Xiang Guangda (; born 1958) is a Chinese industrialist. He is the founder of the

Tsingshan Holding Group The Tsingshan Holdings Group ( zh, s=青山控股, ) is a Chinese private company active in the stainless steel and nickel industry. Tsingshan Holdings was founded in 1988 by Xiang Guangda in Wenzhou. It moved into the Indonesian nickel industr ...

, a metallurgical company primarily engaged in the manufacturing of

stainless steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...

Early life and career

Xiang was born on 1958 to a working class family in

Wenzhou Wenzhou; Chinese postal romanization, historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in China's Zhejiang province. Wenzhou is located at the extreme southeast of Zhejiang, bordering Lishui, Zhejiang, Lishui to the west, Taizhou, Zheji ...

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

. He got his first job in 1980 as a mechanic in a state-run fishery company under

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping also Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Teng Hsiao-p'ing; born Xiansheng (). (22 August 190419 February 1997) was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary, and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's R ...

iron rice bowl "Iron rice bowl" () is a Chinese term for an occupation with guaranteed job security, similar to life tenure. Traditionally, people considered to have such positions include military personnel, members of the civil service, as well as employees ...

employment program, and was eventually promoted to director of the company's workshop. In 1986, he and his relatives established a workshop manufacturing car windows and doors.

Tsingshan Group

He left his job at the state-owned firm in 1988 to become a full-time entrepreneur, raising the equivalent of around USD 100,000 from friends and relatives to fund their business. According to Xiang in an interview, he pivoted to manufacturing

after a 1992 trip to Germany which convinced him that his car parts manufacturing would not be sustainable in the long term. His firm was renamed to Tsingshan in 1998, and the company grew quickly due to its focus on bringing down costs. The firm pioneered the use of cheaper

nickel pig iron lang=en, upright=1.5, World production of nickel pig iron, and proportion of that in the primary nickel production., alt=graphique, link=File:Nickel_pig_iron_production.svg%3Flang=en Nickel pig iron (NPI) is a low grade ferronickel invented in Ch ...

in place of metallic nickel in its stainless steel production, and implemented the use of the

rotary kiln A rotary kiln is a pyroprocessing device used to raise materials to a high temperature (calcination) in a continuous process. Materials produced using rotary kilns include: * Cement * Lime * Refractories * Metakaolin * Titanium dioxide * ...

furnace for continuous production. Under Xiang, Tsingshan began to invest in nickel mines in Indonesia during the 2000s, when reserves were still unproven. Tsingshan established nickel and stainless steel production complexes in Sulawesi (the

Morowali Industrial Park The Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) is an industrial park hosting primarily nickel-related industries in Morowali Regency, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is the largest nickel processing site in Indonesia, which is the Nickel mining i ...

), which further lowered the production cost for stainless steel. Tsingshan also established production plants in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. Although in the mid-2000s Tsingshan was one of several stainless steel manufacturers in Wenzhou, by 2021 it accounted for nearly one-fourth of the global output, being by far the largest in the industry. Xiang's net worth is estimated by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' in 2021 as USD 1.2 billion. In the several months leading to March 2022, Xiang began taking a large short position in nickel through Tsingshan, in order to

hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced (3 feet or closer) shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate ...

against falling prices. Due to a rise in nickel prices caused by the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, however, Xiang was forced to purchase nickel contracts at the

London Metal Exchange The London Metal Exchange (LME) is a futures and forwards exchange in London, United Kingdom with the world's largest market in standardised forward contracts, futures contracts and options on base metals. The exchange also offers contracts on ...

, creating a

short squeeze In the stock market, a short squeeze is a rapid increase in the price of a stock owing primarily to an excess of short selling of a stock rather than underlying fundamentals. A short squeeze occurs when demand has increased relative to supply beca ...

. The price of nickel at the exchange increased by more than 100 percent, reaching over USD 100,000 per tonne before trading was suspended. By the time trading had been suspended, Tsingshan had suffered USD 10 billion in losses on paper. However, the Hong Kong-owned LME resorted to retroactively reverse tradings that had already happened, and after prices stabilized and trading was resumed, Xiangs' losses were marked as significantly lower, sparking claims of trading manipulation by the exchange in order to favor Xiang Guangda, which the LME denied. Nickel prices later did fall, and Tsingshan's losses ended up at around USD 1 billion as Xiang closed his positions.

Family

Xiang's wife along with their daughter Xiang Yangyang hold Singaporean citizenships.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xiang, Guangda 1958 births Living people Chinese industrialists Businesspeople from Wenzhou 21st-century Chinese businesspeople Chinese company founders 20th-century Chinese businesspeople