Rebirth 99 to become a car giant.

Chapter 214: Disaster falls from the sky, depressed Baosteel

Baosteel's life is relatively comfortable in various steel plants in China.

Most of their steel plates are automotive plates and special steels with relatively high technical content.

Ordinary rebar is produced in small quantities.

Therefore, even if there is excess steel production capacity this year, the impact on Baosteel will be relatively limited.

Even the rise and fall of domestic steel prices are often based on the rise and fall published by Baosteel.

Under such circumstances, as the sales manager of Baosteel Southern District, Jin Tai's life is relatively comfortable.

Of course, as a sales manager, it is naturally one of his daily tasks to grasp the market situation and keep abreast of competitors' situations.

Nanshan Special Steel, a special steel plant with counter-cyclical investment, naturally came into the sight of Baosteel Southern District.

"Jin Tai, I heard that Nanshan Special Steel's bearing steel, mold steel, gear steel and other special steels have very good performance. They will specifically display this information during the Nanshan Science and Technology Day held on June 6. .”

"Do you know anything about this?"

Lai Liang, the sales general manager of Baosteel's Southern District, often participates in various bureaus and is relatively well-informed.

Originally, he didn't care much about Nanshan Special Steel.

After all, they don't even like Shaogang, so how could they like the Nanshan Special Steel Plant built by Shaogang?

In their opinion, Nanshan is just messing around and doesn't know what it means to specialize in a skill.

"I heard that they held the commissioning ceremony of the Nanshan Special Steel Plant two days ago. It was said that the scene was quite big in Shaozhou, and several local team leaders participated."

"However, there is no reason why the performance of Nanshan Special Steel should be any better."

"I think the information being circulated now was deliberately released by people in Nanshan in order to attract everyone's attention and make some people take the initiative to become guinea pigs."

"Those who are good at producing special steel in China, including Xingcheng, Xingshan Iron and Steel, Anshan Iron and Steel, and a few of us, can't get the chance of Shaogang Iron and Steel, let alone Nanshan Special Steel."

"I even think that some manufacturers can try to use Nanshan Special Steel's products first. After they use them, they find that the performance is not up to standard, which is a waste of money and time."

"When the time comes, you'll beg us obediently."

Jin Tai is obviously not optimistic about the future of Nanshan Special Steel.

Although the commissioning ceremony was very grand, what's the use?

"Anyway, you'd better pay more attention and see what's going on in Nanshan."

Lai Liang felt that what Jin Tai said was reasonable, but out of caution, he mentioned it more.

"Mr. Lai, don't tell me, there really hasn't been any movement in Nanshan these days."

"Normally, for the special steel demand in August, they should have placed an order for us yesterday."

"But so far, we have not received any orders for mold steel from Nanshan."

"It's just that the orders for bearing steel and gear steel are the same as usual."

Jin Tai's attitude is arrogant, but his work attitude and level are still very high.

He can keenly sense the difference in the small changes in Nanshan's orders.

"Nanshan Mold Center is now the largest PRG mold and TRF mold manufacturing center in China. It not only produces molds for Nanshan itself, but also produces molds for many stamping parts manufacturers."

"The demand for mold steel is relatively strong every month, but the main engine factory does not have specific drawing requirements for the use of mold materials like parts."

"Nanshan must have taken advantage of the loophole first and switched the mold steel."

"But if something goes wrong then, it will be a lot of fun."

"Once the mold is damaged, it will often take more than a month to re-open the mold. It is easy to run out of stock and cause the OEM to stop production."

Among the special steel currently ordered by Nanshan from Baosteel, the consumption of mold steel is relatively large.

Relatively speaking, the switch of mold steel is relatively simple, or the boundaries are relatively blurred.

Unlike parts such as gearboxes and bearings, you absolutely cannot switch them casually without the consent of the OEM.

Even for the supply chain quality departments of various OEMs, change point management is a particularly important task in daily work management.

For a part, whether there is a change in the origin of the component, the mold, or the material or processing technology, it can only be implemented after obtaining approval from the OEM.

Otherwise, if there are tens of thousands of parts in a car, the quality of the whole car will be completely out of control.

In his previous life, Cao Yang had heard that some stamping parts manufacturers of OEMs had begun to use various methods because their costs were squeezed to the extreme.

For example, the drawings specify high-strength steel with a tensile strength of 590MPA, which is how it is used when sending samples.

But in the mass production process, people directly use ordinary steel plates with a tensile strength of 270MPA.

This change is completely invisible to the naked eye.

Even if you measure the accuracy data of parts, not only has it not declined, but it may have improved.

Only when the collision test fails, and the metallographic structure of the steel plate is analyzed, can it be confirmed that the supplier has secretly changed the material.

It is said that the supplier of Modu Volkswagen did something like this a few years ago.

And this problem was solved with the help of the steel factory.

Because for steel plants, they can roughly calculate the materials that a supplier needs to order from itself by clarifying the specifications and parameters early on, and then combining it with the production plan of the main engine plant.

If the steel mill calculates that 1000 tons are needed and you actually order 900 tons, no one may bother with the difference.

However, the steel factory clearly calculated that you need to use 1000 tons of high-strength steel plates, but in the end, you only ordered less than 100 tons in a year.

If you look into it further, you will find that some things cannot be hidden.

Of course, after discovering such a problem, the quality and purchasing personnel of the OEM often only dare to reduce the big issue to a trivial one.

Warn your suppliers not to do this again in the future.

If things really get too big, what about the substandard steel plate parts used in passing cars?

Recall?

It's not realistic at all!

Those parts are all welded to the body-in-white, so there is no way to repair them even if they are recalled.

In other words, the cost of repair is an astronomical figure!

"Mr. Lai, your analysis is so reasonable."

"I also think Nanshan will shoot itself in the foot this time, and it will be them who will regret it then."

“Even if other customers are willing to buy Nanshan’s special steel first, I don’t think they need to ask for mercy.”

"When they turn around and ask us for help with delivery, it will be an interesting scene."

Jin Tai was not panic at all at this time.

However, at this moment, Liu Jianguo, who was in charge of technical support, walked over with a heavy expression.

"Mr. Lai, metalworker, we just got some data on Nanshan Special Steel, and the situation is a bit bad."

If Nanshan Special Steel is to be sold externally, it must announce some technical parameters.

Otherwise, how can your customers determine whether they want to order your materials?

"Data on Nanshan Special Steel?"

"Are they so eager to start selling?"

Mrs. Jin was very surprised.

In his opinion, it will take a month or two before Nanshan starts competing with Baosteel for customers.

Why did it take action so quickly?

"Yes, their various special steels have very beautiful data."

"Not only are the parameters better than the special steel we sell now, but they are no worse than imported special steel, and some parameters are even better."

"If they didn't cheat, then Nanshan Special Steel would be our biggest competitor."

Although Liu Jianguo is a technician, the technical personnel of Baosteel Southern District mainly do technical support and competitive product analysis, and do not participate in research and development.

Therefore, they are relatively familiar with some situations in the special steel market.

"How can a manufacturer like Nanshan, which has never produced special steel, cooperate with a local enterprise like Shaogang to produce any competitive products?"

"They must be cheating, right?"

Jin Tai’s first reaction was disbelief.

It’s normal not to believe it.

"Although I hope this is the case, there are some parameters that there is no room for manipulation."

"For example, the hardness of bearing steel is marked as HRA85. You only need to get the material and simply measure it to know."

"It is not very complicated to measure other indicators such as wear resistance and strength."

"If various manufacturers want to use Nanshan's special steel, they will definitely conduct these basic material performance comparison experiments."

"If Nanshan is committing fraud, it will be exposed immediately."

When Liu Jianguo said this, the expressions of Jin Tai and Lai Liang began to become serious.

"Gong Liu, please show me the information."

As the general manager in charge of Baosteel's Southern District, Lai Liang was born into technology in his early years. Although he no longer has R&D capabilities, there is no problem at all in reading some technical information.

Not to mention the parameters of various steel materials.

"Ok?"

After Lai Liang took the information, he couldn't help but frown after reading it for a while.

These data are perfect, right?

It's just like the R&D targets assigned by the company to the R&D center. All of them are very ideal.

Yes, it is ideal!

That means these technical parameters are difficult to achieve.

Or after achieving one of the indicators, it may lead to the failure to achieve the other indicator.

After all, some properties of special steel have certain contradictions and conflicts with each other.

In this case, it is very difficult to produce special steel with various properties that meet the ideal parameters.

Foreign special steels can occupy a large market share for a long time because they do better in this area.

Especially for special steel in some subdivisions, global demand is relatively small.

After a company has successfully developed a product, it is actually not worthwhile for other steel mills to develop it.

Just like the steel ball in the nib of the ballpoint pen of later generations, there was a rumor for a while that China could not even make such a simple special steel.

It needs to be imported from abroad, and then we come to the conclusion that China's steel industry will not work this way and that will not work.

In fact, this is completely misleading everyone with what seems to be the real situation.

It’s not that China can’t make special steel for ballpoint pen nibs, but the market for this segment is only small in the world.

To put it mildly, the molten iron coming out of the blast furnace is basically about 80 tons.

And this one molten iron may be enough for all stationery manufacturers in the world to use for a year.

In this case, is it necessary for you to ask domestic steel plants to spend a lot of energy on researching this special steel?

This is not special steel for aircraft carrier decks, which is not available on the market.

"Liu Gong, do you think these data are credible?"

Although Liu Jianguo has just said that it is impossible for Nanshan to falsify such simple data.

It's too easy to be exposed like this.

But Lai Liang couldn't help but ask a question.

"Mr. Lai, I actually have a lot of questions in my heart. I really want to know how Nanshan Special Steel produces such special steel."

"Maybe their quality stability is not good, their costs are high, or their defective rate is high."

"But I believe these data should be true and reliable."

To put it bluntly, Liu Jianguo did not refuse to tell the truth just because the objective facts were a bit cruel.

"If this is the case, wouldn't Nanshan really not have to order special steel from us in the future?"

Nanshan is now also a major customer of Baosteel.

Those special steels are the highest-end produced by Baosteel and have the highest prices.

The profits are naturally very generous.

Now that this piece of cake is going to disappear, Lai Liang is naturally very nervous.

“If it’s just that orders from Nanshan are gone, it’s not the most serious problem.”

"I'm afraid that Nanshan will take away other customers' orders for special steel. Then we will face double pressure from imported special steel and Nanshan Special Steel, and we will immediately fall into a state of slow sales."

"In this environment of excess steel production capacity, this situation is very unfavorable."

When Liu Jianguo said this, Lai Liang fell silent.

This is simply like sleeping at home, and disaster comes from heaven.

Who knew that an auto parts manufacturer and equipment manufacturer in Nanshan would have such a big impact on Baosteel?

One can imagine how bad Lai Liang's mood would be.

"Mr. Lai, how about we find a way to acquire Nanshan Special Steel Plant?"

"There is currently overcapacity in steel production in the country, and the higher authorities also support large companies like Baosteel to merge with a number of small companies."

"For example, Nanshan Special Steel has a total production capacity of only 30 yuan, which is far behind us. It is completely in line with the merger policy above."

Jin Tai quickly thought of a trick to draw out the firepower.

However, Lai Liang was not so optimistic and said: "Their factory has just been put into operation and has not encountered any difficulties yet. Under such circumstances, how could they consider selling it?"

“It’s enough for us to go find someone to discuss technical cooperation!”