Soybean Mogul’s Bets Swell China’s Imports: Commodities
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When Shao Guorui makes money trading soybeans in China, he buys rosewood from tropical forests and carving stones from Fujian province that were once used to make imperial seals.
“These things hold their value,” said Shao, sitting in his Beijing office stroking a pile of scented yellow wooden beads from Hainan Island in the country’s south. In front of the 45-year-old chairman of Shandong Sunrise Grain and Oil Trading Ltd., two laptop computers on a six-meter Brazilian red rosewood table flicker with prices from the Chicago Board of Trade. “That kind of money comes and goes,” he said.