The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 407: Full bloom, creating a new case of cooperation
All kinds of movements in Europe will naturally spread to China.

Whether it is Nanshan Technology, Nanshan Steel Plant, or Nanshan Mould, we have received a lot of relevant contacts.

Various contents were gradually summarized to Jiang Hui.

"Director, a European steel company has arranged for someone to come and discuss with us the use of the patented aluminum-silicon coating for hot stamping steel plates."

"They want us to authorize them to produce hot stamped steel plates in Europe."

"For this purpose, you can pay us 1% of the steel plate sales as a technical commission."

Wu Ming is now the director of Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant. He felt both surprised and natural about this cooperation from Europe.

After all, in recent months, hot stamping parts technology has entered the international automotive industry at a speed beyond everyone's imagination, causing quite a stir.

Today, any of the international automobile giants have purchased Land Rover G-series off-road vehicles from the market and conducted collision tests with their own best-selling cars.

Everyone knows what the outcome will be.

Even if some models have decent collision performance, they are just okay.

Anyone can see that the Land Rover G-Class has better collision performance.

In this case, improving the strength of the vehicle body becomes an inevitable choice.

For most manufacturers, using hot stamping to form parts is the simplest solution.

As a result, the market demand for hot stamping steel plates has increased significantly.

"It's too greedy to want to swallow up the European hot stamping market with a 1% patent royalty."

Jiang Hui is very clear about the importance of hot stamping steel plates.

For automotive steel sheets with similar production costs, the selling price of hot stamped steel sheets can be 30 to 50 percent more expensive.

There's profit here.

Even if the cost of hot stamping parts is reduced and the price of steel plates is further reduced, this steel is still a very profitable product.

Otherwise, Jiang Hui would not have established the Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant.

Although the main purpose of this plant is to produce special steels, the production of hot stamped steel sheets is also a major purpose.

Otherwise, if such a key raw material is controlled by Shougang, it will be relatively passive for BMW Group.

“I also think this condition is not good enough.”

"But this is just the first proposal they put forward, and there is definitely room for improvement."

"The key is whether we want to cooperate with them, and then it's a bargaining process."

As Jiang Hui's brother-in-law, Wu Ming naturally listens to Jiang Hui's opinions on key matters.

More often than not, he is just an executor.

For Jiang Hui, this kind of executor is what BMW Group needs most.

Only when the group grows further will managers at all levels need to have more ideas of their own.

"It takes a long time to transport steel from our side to European customers by sea."

"Taking into account factors such as the steel mill's production schedule, the ordering cycle will basically take five to six months."

“Once production increases and more steel is needed, there will likely be supply problems.”

"This is definitely a situation that foreign customers don't want to see."

“So in the early stages, we can continue to do steel export business.”

"After a few years, this business will definitely not be able to continue."

Jiang Hui didn't intend to eat alone.

If you, an outsider, want to have the best deal of everything, you will definitely be messed with.

Don't think that people in Europe are very law-abiding. In fact, everyone is doing it for their own interests.

“That’s indeed the case.”

“Since we can’t keep exporting steel to Europe, the possibility of building a steel plant there is almost zero.”

"Then it is inevitable to find a local steel plant to cooperate with."

"Arbed Steel is one of the top steel companies in Europe and has considerable strength."

"The most important thing is that they are the first European steel mill to contact us to discuss cooperation."

"I think what we need to discuss with them now is whether the technology royalties can be increased."

Wu Ming expressed his thoughts.

He definitely wants to promote this cooperation.

"Let's put it this way. We have to charge at least 3% as a technology royalty. Otherwise, if they dare to infringe our patents, we will fight them in court."

"In order to achieve this ratio, you need to bargain down to at least 5% to leave enough room for negotiation."

"In addition to the technology royalties, purchasing some special steel processing equipment and exchanging some special steel technical data can also be used as negotiation items."

“Since everyone wants to discuss cooperation, then let’s cooperate openly and develop more cooperative projects.”

Jiang Hui is well aware of the importance of special steel to the development of the automotive industry.

Although he has mastered some of the technology, there are too many types of special steels and he is not omnipotent.

The most important thing is that he doesn't have that much energy to do these things.

Therefore, it is entirely possible to consider taking this opportunity to cooperate with the other party.

For European steel companies, they have now entered the final stage of development.

Steel mills are even considered a sunset industry by many people in Europe.

Therefore, it is not impossible to take out some of the technology and cooperate with Chinese companies.

Especially now that China's relations with the United States and Europe are pretty good, there won't be any special obstacles standing in the way.

"Okay, I roughly understand the key points of the negotiation."

"I'll talk to them for a few rounds and report back to you when the time comes."

After listening to Jiang Hui's words, Wu Ming also understood what was going on and was ready to have a good talk with the other party.

However, while Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant was happy, Shougang was a little worried.

As one of the largest steel mills in China, Shougang has been enjoying a relatively prosperous period in recent years.

In particular, the launch of high-strength automotive steel plates has enabled Shougang to gain a firm foothold in the automotive industry.

Today, all major domestic automobile manufacturers are using Shougang’s materials.

With the large-scale use of hot stamping parts by the BMW Group, Shougang, as the world's first manufacturer of large-scale mass production of hot stamping steel plates, naturally enjoyed considerable benefits.

"Director, the monthly automobile production of BMW Group is still increasing, but the hot stamping steel plates we supply to them have not increased significantly."

“There was even a slight decline this month.”

As the director of Shougang Sales Department, Liu Wenfei has been a little worried during this period.

Hot stamping steel plates have very good profits, so even if the overall output does not account for a very high proportion of the total output, it is still highly valued by Liu Wenfei.

But now such a star product is facing a bad situation.

“Why did this happen?”

"Did the BMW Group switch the hot stamping steel plates for mass-produced models to the Nanshan Steel Plant?"

Zhou Gang asked with a frown.

In recent years, Shougang has definitely been regarded as a star factory under the Ministry of Metallurgy, and is not inferior to the favored Baosteel.

The factory director Zhou Gang has won numerous honors. It is rumored that he will be further promoted half a level in the future and work in the Ministry of Metallurgy.

However, if Shougang’s performance declines during this period, it is hard to say whether this rumor can become a fact.

"The materials for the hot stamping parts of the new Land Rover X-Series pickup trucks are all processed by Nanshan Steel itself after purchasing crude steel from other steel mills."

"Because of the savings in various pre-processing steps such as crude steel smelting, the production speed at Nanshan Steel Plant was very fast."

"At first, it was estimated that they were only producing a portion of steel on a trial basis, but now they are probably expanding their production capacity."

Liu Wenfei made a judgment based on the information he had obtained.

"The production difficulty of hot stamping steel sheets is not very high, except that the chemical composition and surface coating are different from other automotive sheets."

“It’s not fundamentally different elsewhere.”

"Whether they produce it themselves or find other factories to cooperate with, it is not particularly difficult."

"But why would they want to part ways with us for no reason?"

Zhou Gang carefully recalled his interactions with the BMW Group in the past year, and it seemed that he had not offended the other party.

"Director, Nanshan Technology has received a lot of orders from America and Europe in recent months."

"These orders will basically start to be delivered next year, and by then the demand for steel will increase a lot."

"Originally, Nanshan Technology only had two hot stamping production lines, but now it has launched four new production lines at once."

"It is said that new factories are also being prepared, and if there is a need, further production lines will be added at any time."

"Nanshan Technology even cooperates with some foreign auto parts manufacturers and plans to resell hot stamping production lines, molds and materials to them."

"If the materials are not produced by them, the other party will probably have some opinions during the resale process."

"Or maybe Nanshan Technology was worried that we would have objections, so it placed the order with Nanshan Steel Plant."

After Liu Wenfei said this, Zhou Gang felt even more uncomfortable.

Even if this reason is understandable, he can't accept it.

Especially export earnings are very attractive to Shougang.

"Is it possible for us to discuss with Nanshan Technology and supply hot stamping materials at a price lower than the cost price of Nanshan Steel Plant?"

"We can not make money, but we can maintain the output. It would be best if we can share some of the export earnings with us."

At this time, making money is not the most important thing for Zhou Gang.

No matter how much money the factory earns, it will never go into his pocket.

But the results are different.

As long as he can maintain production capacity and even export to earn foreign exchange, he can give a good report at the end of the year.

You never know if you will be promoted.

"I can talk to Nanshan Technology. If the price is lower than the cost of Nanshan Steel Plant, they have no reason to refuse."

Liu Wenfei is well aware that foreign companies such as Nanshan Technology consider issues from a different perspective than Shougang.

If they can purchase high-quality materials at a lower price, there is no reason for the other party to refuse. At least if they can help Shougang in the short term, it is still possible.

……

China's hot stamping steel plate technology has officially started cooperation with European steel giants.

The other party even provided Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant with a batch of advanced special steel processing equipment.

This news quickly spread throughout China's metallurgical industry and was even further reported by China TV.

In recent years, in the industrial field, China has mostly introduced production lines and technologies from abroad, and there are few cases of reverse output.

As an emerging enterprise, Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant can reversely output in the field of hot stamping steel plates, making others pay a high price to obtain the right to use the patent.

This is quite shocking to many people in China.

In particular, the issue of patent usage rights is unfamiliar to many people.

In order to keep pace with the international standards, China already had a patent law a few years ago.

However, having such laws and being able to implement them well are two different things.

Just like the Labor Law, no one knows how long it has been since it was promulgated, but it is hard to say how many companies can ultimately implement it.

This is even more true in the case of patent law.

So many people were deeply touched when they saw Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant gain so many benefits by using a "vague" patent.

"Mr. Zhu, do you think our universities should pay more attention to patent registration in the future?"

Zou Yuan and Zhu Jiansheng are old classmates. Now one is the president of Capital University of Science and Technology and the other is the president of Capital Polytechnic University, so their relationship has become even closer.

However, compared with Capital University of Technology, which is rising rapidly in the ranking among universities, Capital University of Science and Technology's performance in this regard is somewhat worse.

How to enhance the influence of the school is naturally something that Zou Yuan is very concerned about.

The School of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering of Capital University of Technology is very famous throughout the country, and Capital University of Science and Technology has outstanding performance in steel metallurgy.

After seeing the cooperation between Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant and European steel giants these days, Zou Yuan couldn't help but go to Zhu Jiansheng to communicate.

He knew that the director of Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant was Zhu Jiansheng's son-in-law, and that Jiang Hui and his wife were in control of the plant.

"It is indeed necessary. We in China do not pay enough attention to patents."

"I think I've suffered a lot in the past few years, and there may be more losses in the future."

"I even heard that some domestic technologies were registered by foreign countries. If we want to use them in the future, we may have to pay patent fees to them."

Zhu Jiansheng communicates with Jiang Hui a lot, and his foresight is definitely much stronger than many of his peers.

He even contributed to the promotion of patent law.

"That's true. Not to mention other fields, few people in our field of metallurgy care about patents."

"Everyone feels that there is a huge gap between domestic metallurgical technology and international technology, and there is no need to register a patent."

"In fact, we need to analyze the specific situation. Some of our processes still have their merits."

"I plan to raise this issue with the ministry in the future, so that all manufacturers will pay attention to patent registration."

After Zou Yuan said this, Zhu Jiansheng thought of a problem. "It is relatively simple to register a domestic patent, but it is more troublesome to register an international patent."

"The most important thing is that registration fees are required to register international patents, and I guess many factories can't afford this money."

It has to be said that the problem Zhu Jiansheng mentioned has existed until later generations.

Most patents actually have no international use significance.

Many people will certainly oppose the practice of spending foreign exchange to register international patents.

After all, the possibility of getting a return soon after registration is very low.

"If that doesn't work, we can register a domestic patent first, at least to ensure that we can use it normally in China."

“For some very important patents, we will consider registering international patents.”

Zou Yuan quickly found a compromise.

Anyway, he intends to push this matter forward.

"That's not bad. We can even consider selling some of the international patent rights to interested domestic companies."

"It seems that the BMW Group has dedicated people to follow up on this aspect."

Zhu Jiansheng didn't mind getting some business for his son-in-law.

Anyway, it is better for BMW Group to make a profit from this kind of thing rather than letting other foreign companies get a bargain.

In the end, the meat was rotten in the pot.

"Well, I'll put together a report and report it to the department when the time comes."

……

"Dagang, the factory hopes that we will also set up a project team to tackle the production technology of hot stamping steel plates."

"You should implement this matter as soon as possible and get the action started."

Cheng Jianqiang sighed in his heart and handed the technical director Li Dagang over to him.

As the chief engineer of Baosteel, Cheng Jianqiang has a good technical level.

In particular, he is quite familiar with the various production equipment that Baosteel introduced from Japan.

In China, he can barely be considered a steel expert, otherwise he would not have been appointed as the chief engineer of Baosteel by his superiors.

"Chief Engineer Cheng, we have never studied hot stamping steel plates before."

"It may not be easy to produce results in a short period of time."

"The most important thing is that the patent for the aluminum-silicon coating process for hot stamping steel plates is in the hands of Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant."

"If we infringe on their patents, they will definitely cause trouble."

Li Dagang was full of disgust towards Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant.

Because of this, he was even more afraid to offend the other party easily.

After all, their factory director Wu Ming was his subordinate and had the support of the BMW Group behind him.

If something bad happens, Li Dagang is worried that he won't be able to stop it.

"Hot stamping steel plates do not necessarily require aluminum-silicon coatings. We can produce steel plates without coatings, which can significantly reduce costs."

"In the face of absolute cost advantages, I think all solutions will be used by people."

Cheng Jianqiang naturally also knew about the aluminum-silicon coating. This was the key to the cooperation between Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant and the European steel giants. The other party would certainly not allow any domestic steel plant to infringe on this patent.

If the incident becomes a big deal, the Ministry of Metallurgy will not support Baosteel.

So he decided to change the track.

The larger the scale of hot stamping parts forming, the greater the demand for steel.

By then, sensitivity to costs will increase sooner or later.

A difference of a few points in material cost may not be very attractive.

But if it could be cheaper by several tens of percent, the situation would be different.

"Hot stamping steel plates without aluminum-silicon coatings are prone to produce a large amount of oxide scale during the processing process."

"These oxide scales fall into the mold, which not only affects the life of the mold, but also increases the trouble of cleaning the mold."

"And in order to remove the oxide scale, it is necessary to add a shot blasting process."

"Afterwards, in order to prevent corrosion on the surface of the parts, large-scale oiling is required."

"When you look at the final production cost, it's not necessarily cheaper."

Li Dagang is at least the director of Baosteel's technical department and is considered an industry insider who knows the business.

He immediately saw the problem with Cheng Jianqiang's plan.

If this is not said in advance, he might be the one to take the blame.

"These are issues that parts manufacturers need to consider. The most important thing for us is to first develop cheap hot stamping steel plates."

"This will be the first high-tech product independently developed by Baosteel since its establishment, and we can promote it well."

What Cheng Jianqiang was thinking about was not exactly the same as what Li Dagang was thinking about.

Once the factory issues a task, he must respond accordingly.

But to what extent it can correspond requires careful consideration.

“What if the Nanshan Steel Plant shows up and causes trouble?”

Li Dagang knew that he had a bad relationship with Wu Ming and was worried that the other party would mess with him.

As the director of Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant, his social status is no lower than his.

"What's going on?"

"As long as we don't infringe on their patents, they have no reason to cause trouble!"

"We are a key national enterprise, do you really think we are easy to bully?"

After Cheng Jianqiang said this, Li Dagang stopped worrying about it.

Then arrange someone to do it.

It may not be that difficult to simply develop a hot-stamped steel plate without a coating.

After all, some information is public. For example, the hot-stamped steel plates currently produced by Shougang, compared with ordinary automobile steel plates, have the most typical feature of the addition of the material "boron".

At that time, the worst that can happen is that we can transfer a few people from Shougang.

Li Dagang just didn't believe that he couldn't come up with something.

As for whether the product can be used on a large scale in parts production after it is developed, that is something that needs to be considered in the future.

There are countless cases in which various scientific research results in China are ultimately unable to be implemented in commercial applications.

An example from Baosteel would certainly not be a big deal.

"I understand. I will select a group of technicians from the technical department to form a hot stamping material research project team."

"The relevant project report materials will be formally submitted to the factory in three days!"

……

Nanshan Iron and Steel Plant was not particularly concerned about what was happening at Baosteel, and did not even make any special efforts to inquire about the situation at Baosteel.

At this time, Jiang Hui had no time to pay attention to Baosteel's affairs.

Because Chen Chenxing brought back a piece of news from Europe that made Jiang Hui speechless.

(End of this chapter)