Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

Chapter 742 Industrial Survey: Such a common special steel is 100% dependent on imports?

Nanshan Special Steel is not slow in its movements.

Procrastination in this kind of thing is detrimental to the acquisition.

Anyway, Nanshan Special Steel did not expect to excessively lower the price by prolonging the negotiation time.

As a listed company, Shaogang's market value has certain reference significance.

A direct acquisition plan with a 10% premium would not be short of several hundred million yuan.

As a listed company that is about to add "st", Shaogang, which is losing money, does not have much bargaining chips.

Not to mention the CEO of Shaogang Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. and other related personnel, all of them have been taken care of by Xie Lingyun.

Nanshan Special Steel has also had a lot of cooperation with Shaogang in the past. Most of Shaogang's employees are like lambs waiting to be fed, wanting to join the Nanshan Group's family as soon as possible.

In this case, even if Baosteel, the major shareholder, wants to block it, it is meaningless.

At worst, Xie Lingyun will go find the relevant departments to say hello.

It’s not like I’m asking you to sell your company at a loss. For something like this that is in line with the general policy, there must be someone who is willing to stand up and support Nanshan Group.

After thinking about these issues clearly, Baosteel's general manager Lai Liang personally led a team over to negotiate with Cao Yang.

In this way, the communication between the king and the king will obviously be much more efficient.

Speaking of which, when Lai Liang was the general manager of Baosteel Southern Company, he had contact with Cao Yang, and they were all old acquaintances.

In recent years, Baosteel's development speed has not been slow, and it has become the leading steel company in China.

Each steel company's monthly steel price adjustments refer to the data released by Baosteel.

It can be said that Baosteel has certain pricing power in China's domestic steel market.

Of course, the premise is the steel materials that Baosteel can produce in large quantities.

Special steels such as bearing steel for high-speed rail and aircraft carrier steel plates are definitely not as important as Baosteel.

"Mr. Cao, the hot stamping steel plate we jointly developed has now become the most profitable project among Baosteel's automotive sheets."

"Hot stamping parts have been used too much in the automotive industry in recent years, and we have made a considerable contribution to automotive safety."

When a big boss talks about things, he definitely doesn't start arguing over trivial matters.

Many times, quarrels occur down below, but when it comes to the boss, everything seems to be harmonious.

Although Lai Liang had dealt with Cao Yang earlier, it was many years ago after all, and everyone was not particularly familiar with them.

So it is most appropriate to chat first and find a common topic for both parties to talk about.

The most in-depth cooperation project between Baosteel and Nanshan Special Steel is hot stamping steel plates.

In order to promote the vigorous development of hot stamping technology at Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory, Cao Yang, who did not want hot stamped steel plates to be monopolized by ArcelorMittal, chose to use Nanshan Special Steel's technology and Baosteel to build the production line and be responsible for the production. Special collaboration.

Through this cooperation, the hot stamping steel plates used by the Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory have been domestically produced, further promoting the development of hot stamping technology in the country.

"Mr. Lai, I heard that ArcelorMittal is planning to cooperate with Valin Steel and authorize them to produce hot stamped steel plates."

"Then Nippon Steel has also cooperated with ArcelorMittal. The two parties have mutually licensed patents, allowing Nippon Steel to obtain the technology of hot stamping steel plates."

"Their HQAS1500H hot stamped steel plates may also be used by companies such as Yangcheng Honda and Xifeng Nissan in the future."

Anyway, Nanshan Special Steel has no plans to produce hot stamped steel plates by itself, so Cao Yang doesn't mind reminding Lai Liang to pay attention to competitors.

Hot stamped steel plates are a relatively high-profit type of automobile plates, and various steel companies must also want to get a share of the pie.

After all, there is not much cost difference between producing hot stamped steel sheets and producing different JAC270C galvanized sheets.

But the selling price is more than 4,000 yuan per ton, and almost 10,000 yuan per ton.

The profits here are terrifyingly high.

Of course, as competition becomes fierce, the price of hot stamped steel plates will definitely continue to decline.

Even so, the profit is still higher than other automotive panels.

And if compared with ordinary steel, it is even more different.

After all, automobile sheets are a relatively high-profit type in the steel industry.

"I have also heard about this news. ArcelorMittal's previous market focus has always been on Europe and Tianzhu, but now it seems that it also wants to get a share of the Chinese market."

"Domestic steel production capacity is already so high, it can be said to be a serious surplus."

"In this case, we actually don't need the production capacity of steel companies like them."

Lai Liang definitely doesn't want to see other companies compete with him for money.

But there are some things that he is not willing to do.

Of course, this topic was just an introduction. The two chatted briefly and then moved to the main topic.

"Mr. Cao, I have always admired Nanshan Special Steel as a leading company in the domestic special steel industry."

"However, as an important part of Baosteel's national layout, Shaogang is actually of great significance to us."

Although Lai Liang knows that Shaogang will eventually be sold to Nanshan Special Steel, there is definitely no harm in being able to gain more benefits.

In recent years, Baosteel has been working hard to merge with various domestic enterprises in order to become the largest steel manufacturer in China.

Lai Liang also felt the benefits from this merger activity.

For example, pricing power is the result of Baosteel's continuous mergers with other steel plants and its increasing influence.

Otherwise, why would you let others follow your price fluctuations?

"There is excess domestic steel production capacity, but we still need to import a lot of special steel from abroad every year."

"This contradiction between supply and demand is actually a structural contradiction."

"Steel manufacturers like Shaogang that don't have any competitive products of their own are manufacturers that need to consider phasing out part of their production capacity according to the ministries and commissions."

"Otherwise, domestic steel companies will be in a state where no one can make money. This is definitely not what everyone wants to see."

"Rather than letting Shaogang continue to lose money and become a burden to Baosteel, it is better to stop the loss in time."

Be reasonable and present the facts.

Who wouldn't?

Cao Yang could easily find a lot of words that were beneficial to his acquisition of Shaogang.

Besides, whether it's people from Shaogang, Baosteel headquarters, or people from ministries and commissions, they all know that Nanshan Special Steel's acquisition of Shaogang is a good thing.

With this premise, Cao Yang is naturally confident now.

"Every industry will enter a bottleneck period when it reaches a certain stage of development. The domestic steel industry is now in a bottleneck period."

"After this period is over in the future, steel companies will naturally have their own good days."

There is nothing wrong with what Lai Liang said.

After all, no matter what industry you are in, there will definitely be times when you can make money.

For example, in the years around 2022, steel prices will skyrocket, and any steel factory will be able to make money.

"Some time ago, Wuhan Iron and Steel contacted us and said that one of their branches is interested in cooperating with Nanshan Special Steel."

"The relevant departments at Shougang also hope that we can cooperate with them in depth."

"Needless to say, Anshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. has been very active in various plans to strengthen cooperation since we jointly developed the aircraft carrier steel plate."

"For us, the only advantage of Shaogang is that everyone is familiar with it, which saves the time of running in."

Cao Yang didn't want to talk too much nonsense to Lai Liang.

You don’t want to sell Shaogang to Nanshan Special Steel, there are still a lot of people who want to cooperate.

People in Lai Liang's position can be said to be the best at interpreting the meaning of other people's words.

He obviously knew what Cao Yang meant.

Although Baosteel is considered a very powerful large-scale enterprise in China, as the general manager of Baosteel, his rank is not low.

But in front of Cao Yang, the richest man in the world, it is obviously not something that is particularly useful.

He was also afraid that the cooperation would really fall apart.

After all, Cao Yang is so young, it would be embarrassing if he was "young and energetic".

After thinking about this clearly, he immediately changed his tone and said: "Of course we are willing to strengthen cooperation with Nanshan Special Steel."

“This is indeed in line with the major policies of the ministry and I will fully support it.”

"However, I think the cooperation between the two parties, in addition to selling Shaogang to Nanshan Special Steel, can actually explore more cooperation in other aspects."

"For example, some steel types that Nanshan Special Steel is not prepared to produce by itself can be produced by Baosteel just like hot stamped steel plates."

"To put it bluntly, although there are many domestic steel manufacturers, none are more competitive than Baosteel."

Shaogang will definitely be sold to Nanshan Special Steel, but he definitely also wants to get more cooperation opportunities.

In China, any project related to Nanshan Group is a good project.

This has been confirmed by countless cases.

"We at Nanshan Automobile Group now consume a large amount of automotive panels every year, and there are currently four or five suppliers of these automotive panels."

"In the future, as long as Baosteel has advantages in QCD materials, we can give priority to purchasing them from Baosteel."

“Even for the steel plates used by suppliers of Xingchen Motors, Future Motors and Jaguar Land Rover, we can consider purchasing them from Baosteel and then giving them to the suppliers.”

Cao Yang knew that Lai Liang would definitely be unhappy if he didn't give him any benefits.

Anyway, you have to buy some steel materials no matter which material manufacturer you buy them from.

It's better to take this opportunity to sell Baosteel a favor.

"Thank you, Mr. Cao, for your support. You can rest assured that as long as the Nanshan Automobile Group needs to purchase steel, we will definitely provide the most cost-effective quotation."

Just accept it as soon as you see fit.

Lai Liang knew that he didn't have many chips in his hand, so he didn't make any more excessive demands.

Lest the talks really break down, it will be Baosteel's turn to beg Nanshan Special Steel to acquire Shaogang.

The two big guys reached an agreement on the general direction, and the relevant acquisition procedures were naturally carried out as quickly as possible.

The efficiency of relevant departments in China can definitely exceed your imagination when needed.

Soon, Shaogang suspended trading and officially issued an announcement stating that Nanshan Special Steel would acquire all shares of Shaogang at a premium of 10%.

This information immediately attracted the attention of many people.

"Mr. Cao, are you finally planning to enter the crude steel smelting process?"

"If you ask me, you should have used your technical strength to make the special steel business bigger and stronger."

"The current production capacity is completely unable to meet market demand."

As the dean of Anshan Iron and Steel Research Institute, Zhou Mulan worked with Cao Yang to solve many technical problems when he was studying aircraft carrier steel plates, and he is also very familiar with the technical strength of Nanshan Special Steel.

Of course, she also knows the situation of Shaogang very well.

In her opinion, Shaogang is just an ordinary local steel company with no technical features, otherwise it would not be in a state of loss.

But for Shaogang, which has become a subsidiary of Nanshan Special Steel, the situation is different.

Not to mention Nanshan Equipment, which has production equipment in Nanshan Group, just optimizing the process parameter settings and making some improvements in management of Nanshan Special Steel can make a big difference.

Zhou Mulan obviously knew this very well.

Therefore, many people within Anshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. are a little worried that Nanshan Special Steel will compete with Anshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. for the marine steel plate market in the future.

Don't underestimate this market. With the rapid development of China's shipbuilding industry, the market for marine steel plates is actually very large.

The most important thing is that the competitors in this field are relatively small and the profit margins are slightly larger.

Therefore, the leaders within Anshan Iron and Steel knew that Zhou Mulan had a good relationship with Cao Yang, so they asked Zhou Mulan to call him to find out what was going on.

"Some time ago, I saw the news that the American aircraft carrier's arresting cable collapsed, which made me further realize the importance of special steel."

“Each of our companies has more or less special steel grades purchased from outside, which also gives us the motivation to increase our special steel production capacity.”

"So we will mainly focus on special steel grades that are closely related to our own industry."

Cao Yang is not stupid at all.

Zhou Mulan, who didn't usually keep in touch with her, suddenly called her. It was definitely not as simple as a simple congratulation.

If you want to congratulate, there are countless things worth congratulating that have happened to various companies in the Nanshan Group throughout the year.

He didn't see Zhou Mulan calling to congratulate him before.

"The market prospects for mold steel in the automotive industry and various special steels for parts such as chassis and engines are indeed very broad."

“With the technical strength of Nanshan Special Steel, we can completely promote 100% localization of steel used in the automotive industry.”

"This is actually quite important for the development of the domestic automobile industry."

Zhou Mulan secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

You can now give responsibilities to your leaders.

At least Nanshan Special Steel probably has no intention of producing aircraft carrier steel plates or submarine steel plates and other marine steel plates.

Of course, she also knows that nothing is absolute.

It's not surprising that Nanshan Special Steel changed its mind at some point.

…

Lang Youqing is interested in concubine, and departments at all levels are very supportive.

The employees at Shaogang are also very cooperative, and they hope that the personnel from Nanshan Special Steel will come over and recruit them as soon as possible.

So very quickly, without completing all the procedures, Xie Lingyun personally led the team to settle in Shaogang and made some adjustments to the personnel in some major positions such as finance and procurement.

The relevant departments also want to take this opportunity to conduct a thorough investigation of the situation in the domestic special steel field to see what other special steels cannot be produced by various domestic steel manufacturers and require Nanshan Special Steel to tackle the problem.

This is not the first time that this kind of industrial survey has been done in China.

When the aircraft carrier's arresting cable was accidentally fixed before, the relevant departments conducted a thorough investigation.

You wouldn’t know if you didn’t investigate. Once you investigate, you will find many unexpected discoveries.

Including subsequent breakthroughs in Nanshan Chemical Stealth Coatings and Nanshan Carbon Fiber's high-end carbon fiber products, relevant departments have also learned that some technologies that cannot be solved within the system may have been developed by private enterprises.

After all, whether many materials can be developed or not has a little to do with luck.

There are so many private enterprises in China, it’s impossible for every one of them to have such bad luck, right?

"Mr. Lai, the relevant departments have preliminary sorted out the industrial situation in the field of special steel a few days ago. Among them, there is a kind of special steel that no one has noticed before, but it is 100% dependent on imports."

"So people from relevant departments asked us if we could produce this kind of special steel."

Over at Baosteel, sales directors Jin Tai and Lai Liang reported relevant information on the industrial survey.

As the most influential steel company in the country, after a thorough investigation, some steel products were found that were uncertain. The relevant departments will definitely think about whether Baosteel can produce them.

Obviously, judging from Jin Tai's current situation, the situation is not very optimistic.

"Where is the special steel used?"

Lai Liang put down the pen in his hand and looked at Jin Tai calmly.

There are too many types of special steel, and Baosteel cannot produce many of them. This is not something that surprises him.

Jin Taihui came over to report to him. It was obvious that Baosteel could not produce this material now.

Otherwise it wouldn't be what it is now.

"The small beads on the tip of the ballpoint pen, a special kind of steel."

"After discovering this problem at this meeting, the leaders of the relevant departments were a little angry. They felt that China, as the world's largest manufacturing and steel country, can build high-speed rail and rockets, so why can't it achieve complete independent research and development and production of small ballpoint pen tip materials?"

When Mrs. Jin said this, Lai Liang couldn't help but frown.

"Is it that difficult to produce ballpoint pen beads?"

Hearing what Lai Liang said, Jin Tai knew that he must not know much about this niche field.

"Mr. Lai, although the ballpoint pen is a small invention, it has a profound impact on human civilization."

"The pen tip is a ball with a diameter of 0.5-1.0 millimeters, which is its writing point."

"When we write with a ballpoint pen, under the dual effects of atmospheric pressure and ink gravity, the ink distributed in the pen core will flow to the ball seat of the pen tip and adhere to the 'writing point'."

"When writing, the ink adheres to the paper due to the rolling of the ball, resulting in clear, bright, clean handwriting."

"Because the 'writing point' of the ballpoint pen needs to withstand a lot of pressure when writing, the ballpoint pen tip needs to be made of hard and wear-resistant material."

"Ballpoint pens were first introduced to the market. Because the steel balls used as writing points were difficult to produce and the cost of ballpoint pens was high, they were sold very expensively."

"At that time, it was made of chromium alloy balls and bead steel with good wear resistance."

“Later, tungsten carbide became a common material for making steel balls.”

"The hardness of tungsten carbide is similar to diamond and its chemical properties are stable, so balls made of tungsten carbide have a longer life and can write more smoothly."

"China produces more than 40 billion ballpoint pens every year and is the largest ballpoint pen producer in the world. However, for a long time, the core secret of special steel for pen tip beads has been in the hands of a few Western countries."

When Mrs. Jin explained this, Lai Liang probably had a feeling.

However, he still felt strange and said: "Although this kind of special steel needs to be imported all the time, the dosage shouldn't be particularly large, right?"

"According to the current situation, the production of pen nibs requires the import of more than 1,000 tons of special steel, which is an import amount of about 200 million yuan a year."

"However, the price of this kind of special steel has always been rising. It has never been seen to drop its price, which makes the relevant companies very angry."

"So during this industrial survey, several companies raised this issue."

Jin Tai explained helplessly.

As a professional in the industry, he can naturally understand the various reasons behind this problem.

Is there a threshold for the special steel used in ballpoint pens?

The answer is absolutely yes!

But is this threshold really so high that there is no way to get customers?

The answer is absolutely no!

This kind of material, when sensitive technology is not involved, is a simple private trade.

Considering that the annual demand is only about 1,000 tons, the production capacity of steel plants is often measured in millions of tons.

Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that they are reluctant to simply produce a type of steel with such low demand.

But once this kind of thing is discovered and exposed on the Internet, the nature will be different.

The majority of consumers will think that China's steel technology is not good enough, and it cannot handle such a simple special steel for daily necessities.

This invisible influence is actually quite large.

"Even if we immediately arrange for people to research this special steel, the R\u0026D investment will be amortized into the production cost. We don't know when it will be possible to recover the cost."

"And excessive amortization costs are likely to make domestically produced special steel more expensive than imported steel."

Lai Liang obviously doesn't have much interest in doing this.

More than 1,000 tons. If there are more than 10,000 tons, we can still do something about it.

"Relevant departments have now launched a 'research and development and industrialization of key materials and preparation technologies for the pen industry', and we are currently one of the invited manufacturers."

"If the company has no intention of doing it, then I can find a reason to reject them because of insufficient production capacity?"

Jin Tai sensed Lai Liang's attitude immediately. At this time, he naturally had to plan his next move based on the leader's attitude.

Otherwise, you will have to wear small shoes in the future.

"Give up. There is no need to do such a thankless thing."

Lai Liang didn't think much and gave his answer directly.

There are so many domestic steel manufacturers, so we can just let those who are idle and have no projects to work on.

Even if this kind of steel is successfully developed by then, the market demand will be very small.

Lai Liang definitely doesn't want to touch this kind of thing.