Return to Hong Kong Island for a Century

Chapter 323 Investment Intentions (5000+ words)

The Chang'an Aircraft Manufacturing Plant provides housing, year-end bonuses, departmental performance bonuses, not to mention living standards.

Although the Chang'an Aircraft Manufacturing Plant itself doesn't have any products to give back to the local area, Li Song has BMW motorcycles.

BMW motorcycles are currently in extremely high demand in China. Although several factories produce them, the demand is too great, and these motorcycle factories have a plan because they cannot blindly expand production.

All you need to do is provide the local motorcycle pick-up slips, and everything will be arranged perfectly.

More importantly, the Chang'an Aircraft Manufacturing Plant needs money, whether it's providing them with non-staple food products or grain, it's all done on a cash-on-delivery basis.

I will not issue IOUs to other entities.

Of course, the higher authorities also considered some factors when seconding people: those who are honest and hardworking are given priority, followed by those with financial difficulties.

For example, some technicians are middle-aged and the dormitory at their original workplace is simply not enough for their family, or their son is getting married, etc., all of which require money.

In addition, the aircraft manufacturing plant has sufficient funds. Not to mention, the materials and motorcycle technologies that Li Song authorized domestically are already generating profits, not to mention the foreign exchange earned from motorcycle exports.

Although the domestic demand for foreign exchange is not as urgent as it was in the past, Li Songshang mainly needs foreign exchange to purchase technology and production equipment.

However, international trade still requires foreign exchange; you can't just barter. And frankly, the US dollar does have a high rate of value preservation.

Of course, Li Song doesn't need to hold that much foreign exchange.

Now is not a good time for Li Song to invest all over the world, because right now Amei and Fat Bear are locked in a fierce battle.

Wait a few more years before investing in other parts of the world. First, build up your own industry, and then bring some people from Europe and America onto your chariot.

Just like BMW motorcycle dealers around the world, these people make money and naturally put it on their own motorcycles.

Of course, one's own war machine must also be powerful enough, otherwise it might be divided up by others.

I visited several departments. The technical staff in these departments had heard that the boss was young, but they didn't expect him to be this young.

Li Song held a short meeting at the airport, partly to listen to work reports from various project teams.

"Boss, the medium- and long-range passenger aircraft project team has the most people and is still making the fastest progress, but the aircraft hasn't been named yet," Chief Engineer Ma reported.

"You should consult with your superiors and see if they have any plans," Li Song said.

"Okay, also, the Star Shine passenger jet project team doesn't need any more staff for the time being, and the helicopter project team is also nearing capacity. Too many people isn't a good thing either."

"The B-type transport aircraft still needs some manpower."

"How much production capacity is needed for subsequent production of helicopters, B-type transport aircraft, and medium- and long-range passenger aircraft?" Chief Engineer Ma asked again.

"Old Ma, after the technical breakthroughs are completed, our factory will only produce the most core components, such as engines and aircraft control systems. Everything else will be outsourced to other factories. As for production volume, it will mainly be for medium- and long-range passenger aircraft." Li Song didn't expect that his factory could handle all the work.

"Of course, it would be best if the supporting factories were located in Chang'an. This would facilitate communication and reduce logistics costs. You can discuss this with the local authorities. We can provide not only technology but also financial support." Li Song wanted to build an aerospace industry base.

"The number of Type B transport aircraft will not be too large, probably only around a hundred."

"How long will it take to produce a prototype of the B-type transport aircraft?" Li Song's biggest concern right now is whether he can produce the aircraft prototype before Aramco discovers that the aircraft is not flying properly, and then take advantage of the international situation to obtain the airworthiness certificate and flight permit.

Because this type of transport plane is perfectly capable of being used as a cargo plane, Li Song may not sell the planes, but he can still use them to transport goods to other countries.

"Three years at most should be no problem," Chief Engineer Ma thought for a moment.

The main issue is that Chang'an Aircraft Manufacturing Plant has a heavy workload. This year, it can mass-produce the Xinghui passenger jet, but it is estimated that it will not be able to mass-produce medium and long-range passenger jets. However, it should be able to mass-produce helicopters.

Medium- and long-range passenger aircraft can be mass-produced next year.

The B-type transport aircraft has a higher level of technology and craftsmanship. Of course, with the experience of manufacturing medium and long-range passenger aircraft, it is much easier to manufacture this one.

However, who knows how long it will take for such a large aircraft to go from prototype to mass production? Even if everything goes smoothly, it will still take at least a year from prototype to finalized mass production.

If there are any problems, it's not impossible for it to take three to five years, five to six years, or even seven or eight years.

"What about turboprop engines?" Li Song nodded. Three years was only 1984.

Ami realized that Fat Bear was no longer viable around 1985, which is why she started harvesting Little Bamboo.

Actually, Amei had no choice but to take the notebooks, because both Amei and Fat Bear were no longer capable at that time, so it was a matter of who would fall first.

Therefore, I was confident that I could obtain the airworthiness certificate and flight permit for the aircraft in Europe and America before that.

"This should be ready for mass production by the end of this year," Chief Engineer Ma said.

"Um, how often can the StarShines passenger plane return to the factory for maintenance?" Li Song asked again.

"At the end of the month, the plan is to return to the factory as scheduled, and then carry out maintenance and upkeep according to the design, and then go to Europe to apply for flight permits and airworthiness certificates." Chief Engineer Ma was referring to the plan.

Maintenance involves repainting the aircraft and redecorating the interior to present its best appearance to the West.

The current Starliner is still a yellow-skinned aircraft, with some equipment installed inside the cabin for testing.

"Okay." Li Song nodded. He had said he would invite Nick and some reporters to take the plane from Hong Kong Island to Europe.

Of course, Li Song also wanted Baisheng Company to send people, because in the future, any aircraft to be sold would be sold by a subsidiary of Baisheng Company.

Chang'an Aircraft Manufacturing Plant will not be directly dealing with customers for the time being.

The main purpose is to avoid some transactional issues, since mainland China has not yet joined the WTO.

"Old Ma, speed up the progress on the turboprop engine, because we'll be producing some small aircraft with single turboprop engines later," Li Song instructed separately.

Li Song plans to donate the single-turboprop small aircraft to the mainland and then deploy it to the plateau.

Currently, horizontally opposed six-cylinder engines have altitude limitations, making it difficult to adapt to high-altitude climates.

For a long time, China was unable to obtain real-time information about the situation in border areas.

This has led to the neighbors constantly encroaching on our land; today they occupy the hillside, tomorrow they occupy the waterfall.

Using drones is impractical right now, but using small turboprop-powered aircraft shouldn't be a problem.

The main problem is that the conditions here in the Himalayas are too harsh. The neighboring areas, being at the foot of the mountains, are able to continuously encroach on our land.

Moreover, the small aircraft equipped with turboprop engines will be twice as fast as the current Panda aircraft.

"Okay!" Chief Engineer Ma noted down Li Song's request.

The next day, Li Song flew to Shanghai. He came here partly because of Zhu Ling, and partly because the wafer fab and lithography machine factory would be located here.

Historically, the three-inch wafer manufacturing technology was also introduced and implemented in Wuxi.

The mainland has extensive experience in tackling these kinds of complete and systematic technical challenges, with dozens or even hundreds of organizations participating in a single project.

In fact, this model has been adopted in mainland China ever since, with large projects being handled separately.

Of course, this is the most challenging test of the coordination ability of various departments, which is why meetings are so popular in mainland China.

There's no other way; communication requires meetings. How can dozens or even hundreds of units communicate without meetings?

However, Li Song stayed in a small Western-style house in Shanghai that night. The house wasn't very comfortable, and Li Song didn't like the layout.

Of course, considering the location and environment, there's nothing that can be done.

Zhu Ling doesn't come back to Shanghai every day; it depends on the film crew's schedule. She stays here when they're filming in the Shanghai Film Studio's soundstage.

"I received notices from the production teams of Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber that I need to go to Kyoto next week." Li Song and Zhu Ling were nestled on the sofa, looking at their 14-inch Panda brand color TV, which was remote-controlled but only had nine channels.

There are only 9 buttons on the remote control, but 9 is more than enough.

This is the color TV production technology that Li Song obtained from the mainland.

At this point, 14 inches was already considered quite large; there were also 12-inch models available.

The 21-inch color TV hadn't been produced yet; the TV had a black plastic casing.

This color TV costs 650 with a receipt, and 850 without.
This price is already very cheap, because an imported 14-inch color TV costs more than 1100 yuan, and a 14-inch domestic black and white TV costs 420 yuan.

These kinds of TVs are now considered luxury items in China.

“Okay, go ahead.” Li Song nodded.

Zhu Ling genuinely loves acting, which is why the filming schedule for these two productions wasn't as fast. Of course, they were co-produced with Phoenix TV, and many of the actors were from Hong Kong.

Li Song is now using money to expand into the mainland market and make Phoenix TV actors more recognizable in mainland China.

It seems that actors from Hong Kong are much more successful than those from the mainland now, which is historically because the Hong Kong entertainment industry has a high regard for mainland actors.

This led to a situation where, when the mainland market took off, only a small number of actors who had come to the mainland early on were able to capitalize on this surge in popularity.

The rest didn't receive this wave of traffic.

Of course, people in Hong Kong Island have always looked at the mainland with a certain respect, much like city dwellers looking at country folk.

Of course, it's the same in some cities in China; they call people from out of town "stinky outsiders" and "country bumpkins." The TV is showing news about the panda plane, and it's international news.

According to our report, the Panda brand single-engine fixed-wing aircraft produced by the BMW factory in Guangzhou has obtained safety certification from Aramco's FAA agency, as well as Aramco's flight permit and airworthiness certificate.

"The FAA engineers gave this aircraft a very high rating."

"Please see the report below."

On television, the host reported the news and then switched to a CBS news segment featuring an interview with Seven.

Li Song also saw this news report for the first time, and saw Seven speaking in American English, although there were subtitles in the news.

While speaking, Seven made various gestures, which is something most people in Europe and America do when they talk.

"The Panda aircraft adopts a modular design, which greatly enhances the aircraft's structural strength!"

"The number of parts in the entire aircraft is 80 percent less than that of similar aircraft."

"Moreover, modular design also reduces the aircraft's failure rate."

"We know that the more parts there are, the greater the probability of a malfunction!"

"In terms of overall manufacturing process, the Panda aircraft can be described as having the highest level of manufacturing technology among small aircraft with a single-engine propeller!"

"The fuselage uses the most advanced one-piece casting technology, and the performance of the aluminum alloy material is 30% higher than that of similar products."

Then Seven also mentioned that he had ordered a plane.

Of course, anything about anti-monopoly will definitely not be included in the edit.

When the topic turned to the tens of thousands of orders, Li Song was slightly taken aback. "Are there really that many?"
Finally, the host continued, "Affected by this incident, orders for Panda brand single-engine fixed-wing aircraft have exceeded six thousand and are still growing rapidly."

Then there's the assembly workshop at the BMW factory in Guangzhou, where small aircraft are produced.

"Wow, so many people over there in America are buying airplanes?" Zhu Ling was also very surprised. These are airplanes, even small ones.

“Yes, their market has great potential, but the more orders they get this time, the more they will lose.” Li Song nodded.

"Why?" Zhu Ling asked Li Song curiously.

“I’m losing money to gain publicity. There’s a mature market for small planes in America. The only way I can open up that market is to offer discounts.”

"If I don't offer discounts, customers definitely won't buy my small plane."

"Would you like to learn how to fly this little airplane?" Li Song asked, stroking Zhu Ling's silky smooth skin.

"Fly a plane?"

Is this easy to learn?

"Easy to learn, this small airplane is easy to operate."

How much does this plane cost?

"The selling price is ten thousand US dollars."

"What about those from overseas?"

"Forty thousand dollars?"

"Wouldn't you be losing a lot of money like that?"

"We won't lose much. On the surface, we'll lose a thousand dollars per aircraft. But I'm exporting goods from the mainland to earn dollars, so it's hard to say exactly how to measure it. Anyway, we'll lose money. If we get tens of thousands of orders, then we can also gain a foothold in Aramco's market in the future," Li Song added.

"Huh?" Zhu Ling was a little confused.

"On the one hand, my planes have driven down commodity prices. If Aramco were to use my prices, they would probably lose more than ten thousand US dollars per plane."

"In addition, I will squeeze the market potential dry in a short period of time. If I don't sell, the market will be very small for the next two or three years, and Aramco's aircraft manufacturing plant will probably go bankrupt."

“Of course there is another way, which is to import the parts from here and assemble them. That way, I won’t sell the whole aircraft separately from Amer International. Of course, strictly speaking, this order for Panda Aircraft is not a trade in the strict sense; it’s crowdfunding.” Li Song’s calculations were crystal clear.

Li Song had this idea from the beginning because of the subsequent maintenance and orders for the Panda aircraft.

Furthermore, the crowdfunding contract does not include after-sales maintenance and repair.

This will be handled by the crowdfunding club, but of course, we will need to provide the necessary parts.

Moreover, Amer will certainly not allow itself to monopolize their market.

They know everything about Li Song's situation.

Therefore, I need to change my mindset or my approach.

Of course, more importantly, it is impossible to continue production at a loss indefinitely.

It's perfectly normal for there to be a price difference between crowdfunding and regular products.

It's normal to miss an order.

After all, as a customer, it's impossible not to accept it.

Of course, this is just Li Song's idea. It's hard to say how things will actually develop!
If it's too bad, we just won't do it.

Li Song divided the whole thing into several stages, and the current stage is about losing money to gain publicity!
As for how the second phase will develop, we'll have to wait and see.

This is actually the economic model that Amer later adopted.

OEM manufacturing!

Assembly using imported components!
That's the impact of financialization.

Zhu Ling heard so much from Li Song, but she still didn't fully understand some of it.

However, this does not hinder my admiration for Li Song.

Because not everyone can appear on television.

And it's international news!

Many people in China who saw these news reports were still completely confused.

Of course, people in Guangzhou all know this, because when the small plane was undergoing factory testing, it was flying in the sky every day with a whooshing sound.

It was only after it appeared on international news that I learned these planes were actually for export.

Of course, BMW's reputation has also grown significantly.

The first batch of minivans from the car factory has already begun to go on sale.

However, these are only applicable to certain organizations!
However, this is like sprinkling pepper; it's simply not enough.

The higher authorities are still screening companies to decide which ones to give the van technology to!

There are no secrets that stay hidden forever, so recently many people have been heading to Kyoto to visit the department!
Because everyone knows that once you acquire this technology, you can just wait for the takeoff.

Look at those former sister factories; they were all pretty much the same.

However, some got motorcycles and some got engineering machinery technology!
People's welfare is incredibly good these days.

If I can't get the technology back, everyone in the factory will talk behind my back!
Of course, the higher-ups are also having a headache right now!
Who gets it and who doesn't, and the strategic planning, etc.!

Now everyone knows that once they acquire the technology, the entire factory will have no worries about food and drink, and they will no longer need to issue IOUs when paying wages.

No more need to face this or that problem.

The next day, Li Song met up with the people from Parkson Company.

Baisheng Company came to sign a contract to invest in a 4-inch wafer fab.

The reason for having Parkson sign the contract was for future expansion.

Of course, Parkson does not possess the technology; it is merely a parent company.

The technology remains with the joint venture, and even people at the head office cannot access it.

Li Song did this because he was afraid someone would steal his technology.

In any case, you should be careful about everything.

Of course, joint ventures come with entirely new regulations, but at least for now, the regulations that Li Song has put forward are quite comprehensive.

Of course, some core elements need to be separated, so that even if a part is stolen, others will not be able to obtain the complete technology.

"Mr. Li, it's an honor to meet you!" The person participating in the signing is of a very high rank, although for now it's just a letter of intent!
(End of this chapter)