Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the housings of hair dryers were all metal, and they were all side-intake, that is, a single-stage centrifugal design.

This design has high wind pressure and does not require special processing of the fan blades, so it is relatively simple to manufacture.

To put it bluntly, the hair dryer of that era was actually a small blower with heating function.

After entering the 1990s, with the advancement of manufacturing technology and the wide-scale application of plastic materials, the rear air intake replaced the side air intake, and the single-stage axial flow design was adopted, which is the hair dryer we use now.

The hair dryer sample Li Weidong took out is a side air intake design and uses a metal casing.

At that time, the hair dryers on the market, whether they were domestic, Japanese, or European and American, were also designed with side air intake, and they also had metal casings.

Now Xizhi Electric has come up with a hair dryer with a plastic casing. Li Weidong immediately guessed that Xizhi Electric intends to use plastic instead of metal.

Li Weidong is not surprised that Xizhi Electric can make such a decision. After all, the household appliances of later generations use a lot of plastic materials. If it is not necessary, metal parts are generally not used.

Plastic material is the future trend of home appliance manufacturing. Obviously, Xizhi Electric is already doing this layout.

The plastics industry and the petrochemical industry are inseparable. The ethylene that produces plastics is obtained by cracking petroleum. Therefore, wherever the plastics industry is developed, it must be backed by petrochemical bases.

In the 1990s, Singapore had formed a petrochemical industry cluster and began to extend to downstream industries such as plastics, polymers, and additives.

In this regard, although there were many large petrochemical enterprises in China at that time, the distribution was relatively scattered, and there was no cluster like Singapore, nor did it extend to downstream industries.

...

I saw President Tanaka picked up the plastic hair dryer and introduced: "In the home appliance industry, it is an irreversible trend for plastic to replace metal. In addition to our Xizhi Electric, home appliance companies such as Panasonic, Sony, and Hitachi are also doing their best. Possible use of plastic instead of metal.

I believe that in the future, more and more plastic parts will be used in the home appliance industry. Therefore, when we at Xizhi Electric were transferring our home appliance manufacturing business, we were not only looking at low labor costs, but also a stable supply of plastic raw materials!

in this regard,

Singapore can do it. However, the labor cost in Singapore is relatively high, and Singapore is too small. It is impossible for us to move the home appliance production business to Singapore, so we can only settle for the next best thing and choose Malaysia, which is adjacent to Singapore.

If the foundry is located in Malaysia, it can use Malaysia's cheap labor to annihilate the enemy's production costs, and it can also use Singapore's plastics, killing two birds with one stone! This is a layout for the future development of the home appliance industry.

If the foundry is located in China, although the labor cost will be lower, the plastic parts required for production still have to be transported from Japan, which will increase the transportation cost and is not conducive to our long-term industrial layout. "

"President Tanaka, you don't know much about China. We also have many petrochemical companies in China. They all imported production lines and production technologies from the United States or Japan, and the plastics produced are fully qualified!"

Li Weidong paused, then introduced: "Take my factory as an example, within a radius of 500 kilometers, at least three petrochemical companies can be found, and the transportation cost is also very low, which is definitely lower than the cross-border transportation from Singapore to Malaysia!"

President Tanaka still shook his head: "Mr. Li, I know that your country has been building large-scale ethylene projects in recent years, and I also know that your country is constantly improving the production capacity of plastics, but plastics is a complete industrial chain, not only There is production and processing!

Your country may have the ability to produce high-grade plastics, but your country is still relatively backward in the processing of plastic products. For example, the shell of this hair dryer can be made by a plastic processing factory in Singapore, and can your plastic processing factory in China be able to make it? "

President Tanaka's words hit the nail on the head. China has indeed been involved in many large-scale ethylene projects in recent years, using imported equipment, which can produce many types of plastics. But in the field of plastic processing, compared with developed countries, he is still a primary school student.

Li Weidong picked up the hair dryer with the plastic casing, touched it carefully, and then asked, "Mr. Tanaka, is this plastic casing produced by an injection molding machine?"

"That's right." President Tanaka nodded: "It seems that Mr. Li also has a high understanding of plastic processing. In this case, you should know that making such plastic parts is not an easy task. In East Asia , apart from us in Japan, only SK, Formosa Plastics and Jurong Island can make products of this quality.”

"That's because other places lack high-end injection molding machines." Li Weidong said immediately.

President Tanaka shrugged: "However, high-end injection molding machines are the key to producing these plastic parts!"

Li Weidong thought for a moment and said. "President Tanaka, as far as I know, the machinery manufacturing industry in Singapore is not developed, and the machinery and equipment they use are also purchased from abroad, such as the petrochemical industry in Singapore, in fact, Shell, ExxonMobil, Mitsubishi these international companies jointly established.

Therefore, the plastic processing equipment in Singapore is not actually developed and produced by them, but imported from abroad, right? If my factory can buy the same plastic processing equipment, such as high-end injection molding machines, it means that we can provide the same plastic parts as Singapore! In that case, would Xizhi Electric be willing to give me a chance? "

President Tanaka thought for a while and said, "Mr. Li, if you can really get a high-end injection molding machine, then your factory will stand on the same starting line as the Malaysian factory."

President Tanaka's implication is that even if Li Weidong has a high-end injection molding machine, he still has to compete with factories in Malaysia, and the winning party can do OEM for Xizhi Electric.

That is to say, the high-end injection molding machine is just an admission ticket to OEM for Xizhi Electric!

Li Weidong is not surprised by this, because a large international company like Xizhi Electric has naturally many manufacturers vying to be the OEM for it, and it is impossible for Xizhi Electric to hand over the OEM order to a simple two or three sentences. Li Weidong.

So Li Weidong said: "According to my understanding, Japan has companies that can produce high-end plastic processing equipment, so I asked President Tanaka to give me a few days, and I will use the fastest time to contact Japanese manufacturers to buy plastics. processing equipment."

"How many days? I'm afraid it won't be enough for you to buy high-end plastic processing equipment!" President Tanaka shook his head with a smile and continued:

"Mr. Li, I need to remind you that high-end plastic processing equipment is very expensive. If you want to buy high-end plastic processing equipment, it will be a huge investment. If it does not bring returns, your factory There may be huge losses!"

"President Tanaka, please believe that I have the ability to buy the required plastic processing equipment in a short time." Li Weidong smiled confidently, and then said; "I think Xizhi Electric, and I also hope to place OEM orders. Give it to a capable partner!"

...

Walking out of the headquarters of Xizhi Group, Li Weidong rubbed his temples with both hands to wake himself up.

Li Weidong chose Xizhi Electric because he knew that Xizhi Electric would transform into a high-value-added technology field, and his home appliance production business would be abandoned and gradually outsourced to other countries. In the end, even the entire home appliance business was sold to Midea. .

Li Weidong took the initiative to ask Xizhi to be an OEM, which is also in line with the development strategy of Xizhi Electric, and the chance of getting OEM orders will be much higher.

"I originally thought that Xizhi Electric would question my scale, after all, the electric furnace factory is just a township enterprise. I didn't expect that it would end up stuck, but it was plastic parts!

It is said that Huanghai Petrochemical is here to purchase plastic production lines, and it is still purchased from the slanderous Sakurada Co., Ltd. I don’t know what they are talking about.

However, given Sakurada Co., Ltd.'s urgency, it will definitely speak loudly again. I guess their negotiation will not go very smoothly. Maybe they are arguing about the price now!

Sakurada is indeed skilled in the field of high-end machinery manufacturing. The parameters of the injection molding machines they produce should meet the requirements of Xizhi Electric. "

Thinking of this, Li Weidong let out a sigh of relief, and a plan of a white wolf with empty gloves already appeared in his mind.

...

At this time, in the conference room of Sakurada Co., Ltd., the two parties were indeed arguing over the price.

"Mr. Xie Chuan, your quotation is too high. We are not only purchasing one or two pieces of equipment, but dozens of pieces of equipment. I hope Sakurada Co., Ltd. can give us a favorable price." Song Jinlong Board said with a face.

On the other side, it was Katsuya Shikawa who negotiated with Song Jinlong.

At that time, Chuansheng also wanted to make a fortune from Yankuang, but Li Weidong found out. With the help of Li Weidong, Yankuang's technical department solved the problem by itself, and Shi Chuansheng could only return to Japan in despair.

However, in recent years, Katsuya Shikawa's work performance has been very good, so he has also been promoted. He does not have to run around the world and can stay at the headquarters in Tokyo.

Sakurada Co., Ltd. took into account that Katsuya Ichikawa had done a lot of business in China, so it handed over the negotiation with Huanghai Petrochemical to Katsuya Ikawa,

The translator translated Song Jinlong's words to Xie Chuansheng, but after Xie Chuansheng heard it, he shook his head firmly:

"Mr. Song, you must know that high-end plastic processing machinery is a product in short supply, and we have no shortage of customers. If it wasn't for the fact that Huanghai Chemical had to purchase dozens of units at one time, we Sakurada Co., Ltd. The club will not specially receive you.”

Ye Jun translated Shi Chuansheng also to Song Jinlong, Song Jinlong frowned, and then said, "Mr. Nishikawa, if Sakurada Co., Ltd. insists on this price, then we have nothing to talk about."

But Katsuya Shikawa put on an indifferent look: "Mr. Song, as I said just now, we have no shortage of customers. But I must remind Mr. Song that high-end plastic processing equipment, except for us in Japan, is widely available all over the world. Only the United States can produce it, and the American price is higher than ours!"

Negotiations on this day ended in a deadlock again.