industrial overlord

Chapter 660
"What kind of product can meet the standard you mentioned?" Julian asked.

Khedira came prepared, and he said: "For example, the oil-impregnated high-speed precision bearings used in the five-axis high-speed machining center, as far as I know, cannot be produced in China at present. It is entirely from your Ladur company. Imported. If you can take appropriate restrictions on the export of such bearings, I mean, cut some of the export volume, or even refuse to export, then the Chinese will not be able to manufacture this high-speed machining center.”

"There is a supply agreement between us and Hanhua Machine Tool Company, and we have no reason to tear up the agreement." Julian said.

"A reason can always be found." Khedira said with a smile, "If the bearing branch of your company stops production due to a production accident, can the other party still force you to supply it?"

Julian stared and said: "What, do you want us to create a man-made accident as a reason to break the contract? You have to know that our bearings are not only sold to the Chinese, but machine tool manufacturers all over the world. Procure bearings here, including your ALK."

"I mean, it's a valid reason to have to cut the share to all customers because of the accident, which leads to a reduction in shipments," Khedira said. How many sets of bearings, how can the Chinese know?"

"This is a crazy suggestion." Julian waved his hands. "If such news gets out, it will affect our company's reputation. I can't promise you right away."

Khedira said: "Of course, in addition to this method, there is another way, that is to add the products we want to restrict to the EU's list of restrictions on high-tech products from China. In this way, your company There is no responsibility."

The EU's export of high-tech products to China can be traced back to the period of the Paris Coordinating Committee.After the death of Batumi, the EU also retained a list of products that restricted exports to China.Of course, the existence of this list cannot be explained by maintaining economic competitiveness. The excuse put forward by the EU is that some high-tech products may be used by China for military purposes, thus posing a threat to the security of the EU.

Hedi's idea is to put those products that can affect the market competitiveness of Chinese companies into the above-mentioned restricted shipment list in the name of military purposes.In this way, companies such as Latour do not need to bear the responsibility for breach of contract, because this is a limitation of transportation caused by political factors, and the company is powerless.

In today's world, completely independent enterprises are rare, and most enterprises require external collaboration.A machine tool produced in China may use a servo motor from Germany, an oil temperature controller from Italy, a bearing from Japan, a grating ruler from a certain country, and so on.

The reason for this is that it is not necessary and impossible for a machine tool company to produce all the accessories by itself.Only when professional matters are entrusted to professional people can the efficiency be higher.In fact, if you have an objective attitude, you can see that even the machine tool companies in the United States, Germany, and Japan also use a large number of purchased parts.On the contrary, the way of thinking of big and comprehensive, small and comprehensive is more prevalent in countries with planned systems such as the Soviet Union and China.

Due to historical reasons, many professional accessories companies are concentrated in developed countries in Europe and the United States. As a rising star, China has not had time to form its own complete supporting system.Among the machine tools manufactured by Hanhua, there are a lot of accessories provided by European and American companies, and the more high-end and precise machine tools, the more inseparable the accessories support from these professional manufacturers.

Khedira is a caring person. He arranged for people to study the various machine tools produced by Hanhua in detail, find out parts from Europe, and analyze the issue of substitutability.At this time, he handed the list he made to everyone, and then said: "Everyone, please see, these are the accessories that Hanhua Machine Tool Company needs to produce high-end machine tools. As long as we can cut off the supply of these accessories, Hanhua will be in trouble."

All the executives took the list handed over by Khedira one after another, and flipped through it roughly.They had to admit that Khedira did put a lot of effort into dealing with the Chinese.The list he made covers the European accessories used on various types of machine tools. If the Chinese machine tool companies are really embargoed according to the contents listed in this list, then the entire high-end machine tool industry in China will be destroyed. Encountered catastrophe.

But everyone also knows that the effect of doing so is tantamount to quenching thirst with poison.Regardless of whether this kind of embargo will encounter strong retaliation from China, even if the embargo is successful, it will only delay the competition from China for a few years. It is bound to invest a lot of energy to overcome the difficulties of accessories.When the Chinese really produce qualified accessories by themselves, bad luck will fall on those European companies that are now specializing in the production of accessories.

"I'm afraid it will be very difficult to obtain EU approval for such a large-scale parts embargo." Marko waved the list in his hand and said to Khedira, "The current EU's restrictions on high-tech products in China have already been imposed by China. I strongly protested. If you add these products that obviously have nothing to do with military purposes, you will almost directly turn against the Chinese. I think those EU officials will not accept this result."

Marko still has unspoken subtext, that is, European business owners are also unable to accept such a result.China is now the world's largest industrial equipment market, and no one wants to be excluded from this market. ALK offended China on the issue of technology restrictions and was banned by the Chinese government. Over the past ten years, the lost profits may have been several billion.

With a lesson from the past like ALK, those companies that have not been blocked by the Chinese government will naturally know what to do, and there is really no need for them to foolishly follow ALK to play suicide games.

“I thought maybe we could do it a little bit softer,” suggested a Swedish business executive, “for example, we cut out the less important accessories from the list, so that the list doesn’t look too big. Long, it will not arouse strong disgust from the other party. Also, for the more conventional accessories, we'd better not carry out complete restrictions on shipments, but...for example, use quotas to leave some breathing room for the other party. "

Julian nodded and said: "I also think it would be more appropriate to do this. For example, the oil-impregnated bearings mentioned by Mr. Khedira just now, we can reduce the supply to Chinese manufacturers a little bit, but when it comes to completely banning exports to Chinese manufacturers , This is against the WTO rules, I don't want to be sued by the Chinese to the arbitration court."

"Yes, yes, don't be too radical." Other executives also echoed. As a result, Khedira's carefully designed plan was taken off more than half of its strength, from a strong medicine to a Drink lukewarm water.

"Okay, let me edit this list again, and I will definitely not embarrass you gentlemen." Khedira said helplessly, and he still expected everyone to participate in the battle to kill Hanhua, how could he Offended everyone.

"Third article..." Khedira raised three fingers and began to say again: "I made a rough calculation. At present, Chinese manufacturers use a total of 20% of our European companies in the fields of machine tools, petrochemicals, and electric power. There are more than 1 patented technologies, of which no less than [-] are irreplaceable patents."

"You don't want to prohibit everyone from providing patent licensing to Chinese companies, do you?" Marko interjected.The suggestion made by Khedira earlier is strong enough. If you really ask everyone to stop licensing patents to Chinese companies, that is another extremely strong suggestion. The result is almost the same as banning the export of machine tool parts to China.

It is also very difficult to contain China by prohibiting patent licensing.Patent authorization is not a matter of the patent owner alone. Countries and some international organizations have relevant laws or regulations on this.For example, many countries have anti-patent monopoly laws, stipulating that it is illegal to abuse patent barriers to monopolize the market.The purpose of formulating this kind of law is mainly to prevent some enterprises from maliciously monopolizing the use of patents, which will have an adverse impact on the development of technology.

"No, no, Mr. Marko, I didn't think so." Khedira said quickly. In fact, he really had such a plan before, but he gave up this unreasonable plan when he saw the people in the room being suspicious. practical thoughts.

"I have done some research, and the more than 20 companies present here alone own more than 3 patents and have authorized them to be used by Chinese people. I suggest that starting from this year, we should comprehensively increase the cost of patent licensing , to increase the entire patent fee by 3 to 5 times. I think such an approach should be blameless, right?" Khedira said.

"I'm afraid it won't work, right?" Julian said, "It's not just Chinese people who need to pay patent fees. Our companies also have to pay patent fees to each other. If the patent fees increase, our production costs will also increase accordingly. Improvement, won’t this also affect the competitiveness of our products?”

Khedira smiled slightly and said: "Mr. Julian, you forgot that your Ladur company is not only the user of patents, but also the owner of other patents. If our companies improve their patents at the same time, what you pay to others Naturally, the patent fee has increased, but the patent fee paid to you has also increased. Even if the income is balanced, it will have no impact on you."

"I see." Julian suddenly realized, "This is indeed a very brilliant idea. Mr. Khedira, I completely agree with your proposal."

(End of this chapter)