Tokyo Barrister: Start the law firm bankruptcy

Chapter 847: Past Cooperation with Nippon Steel

"So, what's going on?" Miyakawa asked from the side.

Niwa said some comforting words to Shiga.

Not long after arriving at the law firm, the boss of this small steel company revealed a surprising fact: Nippon Steel actually owed so much debt to this company, even exceeding the size of this small company itself, which was really unimaginable.

"Let me start with our cooperation with Nippon Steel." Shiga's eyes revealed a look of regret. "You should all know that I left Nippon Steel to start my own business. Because I worked as a grassroots worker in Nippon Steel in the early days, and later in R&D, so I can say that I am quite familiar with their pipelines and how they operate."

"At the beginning, my company did not cooperate with Nippon Steel. You all know that Nippon Steel looked down on small companies like ours. Moreover, when I left Nippon Steel, they had some complaints about me."

"Later, I also heard about the difficulties that Nippon Steel encountered." Shiga continued, "It was at that time that a workshop director of Nippon Steel who I knew before came to me and said that some workshops of the Seventh Steel Plant were being contracted out to outsiders and asked if I was interested."

"I was very surprised at the time. Nippon Steel actually outsourced its workshop. I thought the director was joking. Later, when he actually invited me to visit the Nippon Steel factory, I realized that what he said was true."

"The initial contracting method was production-based contracting," Shiga said. "That is, we used Nippon Steel's equipment, paid for the corresponding raw materials and labor costs, and produced a sufficient number of products within the specified time. Nippon Steel would settle the purchase with us. I also calculated and found that it could be profitable, so I tried to take over a workshop."

"Later, I didn't expect that the profit situation exceeded my imagination. So I became bolder. I gradually contracted nearly 8 workshops of the Seventh Steel Plant. Later, I learned that I was not the only contractor, but many small companies had contracted workshops of the steel plant. As far as I know, there were from the Third Steel Plant to the Seventh Steel Plant!"

"Don't be fooled by the fact that there seem to be a lot of workers coming and going in many workshops of Nippon Steel. However, if you actually ask about the identities of these people, they are not from Nippon Steel! I was once shocked by this. At the most exaggerated time, a large area of ​​the entire factory was occupied by workshops of dozens of contractors."

According to Shiga's narration, Nippon Steel's experiment with the contracting system seemed to be in full swing.

Kitahara and the others had never expected that this famous large-scale steel company in Japan would actually contract out so many workshops to external companies. This was indeed beyond their expectations.

"Oh." Shiga suddenly sighed.

Just now, when he was speaking, his eyes lit up a little, as if he was recalling the smooth sailing situation at that time.

"In fact, I'm really stupid. If there is really a good thing in this world, how could it be thrown to me for nothing like this?" Shiga began to say in annoyance, "I should have thought of it. Nippon Steel's practice is actually to save cash expenses. If a company reaches this point, there is actually a big problem with its operating conditions. I shouldn't continue to cooperate with Nippon Steel!"

However, it was no use for Shiga to feel upset.

What happened, happened.

"Later, I became more daring," Shiga said. "Nippon Steel approached me and said that they were upgrading several workshops and asked if I was willing to participate. I made a lot of money at the time, so I agreed." "The condition that Nippon Steel gave me was that they would bear the investment costs, and at the same time they were willing to give me the entire workshop in the form of a fixed fee. For products within the production volume target, Nippon Steel would purchase them according to the previous conditions. For the part exceeding the target, we were allowed to dispose of the products on our own and sell them to others."

"This condition was very tempting to me. I conservatively calculated that the profit could be doubled. So, I agreed without hesitation."

This is the world.

When you think there is a business that is sure to make money, it is often the beginning of a huge loss.

"After I made the investment, Nippon Steel started to default on its debts," said Shiga.

"The steel we produced was taken away by Nippon Steel. However, Nippon Steel did not settle the fees for us. They used the excuse that approval would take time. At first, I really believed Nippon Steel's excuse. After all, they are a big company, and the payment may really need to go through some procedures."

"But later I found out that they kept delaying, and we just couldn't accept it. Because the total amount of steel produced by our workshop exceeded the daily steel quota, we could dispose of some of the steel ourselves, which partially made up for our losses. Later, we couldn't bear it anymore and had to stop production."

"At this time, Rigang jumped out again."

Shiga said helplessly.

"What other excuses do you have for not paying back the money you owe?" Miyakawa said angrily beside him.

"Nippon Steel said that there were quality issues with the steel we produced and that they needed to take it for testing," Shiga said. "They said they would pay us only after the testing confirmed that there were no issues. But this is really a bit ridiculous. You didn't test it earlier or later, and you owed us the money for such a long time before you asked us to test it."

"Moreover, according to the testing agency they designated, the steel must be sent there for at least two months before the final test report can be issued. I am surprised. We have already supplied such a large amount of steel before, and Nippon Steel has no problems with anything. But now they are starting to find fault with us."

"We were originally going to stop production, but the legal department of Nippon Steel threatened us. He said that we would not be paid because of the quality of the steel. As a contractor of the workshop, we must complete the steel production task on time every day, otherwise, he will fine us."

"It was then that I carefully read the contract and found that it was really written like this." Shiga's expression became even more annoyed. "At that time, we had no choice but to continue production in order to avoid fines. After all, the payment for the goods is in their hands. If they say they want to use the fines to offset part of the payment, then we will really lose a lot."

"Finally, we finally made it to the day when the steel quality inspection results were issued..."

(End of this chapter)