industrial overlord

Chapter 512

The chairman of Japan's Xihu Company is called Hiko Osawa, who is over 60 years old this year, with a short stature, a strong physique, and full of vigorous energy.He has been in charge of Xihu Company for 30 years. During these 30 years, he has almost no time to rest, and has been busy managing the company's affairs.Heaven pays off, Xihu company has maintained a growth trend in the past 30 years, and gradually ranks among the world's first-class equipment manufacturing enterprises.

Osawahiko has a keen business vision. As early as more than ten years ago, he saw the potential business opportunities brought about by China's reform and opening up, and decisively regarded the Chinese market as the focus of the company's marketing.He specially invited consulting companies to conduct research, and concluded that if China can maintain an economic growth rate of about 10%, then by the end of this century, the annual sales of China's industrial equipment market will exceed US$2000 billion. More likely to reach more than $2020 trillion.

After entering the 20s, the entire western industry has already started to go downhill.With the rise of labor costs, the industries of western developed countries have gradually shifted to developing countries, and the industrial structure of western countries has increasingly shifted to the service industry, and the only remaining industries are mainly concentrated in high-tech fields, with high industrial added value. But the demand for equipment is declining.

Under such circumstances, Xihu, which mainly produces traditional industrial equipment, naturally shifts its sales focus to developing countries, and the Chinese market is the most valuable among them.

From the mid-80s to the early 90s, the share of Xihu's products in the Chinese equipment market continued to increase, which greatly supported the growth of Xihu, allowing it to survive the turbulent Japanese economy.It is precisely because of such sales performance that Osawa made the decision to establish two subsidiaries in China, intending to increase sales in the Chinese market to more than half of the company's sales.

However, two subsidiaries have already been established, and when they are preparing to show their talents, some unexpected changes have occurred in the Chinese market.When Matsushita Yongsan, the sales director in China, returned to Tokyo to report on his work, he reported to the headquarters: Xihu's products encountered serious obstacles in the Chinese market.

That's right, it's blocking. This is a defensive battle launched by Chinese companies.Due to Xihu's technological leadership, Chinese companies are still unable to counterattack, but their resistance is very tenacious. Xihu's efforts to rapidly expand its market share have become more and more difficult under this resistance. difficulty.

"In the past, our competitive advantage was mainly the possession of CNC machine tool technology, which could meet the needs of Chinese enterprises to transform to CNC. The proportion of Chinese local machine tool companies mastering CNC technology is very low, and CNC machine tools are far from meeting the demand. However, from last year At the beginning, the situation has undergone a reverse change." Matsushita Yongzo introduced at the headquarters meeting.

"Why, has any Chinese company started to put a large number of CNC machine tool products on the market?" Osawa asked.

"It's not one family." Matsushita Yongsan said, "It's... hundreds of companies. To be precise, it may be hundreds of companies."

"What? Hundreds of Chinese companies have started producing CNC machine tools?" Osawa asked in surprise.He knows that there are several large enterprises in China that have mastered the technology of CNC machine tools, including Hanhua Machine Tool Company, Xingbei Heavy Machinery, etc. These companies also sell CNC machine tool products in the Chinese market, but they are not enough for Xihu Company. pose a serious threat.China is a very large market, and a few companies are not enough to occupy the entire market.

There are also many overseas companies selling CNC machine tools in the Chinese market, including Japanese companies such as Xihu, as well as companies from Germany, Italy, the United States, South Korea, and Taiwan.Compared with Xihu, these overseas companies have no special advantages, so everyone is at the same level of competition.Xihu's marketing efforts are stronger than those of these companies, and it also has some unique features in technology, so it can become a leader in the competition among all overseas companies.

However, once Chinese local companies start to enter the CNC machine tool market, the situation is completely different.Local enterprises have cost advantages, which are not only reflected in production and manufacturing costs, but also in after-sales service.Their engineers are in China, and they can fly from Guangzhou to Harbin with just one phone call. In comparison, Tokyo may be closer to Harbin, but can Xihu’s engineers fly there so quickly and at low cost?
In addition to cost advantages, local companies also have advantages in personal connections.China's machine tool users are enterprises from all walks of life. They have competent departments in the industry and regional authorities. This kind of protectionism in the industry and in the region is not just talking about it.In the past, because China's machine tool companies themselves could not meet the needs of CNC machine tools, officials could not protect them even if they wanted to.Now Chinese enterprises can produce CNC machine tools by themselves, and the products they buy are the same. At this time, can we not miss the incense among domestic enterprises?

Recognizing all these problems, Osawa was so shocked by what Matsushita reported.Hundreds of Chinese companies have acquired the technology of CNC machine tools at the same time, which is an extremely serious threat to Xihu.

"Mr. Matsushita, have you ever understood how these companies can obtain CNC technology in such a short period of time? According to your last report, many Chinese machine tool companies don't even have electronic engineers. They It is impossible to obtain CNC technology for at least 10 years," Osawa asked.

Matsushita Yongsandao: "I have already inquired about this matter. The cause of it is that China's State Machinery Commission launched a plan to revitalize the machine tool industry, requiring enterprises with numerical control technology to transfer numerical control technology to other enterprises. Hanhua Heavy Industry, which is the most proficient in CNC technology in China's machine tool industry, took the lead in responding to this request, and soon after, Xingbei Heavy Machinery also responded to this request. These two leading companies took the lead, and other machine tool companies that have mastered CNC technology Naturally, we did it together.”

"It's that simple?" Osawa looked at Yongzo Matsushita with unbelievable eyes, "The transfer of technology between companies is somewhat reserved, right? Besides, even if Hanhua and Xingbei are willing to Transferring technology to the outside world, can the companies that receive the technology master it in a short period of time?"

Matsushita Yongzo said: "I don't understand the Chinese people's style of doing things. As far as I know of several companies, they all have CNC engineers from Hanhua Heavy Industries who directly help them develop technology. China's Huahua Tsinghua University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and other colleges and universities have also opened training courses for CNC engineers, and professors from these colleges go directly to enterprises to teach technicians. Therefore, the speed of technology popularization is very fast.”

"This is the consistent style of the Communist Party." A board member named Masamori Sato said with a sigh.This old man is almost 80 years old. When he was young, he went to China as a member of the Japanese invaders and fought against the Eighth Route Army in North China. He is a different kind of China hand.

"When we were in North China, we had seen this tactic of the Communist Party. They broke up some experienced soldiers and sent them to various villages to organize guerrillas. Every soldier is a seed. Dozens of new soldiers can be bred to fight against us, they call this the crowd tactics." Zuo Teng Masamori said to everyone with a somewhat helpless and fearful expression.

Osawa can imagine this kind of scenario. In fact, the dissemination speed of industrial technology can be achieved very quickly, provided that the party that owns the technology is willing to transfer technology to other companies without reservation.If, as Matsushita Yongzo said, Hanhua Heavy Industries directly sent engineers to other companies to preside over technological transformation, then it is not impossible to copy Hanhua in a short period of time.

"However, even if these enterprises have obtained the numerical control technology, can their products reach the level of our products in a short period of time? Even Hanhua Heavy Industry, its technology is still far behind ours, right? "Osawahiko said.

Matsushita Yongsan said with a bitter face: "The chairman's judgment is very correct, but the problem is that Chinese companies do not need such high technology. For example, there is a company called Su Forging Machine Tool Factory, which produces shearing machines and There is some overlap between the plate rolling machine and our product line.

Since last year, they have carried out technological transformation and launched more than a dozen CNC shearing machines and plate rolling machines.We have made a comparison, and the automatic control level and precision of their products are only equivalent to our level 10 years ago, but the price of these products is only equivalent to one-third of our current product price.For customers, the defects in data technology are not worthy of attention at all, and the requirements for accuracy are not so high, so they are naturally more willing to choose Su Duan's products. "

Speaking of Su Duan's shearing machine, Matsushita Yongsan really felt helpless.He went to see the machine himself, and it was claimed to be a CNC machine tool. In the final part of fine-tuning the scale, he actually had to find a worker to turn the handle to complete it. Nima, is there such a CNC machine tool?This is simply an insult to the word CNC.

However, they are cheap.Didn't you say the handle is bad?They sell a shearing machine and give you five handles, just to piss you off.Not only are Su Duan's machine tools cheap, but even all the accessories are much cheaper than Xihu's accessories. Therefore, those chemical container companies and shipyards are willing to buy Su Duan's shears. Can you tell customers? Are they stupid?

The example given by Masamori Zuoto just now is really correct. The Chinese engaged in industry, which is really the same way that the Tuba Road fought back then. There is really no way to use this crowd tactics.

　I ran outside for a day yesterday, and the high temperature was 37 degrees. People felt exhausted when they came back, so there was no update last night.As for today, I will try my best.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)