Sail across the sea

"Mr. Vallance, hello!"

Bob stopped the car in front of the factory gate, came down and said hello to Vallance.On the other side, Gao Fan also got out of the car.

"Are you Mr. Hatch who called me just now?" Vallance glanced at the two and asked Bob.

"Yes, you can call me Bob." Bob kept a low profile.

"Well, so this is Mr. Gao Fan from China?" Vallance asked Gao Fan again.

Gao Fan stepped forward and said with a slight bow: "Yes, you can call me Gao Fan, you are a senior."

Vallance was not pretentious. He nodded to the two of them and said, "Okay, please come in with me. The car can drive into the yard."

As a chemical machinery factory, the Odin factory occupies a large area.Similar to the corporate structure in China, the Odin factory is also divided into a production area and an office area, but there is no family area.

Vallance asked Bob to drive the car to the downstairs of the office building and park it, and then called them upstairs to negotiate.

"Mr. Vallance, if possible, can we visit your production workshop first?" Gao Fan asked.

"Of course." Vallance was not surprised by Gao Fan's request.Presumably Gao Fan wanted to evaluate the production capacity of the Odin factory in order to determine which products to hand over to the Odin factory for manufacturing.In the past, some customers have put forward similar requirements. Of course, they are mainly customers who have cooperated for the first time.

The workshop of the Odin factory is tall and strong, and some pre-World War II industrial architectural styles can be seen.The naming method of the workshop is different from that in China, but it is roughly allocated according to the processes of machining, casting and forging, container manufacturing, and heat treatment.

The equipment in the workshop is full of beautiful things. Although Bob is an investment genius, his industrial knowledge is very poor, so he can only look at it roughly.Gao Fan is a chemical expert and has a good understanding of chemical equipment manufacturing. He can see far more things than Bob.

He could see that the Odin Factory, as an old-fashioned chemical equipment manufacturer, has a complete range of production equipment, including various machine tools, electric furnaces, plate rolling machines, electric welding machines, flaw detection equipment, and heat treatment equipment. It looks new, like it was added within the past ten years.

In addition, the layout of the workshop is also very organized, and it can be seen that the managers have rich management experience and a strong sense of responsibility.

"There aren't many workers going to work."

Walking out of the production area, Bob told Vallance his impressions.

"The order is insufficient, and our production capacity has not been utilized to even 1/5. Alas, it has been like this for several years." Vallance's face has a look of desolation.

As a shareholder of the factory, the Hatch Group already knew about this situation, so there was no need for Vallance to hide it from Bob.

"So, if we give the order to the Odin factory, can Mr. Vallance get the workers back soon?" Bob asked.

Vallance hesitated for a moment before asking, "How many orders do you have?"

"About ten million dollars," Bob said.

"Including about 30 pressure vessels of 100 cubic meters, about 100 centrifuges and some other equipment." Gao Fan added.

"What about the cycle?"

"Looks like 16 weeks."

A troubled look appeared on Vallance's face, and he moved his lips several times, but he didn't speak, as if he didn't know what to say.

"Why, have your workers been lost?" Gao Fan asked.

Vallance said: "It can't be said that they are all lost. There are still some workers who are idle at home. But if you want to take such a large order and deliver it within 16 weeks, these people alone will be far away." Not enough anymore."

"You mean, those workers who were laid off by you earlier were recruited by other companies?" Bob asked.

"Very few went to other businesses, most of them went to the city," Vallance said.

"What are you doing in town?"

"Everyone does everything. They drive taxis, they work in shops, they work as waiters in hotels. In short, they don't work in industry anymore. Everyone knows that there is no future in industry, so younger workers, Changed."

Bob frowned.There is a consensus in American society that there is no future for engaging in traditional industries, but before he came to the Odin factory, he did not have a very intuitive feeling.

With regard to the decline of traditional manufacturing, the financial community has a positive view. They believe that traditional manufacturing has low profits and should be eliminated.The United States only needs to vigorously develop the financial industry. Foreigners are responsible for the work, and the United States is responsible for the profits. Why not do it?
Bob has always held this view, but facing a declining Odin factory, he always feels that something is not right.

"Mr. Vallance, according to what you said, isn't the Odin factory going to close?" Gao Fan asked.

Vallance nodded helplessly: "Yes, its end can only be closed. In fact, if it weren't for the old workers in the factory who have been with me for decades, I should have closed the factory a long time ago. It has It has been losing money for several years in a row, and there is no possibility of turning a profit at all.”

"But, I heard that the Odin factory is your painstaking effort." Gao Fan said.

Vallance sighed: "Yeah, I founded this factory, just like my child. But so what? Now the United States has no chemical industry, Europe and Asia have demand, but the Germans and The Japanese occupy the market over there to death.

"Especially for the Japanese, their labor cost is more than half lower than that of the United States, and chemical equipment manufacturing is the most labor-intensive, and American companies are not competitive at all."

Gao Fan turned to Bob and said casually, "Bob, what do you think about moving the Odin factory to China? The labor cost in China is less than half of that in Japan. If the equipment of the Odin factory and the Will the combination of China's cheap labor be able to revive it?"

"Are you serious?" Bob didn't take Gao Fan's words as a joke.The two are already very familiar, and Bob thinks he can see through Gao Fan's mind.

"It is impossible to move the factory." Vallance said, "It is impossible to move a lot of our equipment. In addition, a factory cannot produce with only equipment. The remaining old workers we have It is the greatest wealth of Odin Factory."

"Can these old workers be allowed to work in China?" Gao Fan asked.

Vallance shook his head resolutely: "This is impossible! Many of our workers have never even been to New York. How could they go to work on the other side of the world?"

"So, what about you? Mr. Vallance, if you are allowed to work in China, will you accept it?"

"Me? I don't care, but what's the use of me going to China? Although I used to be an excellent lathe worker, I can't make the 100 centrifuges you want by myself."