60s: I have a store

Chapter 581 Export or Domestic Sales
When the iron door of the research laboratory was pushed open, the cold wind of late autumn rushed in, carrying coal dust with it, but it could not blow away the stagnant and tense atmosphere in the room.

The superior leader did not say anything extra, but his eyes swept across the oil-stained workbench, the tilted experimental equipment, and finally landed on the black and white solar water heater like a hawk.

Director Hu followed behind him at a trot, with large sweat stains on the back of his work shirt. The straps of his safety helmet had loosened at some point and swayed slightly with his steps.

"Leader, this is our new achievement!" Director Hu's voice was eight octaves higher than usual. When he stretched out his hand to signal Zhou Yimin to start the demonstration, his sleeve swept the vernier caliper off the table.

The sound of metal collision was particularly harsh in the silent space, and it startled the technician who was napping in the corner and woke him up suddenly.

The crowd, who were originally drowsy, suddenly woke up after hearing the sound, and then did what Director Hu said.

Zhou Yimin took a deep breath and rubbed the control panel with the calluses on his palms.

His eyes met with those of the team members one by one: Old Chen adjusted his reading glasses which had slipped down, and stood by with his fingertips on the thermometer.

Xiao Wang's knuckles turned white as he gripped the notebook, with the tip of his pen hanging on the paper; Li Chongguang stood beside the leader, his Adam's apple rolling up and down.

With a slight "hum", the device started up.

The leader subconsciously took half a step forward, and the hem of his Zhongshan suit swept over the edge of the laboratory table.

The solar collector tubes gradually glow dark red under the sunlight, and the special coating on the surface emits fine golden light, like liquid flames burning on the metal surface.

"Start adding water now." Zhou Yimin's voice was steady, but it was hard to hide his nervousness.

Lao Zhao turned the valve, the water pipe made a low roar, and a clear stream of water flowed into the water tank through the pipe. As everyone watched with bated breath, the temperature control display on the surface of the equipment lit up with a faint blue light.

Li Chongguang was also watching nervously from the side. If any problems occurred, he, as the section chief, would definitely be responsible.

"The initial temperature is 13 degrees!" Xiao Wang's counting voice made the air freeze instantly.

The leader's pupils shrank slightly along with the pointer of the thermometer, and his right hand unconsciously adjusted the frame of his glasses.

When the temperature exceeded 30 degrees, he couldn't help but suddenly asked: "What fuel is used?"

There was an imperceptible tremor in his voice.

Director Hu quickly answered: "Nothing! Just rely on the sunlight!"

When the superior saw this, he was extremely shocked. He didn’t have such a feeling when he first heard Director Hu’s words on the phone.

But the shock of what I see with my own eyes now is incomparable to what I just saw.

As time went by, the temperature on the thermometer got higher and higher, 40 degrees, 50 degrees...

The leader rubbed his eyes violently, as if he suspected that he was seeing things.

But the 62 degrees shown on the thermometer proved that I was not seeing things.

The superior was still a little unconvinced, so he went to the faucet, and boiling hot water gushed out from the nozzle.

The superior leader still didn't believe it and touched it with his hand.

The sudden heat made him take a half step back, and his lower back hit the filing cabinet behind him with a clang.

"This is impossible..." the leader muttered to himself. He stretched out his hand to test the water flow, but it was so hot that he pulled his hand back but immediately put it back again.

He stirred his fingers in the hot water repeatedly, and water droplets dripped down his cuffs onto his shiny leather shoes.

"No external power supply? No backup fuel?" He turned around and grabbed Director Hu's arm with such force that the latter gasped.

Director Hu's face flushed, and he grinned, revealing his yellowed teeth from years of smoking. "It's absolutely true! Yimin and the people in the research lab didn't sleep for ten days and ten nights, just for this thing!"

His voice was tearful, expressing both excitement and grievance.

The leader let go of his hand and staggered around the equipment, sometimes squatting to check the bottom of the water tank, sometimes standing on tiptoe to study the angle of the solar collector, his leather shoes leaving messy marks on the concrete floor.

The superior's leather shoes paced back and forth on the concrete floor, raising a fine cloud of dust behind him.

He stared at the solar water heater that was still gushing out hot water. The eyes behind the lenses were as deep as an ancient well, but they could not hide the turbulent waves surging in his eyes.

"Director Hu," he suddenly stopped and lowered his voice, "this is not a result we can keep, we must report it immediately." Before he finished speaking, Director Hu had already handed over the experimental data report that he had prepared long ago, the edges of the paper were wrinkled by sweat.

When the superiors saw that Director Hu was so well prepared, they felt that he was quite reliable.

"Notify the Foreign Trade Department and ask them to bring someone who knows the international market best." The leader tugged at the tie on his collar, and the metal tie clip glowed coldly under the light. "We need to find out if this thing can be sold overseas. If it can be exchanged for foreign currency, it will be a great achievement; if not, we must do our best to ensure domestic supply - the people in the north really need this thing to survive the winter."

He glanced at Zhou Yimin's sunken eye sockets and Lao Zhao's bandaged hands, and said in a rare gentle tone: "Thank you for your hard work, comrades. This is not only a technological breakthrough, but also a major issue of people's livelihood."

Everyone in the research lab was very happy to hear the praise from their superiors, and they all expressed that this was what they should do.

The superior leader had other things to deal with and did not stay in the steel plant for long and left immediately.

With the sound of the iron door closing, the laboratory suddenly fell silent.

It was not until Xiao Wang's suppressed cheers broke the silence that the whole room became lively again.

Except Zhou Yimin and Li Chongguang, everyone else was very excited. This was another good product after the air fryer.

Director Hu had no time to celebrate and hurried back to his office as he had other things to deal with.

At this time, the Ministry of Foreign Trade building was also in an uproar.

As soon as Minister Li hung up the phone, he grabbed his coat and rushed to the elevator.

"Notify the market research team to bring the international energy equipment reports from the past three years!" He yelled into the intercom, his tie hanging askew around his neck.

"Send a car immediately! Let's go to the steel plant now!" Footsteps could be heard in the corridor. Amid the sound of flying documents, someone knocked over a water dispenser, and mineral water flowed on the ground like a river.

When the black sedan sped through the factory gate, the security guard Lao Zhang almost failed to see the license plate.

Minister Li pushed the door open and got out of the car, her high heels tapping out a rapid rhythm on the asphalt road.

|"Director Hu, where is the solar water heater?" She didn't bother to greet him and threw her briefcase on the laboratory table with a dull thud.

"We brought market analysts who speak three languages, as well as the latest EU energy equipment access standards." As she spoke, she opened the file bag, and a thick stack of information covered the table. Just as Zhou Yimin and his team were preparing to take a break, Director Hu brought Minister Li and his team to the research room.

The incandescent lights in the research lab stretched everyone's shadows very long, casting swaying spots of light on the surface of the equipment.

Director Hu said at this time: "Yimin, you guys demonstrate it here."

Zhou Yimin had no choice but to obey the order and start a new round of demonstration. Experts from the Ministry of Foreign Trade had already gathered around him. The sounds of camera shutters, calculator keys, and discussions in English and Japanese were intertwined.

Director Hu stood on the outskirts of the crowd, looking at the frowning brows and shining eyes of the leaders, and suddenly realized that this late autumn morning not only changed the fate of the steel plant, but would also set off a storm of reform on clean energy in the country and even the world.

Then the research lab began to buzz with heated debate, and the market analysts from the Foreign Trade Department gathered around the solar water heaters, forming two distinct camps.

Minister Li slammed his pen heavily on the lab table, causing ripples in the herbal tea in the cup, but it couldn't suppress the sounds of the quarrel.

"I've been doing foreign trade at the Canton Fair for five years!" Xiao Zhang, the blond and blue-eyed translator, said in a hoarse voice, his American English accent mixed with Chinese being particularly sharp. "Electric water heaters and gas appliances have long been popular in European and American families. Who would install an ugly iron thing on the roof just to save money?"

She held up the research report in her hand, and the densely packed bar graphs on the pages swayed under the light: "Look at this data, the annual growth rate of solar equipment in the Western market is less than 3%."

Before he could finish his words, Old Chen, who was in charge of the Southeast Asian market, slammed the table and stood up, knocking over the ashtray on the table with the cuff of his work clothes.

"That's the West!" His Fujian accent became thicker with excitement.

"Ask those doing business in Southeast Asia, which family would be willing to use electricity to boil water every day? Our equipment does not require electricity or gas, which just meets their needs!" As he said this, he took out the data and showed it to everyone.

"Don't forget the domestic market!" Li Chongguang suddenly squeezed into the crowd, with half of an experimental data report sticking out of his work clothes pocket.

"Three hundred million people in the north have difficulty taking a bath in winter. This demand alone can consume five years of production capacity!" His words were like a fuse, igniting a new round of debate.

Those who advocate domestic sales waved market research reports and emphasized the policy dividends brought by people's livelihood projects, while those who advocated foreign sales held up exchange rate conversion tables and argued about the importance of foreign exchange earnings to the factory.

Amid the quarrel, Zhou Yimin stood silently beside the equipment, his fingers unconsciously stroking the coating of the collector tubes.

When the argument reached its climax, he suddenly turned on the equipment, and boiling hot water gushed out, and the steaming mist instantly blurred everyone's eyes.

"Everyone," he said in a low voice, but with a calming power: "We can overcome the technical difficulties, and the market demand is also in front of us. What we need to discuss now is not whether we can sell it, but how to make it meet the domestic people's livelihood and open the door to the international market."

These words hit everyone's heart like a heavy hammer.

Everyone felt that Zhou Yimin was not wrong. Why couldn't they have both?

Minister Li took off his glasses and wiped them, his eyes sharp again: "Chief Zhou is right. Now we will split into two groups, one to study the domestic promotion plan, and the other to draw up a list of improvements in accordance with international standards."

Her high heels made crisp sounds on the ground: "Remember, this water heater is not only a commodity, but also a product related to domestic people's livelihood, so it must be handled properly."

After saying that, he took the people from the Foreign Trade Department back, and recorded the data before leaving.

To be cautious, they have to go back and hold a meeting to discuss how to deal with the situation.

Director Hu looked at the tired people and said, "Go back and have a rest. You have worked hard during this period."

After hearing this, Zhou Yimin and the others did not refuse. After all, this period was quite tiring, and on top of that, they could hardly open their eyes.

This situation is quite dangerous in a steel plant.

Then Zhou Yimin and his friends packed up their things and prepared to return home.

But Director Hu said he still had things to deal with, so he couldn't leave and came to the workshop.

Then he stood in front of the workshop scheduling board, the red and blue pencils in his hand were reluctant to put down.

The densely packed production plans on the whiteboard are like a tangled web, and the foreign trade orders for air fryers are marked with glaring red expedited symbols.

The schedule for the suitcase production line has been postponed to three months later, and the newly added mass production plan for solar water heaters, with the area circled in yellow highlighter, looks particularly abrupt.

He loosened the cloth buttons on his collar; his work shirt had already been stained with dark salt stains from sweat.

"Director Hu, the milling machine in Workshop 3 is overloaded again!" Zhang from the Production Department rushed in with a report, iron filings on his forehead. "Also, the processing progress of the air fryer shell has been stuck for two days. If it continues like this."

Before he finished speaking, the warehouse manager called again and said that the arrival of the ordered special steel would be delayed by a week due to railway transportation scheduling issues.

Director Hu pinched his throbbing temple and turned to look out the window.

The setting sun dyed the factory chimneys blood red. The crane's boom moved slowly in the twilight, but it couldn't lift his increasingly heavy mood.

Sample production is just a test of the water temperature. The real test is to turn the results in the laboratory into a steady stream of products on the assembly line.

He knew that even if all the workers in the factory worked in three shifts and the equipment ran non-stop, the existing production capacity would not be able to handle so many orders at the same time.

Director Hu had just returned to his office when suddenly the red dedicated telephone rang in the silence, startling him so much that he almost knocked over the enamelware pot on the table.

"Hello? Is this Director Hu? The city just held a meeting and the solar water heater project was listed as a key project and is required to be accelerated."

The sound from the receiver made the back of his neck tense instantly, and veins popped out on his hand holding the microphone.

After hanging up the phone, Director Hu stared at the factory floor plan on the wall, and his eyes suddenly stopped at the old factory building overgrown with weeds in the northwest corner.

It used to be the forging workshop of the steel plant. It had been idle for two years due to aging equipment. A faded slogan "Work hard and fast" was still on the mottled wall.

His fingers tapped unconsciously on the table, and he suddenly picked up the phone and dialed his superior.

Although the superior was a little surprised, he still said, "Xiao Hu, what's the matter?"

Director Hu told all the difficulties the steel plant was facing.

The person on the other end of the phone immediately fell into deep thought, and Director Hu could only wait on the side.

I don’t know how long I was there before my superior said, “Xiao Hu, do you have any ideas?”

He couldn't think of any good solution for the moment, so he could only ask Director Hu if he had any solution.

(End of this chapter)