Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 333 Getting Ready to Start

Since Yan Hui started employing workers, he has never been late in paying wages. Even if he had to borrow money, he would have to borrow it.

Yan Hui had already paid off his car loan, which only had two years left. His house was also bought with a loan, and the mortgage still had over ten years remaining. He couldn't take out another loan, and selling it wouldn't bring in much money, so he had to sell his car. Fortunately, he still had his Songhuajiang minivan, which his father had always driven, and Yan Hui took it from him.

The father had no idea what had happened and simply assumed that his son needed to transport goods.

Yan Hui sold the car, paid the workers' wages, and then generously threw a celebratory banquet to mark the completion of the project. Apart from Yan Hui, his driver, and the accountant, no one knew that Yan Hui was completely broke and only had a little over 30,000 yuan left.

After finishing his work at the construction site, Yan Hui quickly leveled the road surface and then contacted the leaders of the High-tech Zone. The leaders took this very seriously and soon arranged a time for an inspection.

Just three days later, the leaders arrived. There were quite a few leaders this time, including leaders from the city and the district. They all visited Yan Hui's workshop together.

The workshop, spanning over 5000 square meters, is filled with various pieces of equipment worth more than 300 million yuan. Yan Hui has also moved his laboratory here, which will save him some rent over there.

There is a separate area in the workshop reserved for the laboratory.

"Heng Hui Chemical's strength has exceeded our expectations. They've acquired so much stuff in just six months!" The district leader was genuinely surprised. He looked at the foreign writing on the equipment and nodded repeatedly, as if he knew it very well.

"Fortunately, the workshop and equipment cost about 10 million, which is in line with expectations. We published our patent at the beginning of the year, and we are currently the only company in China to have reached this stage. I think that when we start production in August, it will definitely be the most advanced product in China." Yan Hui started to boast in front of a group of leaders, "Most of our equipment is imported from Germany and Italy, and it is a leading product in China."

The equipment claim wasn't exaggerated; most of it was indeed imported. This was unavoidable, as domestically produced chemical machinery wasn't yet fully developed in 2006.

At this point, if he says something like this, the leader will believe him. If it were six months ago, and Yan Hui pointed to an empty space and said this, no one would have believed him.

"Director Sun, Director Wu," the district's top official also came over today, and called several leaders over, "have the comrades from the newspaper come over later to take some good photos, and remember to attach the photos of the published patent to the newspaper as well."

"Understood, understood." Director Sun immediately took out his notebook and began taking notes on the leader's speech.

This was Yan Hui's moment of glory. City leaders were there, as were the top two officials from the district. A large red banner was hung in the workshop, and Yan Hui took a photo with a group of leaders.

The leaders inquired about production capacity and recruitment, while Yan Hui asked about various licenses and permits; the communication went very smoothly. As expected, the first batch of products will be ready for production by early August.

However, Yan Hui is truly out of money now, and he can only wait for the plywood business to gradually inject funds into his operations. At this point, he doesn't dare to ask for too much at once, otherwise the already fragile plywood business, lacking working capital, will instantly run into problems.

Therefore, Yan Hui's most crucial issue today is finding a way to secure a larger loan. The construction of this factory, starting from the foundation, has cost nearly 600 million yuan. If he could secure a 200 million yuan loan, all problems would be solved. In theory, it shouldn't be difficult, but the land mortgage is quite high, making it a bit challenging.

However, with so many leaders present today, and Yan Hui bringing up the matter again, it wasn't difficult. The Agricultural Bank president who came along was beaming with pride and immediately said that the loan was no problem.

After the chemical plant project is completed, it cannot be put into formal production immediately; trial production and acceptance testing are necessary.

The Municipal Construction Commission is responsible for organizing project acceptance, the Municipal Planning Bureau is responsible for planning acceptance, the Land and Resources Bureau is responsible for land acceptance, the Fire Brigade is responsible for fire safety acceptance, and the Environmental Protection Bureau and the Safety Supervision Bureau are also required to conduct acceptance.

After the six inspections are completed, the safety supervision bureau will issue a trial production filing and permit, and then trial production can begin.

Yan Hui quickly completed the steps here. His project has been listed as a key project in the district, and the support he receives in a place like the High-tech Zone is quite substantial.

Generally speaking, during the development of a city, there will be areas like "high-tech zones". The biggest advantage of such places is that there is no redundant regional power and not too many factions. The cadres who can be appointed are young and capable, forming a brand-new leadership team without many complicated issues. This is an excellent advantage for investors.

This is why high-tech zones in every region can attract a large number of companies.

At the end of August, Yan Hui received a loan of 2.2 million yuan from the bank and soon obtained the "Safety Production License". From that moment on, the company could officially enter the production process!
The only problem is that Yan Hui heard that Dr. Luo and others' patents have also been made public!
This was unavoidable; Dr. Luo's path would certainly lead to success, it was just a matter of how much money and resources were invested. At this moment, Yan Hui only felt fortunate that he had steadfastly supported Chen Jian; otherwise, given the pace of Dr. Luo's company, Yan Hui might not have been able to afford the delays.

Once a patent application is "published," it means that its detailed application documents (including the specification, claims, abstract, drawings, etc.) have been released to the public through official channels.

The purpose of disclosure is "to exchange disclosure for protection." Generally, disclosure is automatic 18 months after application, but applicants can also apply for early disclosure.

While making this public doesn't equate to authorization, anyone who copies these steps and applies again will almost certainly be rejected. The biggest advantage of this public approach is that it allows other companies to stay informed about the latest developments and avoid redundant research and development.

If a competitor temporarily uses the disclosed technology before the patent is granted, it does not constitute infringement. However, patent law also stipulates that if the patent is later granted, the patent holder can demand payment of appropriate fees from the date of publication to the date of grant.

Shortly after Dr. Luo's patent was published, Chen Jian realized that the two were indeed on different paths.

To put it simply: Chen Jian achieved the synthesis by improving the process, while Dr. Luo achieved the synthesis by increasing the input of materials. The former had higher equipment costs, while the latter had higher material costs.

In other words, once industrial production truly begins, Chen Jian's path is less costly, while Dr. Luo's path is faster to implement.

(End of this chapter)