competitive.

Therefore, in Carter's view, if Agil insists on pursuing the papermaking industry to the end, it's definitely a dead end!

Especially, yesterday Paulson also mentioned that the 1980s were an era of internationalization. All kinds of external competition were quietly intensifying. Under normal circumstances, you would face the risk of increased competition, let alone now, when policies have added extra costs and reduced your competitiveness.

"Progress... Progress..."

Carter didn't mention progress until now. But once he did, Kreel's face turned bright red, and he awkwardly wished he could dig a hole and bury his head in it.

"Uh, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. Mr. Blake, we currently, haven't made any progress."

On the other hand, after reading the agreement, McCauley put down the documents and sighed somewhat generously:

"As you just said, the big problem now is the lack of market demand. The existing production capacity of various companies is still in surplus. Who would be willing to invest precious cash to expand output in such difficult times? Isn't that going against the market trend?!"

"Mr. McCauley makes a good point. But who says we have to attract American companies? Carter chuckled, affirming McCauley's clear self-awareness.

"Not American companies? You mean... companies from other countries? But there aren't many powerful ones!"

"Not many, but there are still some, like Japan!"

"Japan?!"

Kreel and the other exchanged a glance, surprised that Carter's attention had shifted to that group of short-statured individuals. Given his own height... well, given his circumstances, he hardly ever came into contact with Japanese people.

In Georgia, even into the future, there weren't many Asians. They only made up about 2% of the total population. Now, seeing an Asian in Georgia was a rare sight, turning heads wherever they went!

"That's right, Japan! Japan's doing quite well these days. When America's in trouble, it's only fair for them to lend a hand, right?"

"Hahaha, alright, cut to the chase. I've had discussions with a company called Sanlito in Hawaii. Though we haven't directly reached a cooperation agreement, it's pretty much there. All you need to do is send someone to New York to discuss the details with them, and then sign the contract."

After having a bit of fun, Carter got straight to the point:

"In terms of intentions, they're interested in building a new American factory here, occupying an area of ​​over a million square feet. Just this automotive parts factory alone should be enough to solve the employment problems in our Agail city, right?"

"Besides providing direct employment opportunities, with the arrival of these Japanese engineers, tertiary industries can also increase. There's also the demand for factory raw materials, logistics, and so on. With such a large demand space, why bother with papermaking? It's just not profitable."

"After all, papermaking is a heavily polluting industry. Honestly, if possible, wouldn't you want to avoid making your hometown's environment worse? Moreover, in my opinion, the future of the American paper industry doesn't really have much competitiveness. The cost of pollution control for domestic papermaking increases costs too much. It's better to open factories in small countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere, where they don't care about pollution."

"As long as the scale is large enough, the increase in transportation costs is far less than the cost of pollution control! I know it sounds unethical, but that's just how it is. I don't have much hope for the development of the American paper industry, so I won't provide them with a large amount of loans. I also have to consider the risks. Supporting the development of Agail's paper mills is too risky for me!"