Xingchen Automobile is the first automobile company to use carbon fiber extensively in mass-produced models.
Prior to this, although carbon fiber had been used in bicycles and F1 racing cars for a long time, either the models were too special or the amount used was not large.
This is the first time that the front and rear of a car are used on a large scale.
For this reason, it is impossible for carbon fiber manufacturers in the industry not to pay attention to it.
China's carbon fiber research didn't start very late, but there is a big gap between the strength of high-end products and foreign countries.
The world's high-end carbon fiber technology is mainly concentrated in the hands of a few Japanese and American companies.
Considering R&D strength, technical level, and sales scale, they are mainly Japanese Toray, Japanese Toho, Japanese Mitsubishi Rayon, American Hexcel, American Zoltek, and Deutsche SGL.
Among them, I have to mention Japan's Toray and American Hexcel, which are almost the most cutting-edge carbon fiber technology representatives.
After years of development, Toray has perfected the entire industry chain from upstream raw silk to downstream composite material design and manufacturing.
Mainly engaged in fiber and fabric, resin and chemical products, IT-related products, carbon fiber composite materials, environment and engineering businesses.
Toray became a giant mainly because after accepting British technology, it initially detoured into the civilian market and gradually developed and expanded.
Diversified development will be achieved later.
Today, Toray Industries is a leading company in carbon fiber, its products are industry standards, and its market share in 2007 was 43%.
American Hexcel is also the world's leading composite materials company, developing lightweight, high-performance composite components. Its products are widely used in civil aircraft, aerospace, national defense, and general industry.
These two companies' supply of high-end carbon fiber to China is completely "notice-based price increase and reward-based supply."
They take any situation in China that may break this situation very seriously.
"President, judging from our preliminary analysis so far, it is not surprising that the carbon fiber materials used by Xingchen Automobile have reached at least the level of T400, and even reached the level of T700."
A special meeting is taking place at Toray headquarters.
The Starry Sky Sports Car has such a big publicity campaign, especially the extensive use of carbon fiber materials on the body.
No matter what the situation, it would be difficult for them not to pay attention.
"impossible!"
"Didn't the marketing department report in three months that China's domestic carbon fiber industry has not even achieved large-scale commercial production of T300?"
"Why has there been such a big change now?"
China has always been a big market for carbon fiber, and the demand is very strong.
Whether it is fishing gear, golf clubs, or badminton rackets, there is a relatively high demand for high-end carbon fiber.
But so far, not to mention T1000, the world's most high-end carbon fiber, even carbon fiber of T300 level has not achieved large-scale commercial production, and has only reached this level in the laboratory.
As for high-end products such as T400 and T700, they cannot be bought with money.
Especially T1000, this material is mainly used in military industry.
Even if you buy a little bit through special channels, it won't solve any big problems.
At this time, a carbon fiber manufacturer that seemed to be very powerful suddenly appeared in China. It would be strange if they did not pay attention to it.
"We are also conducting urgent investigations to see if they have imported large amounts of relevant carbon fiber materials from overseas through any means."
"But based on what we know so far, there is a high probability that Nanshan Group's own companies already have carbon fiber production capabilities."
"The carbon fiber material used on the Star Sports Car is most likely produced by them themselves."
Kondo Taro is also full of confusion now.
He has attached great importance to the development and research of China's carbon fiber enterprises, but something unexpected happened.
And this surprise is a bit big.
If Nanshan Group can really produce T700 or even T800-level carbon fiber materials, it will have a huge impact on the entire world's carbon fiber market.
Everyone knows that once a material can be produced by Chinese manufacturers, the price will definitely plummet.
The price of carbon fiber such as T700 in the Chinese market is now about 10 million per ton.
This is almost the most high-end carbon fiber product that Chinese manufacturers can buy.
No matter how high-end it is, if you pay 100 million yuan per ton, no one will sell it.
"The Starry Sky Sports Car has been officially launched. Is it available for sale in Japan?"
"There should be. Xingchen Automobile's main focus is the starry sky sports car that is launched simultaneously around the world. It also has cooperative dealers in Japan, but the number should be very small."
"Then why are you hesitating? Just buy one and dismantle it to find out what their carbon fiber level is like. Only by understanding their strength can we formulate the next plan."
For Toray, the launch of high-end carbon fiber by Nanshan Group was a bolt from the blue.
They started with the T300 in the 1980s, and then the T400, T700, T800 and T1000.
It has been resting on its laurels for more than ten years now and has never launched a higher-level product.
Once this situation is broken, it will be a huge impact for Toray.
After all, there are only a few manufacturers in the world that can produce high-end carbon fiber, and the one with the lowest price is Toray.
Therefore, their market share is also the highest.
Similar conversations are also taking place at Heshe in the United States.
Several companies are purchasing Star Sports Cars in order to obtain the carbon fiber products of Nanshan Group as soon as possible.
Although after processing, some properties of carbon fiber will change.
But using their existing knowledge accumulation, it is enough to deduce the grade of the product used by the other party.
"President, we initially judge that the carbon fiber used in the Star Sports Car is T700, and their T700 has some advantages over ours in terms of performance."
"Of course, it would be best if we could obtain carbon fiber raw materials. We can fully compare various parameters."
In the past few days, Kondo Taro has personally led personnel from the R&D and technical departments to dismantle and analyze the carbon fiber used in the Star Sports Car.
However, despite their efforts, the results were not optimistic at all.
"T700?"
"China directly skipped the T300 and T400 and went to produce the T700?"
Toray's president Saganu's mood suddenly hit rock bottom.
Although they have higher-end products such as T800 and T1000, Chinese manufacturers are still far behind them.
However, the T800 and T1000 are not their main source of profits. On the contrary, it is the T700 and below products that have earned the company a lot of profits.
Products like T300, although relatively low-end, cannot support large quantities, and China has no way to mass-produce them. Therefore, in the Chinese market, 80% of this carbon fiber is supplied by Toray.
If Nanshan Group can mass-produce T700 on a large scale, it will definitely be impossible for T300 to make money as before.
"From our experience, the production process of high-end carbon fiber for T700 and above is completely different from that of T300 and T400."
"I suspect that the Chinese people are also aware of this, so they started research directly from T700, bypassing the processes of T300 and T400."
"However, this is just my personal speculation."
"From what we know so far, several other manufacturers in China with relatively high carbon fiber technology are working hard to break through the mass production process of T300."
Kondo Taro's words made Saga slave a little confused.
Why do Chinese people do things so strangely?
There is no basic logic to speculate?
"Previously, the company supplied very little T700 carbon fiber to the Chinese market, and the price reached 10 million yuan per ton."
"Starting from tomorrow, the supply of T700 carbon fiber will be increased, and the price will be lowered to 8 million yuan per ton."
"As for T300 and T400, we will supply as much as customers want, and the price will be reduced by 20% from the current price."
After Saganu was silent for a few minutes, he decisively made an important decision.
The price of high-tech materials such as carbon fiber has been maintained at an exaggerated level, mainly because of technology monopoly.
Look at the T800 sold by Toray to Boeing. The price is not half as high as the T700 in the Chinese market.
One can imagine how expensive this material is.
"China can already produce T700 carbon fiber, so can we consider selling T800 carbon fiber to them?"
Taro Kondo is naturally very clear about the company's sales strategy.
When China cannot produce T700, T800 materials will naturally not be sold.
But now that China can produce T700, the shortage of T800 is not that high.
If we continue to not sell as before, it is equivalent to giving up the market.
"Whether the T800 can be sold or not is up to our company."
"However, we can report our analysis to the relevant departments to see if the sales ban on T800 can be lifted."
"At the same time, our company must accelerate the research on T1100 carbon fiber technology as soon as possible and strive to achieve a breakthrough in the next few years."
"Otherwise, if we are surpassed by Huaxia Company, we will become an industry joke."
Following Saganu's arrangement, Toray immediately took relevant actions.
Soon, Chinese carbon fiber buyers felt the changes.
Naturally, someone specifically reported these changes to Cao Yang.
"So, the emergence of our T700 carbon fiber has put a lot of pressure on them."
"If they knew that we could even produce T800 and T1000, wouldn't they faint in tears?"
Since Cao Yang chose to let Nanshan Group enter the field of carbon fiber production, he naturally would not just bring out T700 technology.
Although T800 and T1000 have not yet been produced in China, they have not even reached small-scale laboratory status.
But this product was actually developed by Toray more than ten years ago.
In other words, it is not a product that is ahead of its time.
It’s just that the country’s strength in this area is too weak.
"Yesterday, I asked people from the Japanese branch to check it out and see who are the people who have recently purchased the Star Sports Car."
"This investigation does not matter. I found that Toray actually bought a Star Sky. Toho and Mitsubishi also purchased a Star Sky."
"Nearly all the Star Sports cars in Japan are bought by corporate users."
Zeng Tingting naturally knew the meaning behind this matter.
However, during this period of time, she had a good understanding of the carbon fiber situation.
I didn’t know this, but once I got to know it, I realized that Nanshan Group’s carbon fiber technology is already the number one in the country.
Even compared with companies such as Toray and American Hexcel, it is not far behind.
After all, Nanshan Group can also produce T1000, the most high-end commercial carbon fiber in the world.
It's just that it doesn't have large-scale production capabilities like the T700.
As for the higher-level T1100, it can already be produced in the laboratory.
"Carbon fiber is considered a military material, so it's not surprising that Toray attaches great importance to it."
"They are the industry leader and occupy nearly half of the market share. Once this situation is broken, the impact will be huge."
"However, the more this happens, the more we need to work hard on carbon fiber."
"Didn't a lot of inspection teams come over a few days ago and took away a lot of our carbon fiber samples?"
"Then some people contacted us starting yesterday, hoping that Nanshan Group can expand its carbon fiber production capacity."
"Especially for the T800 and T1000, I hope we can build a dedicated factory to transform the products from small-scale production to mass production."
"They even said that we can choose the address where the carbon fiber factory will be built. They will help us coordinate and let the local area supply it for free."
Cao Yang knew that carbon fiber was very important before, but because he didn't have much contact with it in his previous life, although he paid more attention to it, he didn't attach it to a very high level.
During this period, batch after batch of people came to inspect, and the level was still quite high.
He finally had a formal understanding of the situation of carbon fiber at home and abroad.
Only then did I know that Nanshan Group had accidentally released another satellite.
"Mr. Cao, carbon fiber is a material made by subjecting organic fibers to a series of chemical treatments under high temperature and high pressure conditions."
"During the production process, it is inevitable that there will be some contamination."
"And if we want to produce T700, T800 and T1000 carbon fiber on a large scale, the construction area required will not be small."
"It is really not appropriate to build a large-scale carbon fiber factory here in Yangcheng."
"Why don't we take this opportunity to start our group's overseas expansion?"
Zeng Tingting's vision is not bad either.
Sooner or later, Nanshan Group will go to other places, but when and in what way is very important.
If it is not done well, it will cause bad relations with the district.
Obviously, she felt that the carbon fiber factory was a very good opportunity.
A good opportunity that none of them had considered before.
"What you said makes sense. The main customers of this new factory are the people who came to inspect it a few days ago."
"Their factories are mainly in the northwest or northeast. Our carbon fiber factory, they obviously also hope to build it in these two places."
"Based on the direction of policy development, I think it is more appropriate to build it in the northwest, and it also agrees with some preferential policies for the development of the western region."
"But the specific location will be confirmed next week after we inspect it."
"The company must also formally launch this project within the company to see what equipment needs to be prepared and what personnel need to be recruited."
"I guess the country hopes to put this factory into production as soon as possible. If we have any difficulties then, we can raise them."
Following Cao Yang's decision, Nanshan Group immediately took action.
The news that Nanshan Group has the mass production capacity of T700 carbon fiber has slowly spread.
After all, a carbon fiber factory with an investment of several billion and covering an area of thousands of acres had a huge influence in 2007.
Not only international carbon fiber giants such as Toray are paying attention, but domestic counterparts are also attaching great importance to it.
"Mr. Chen, I contacted Nanshan Group. They can indeed produce T700 carbon fiber. It is already widely used in the Star Sports Car."
"However, their carbon fiber factory in Yangcheng is not very large, with an annual production capacity of only a few hundred tons."
"So although it can be sold to us, deliveries cannot begin until the new factory is put into production."
Guangwei is the largest manufacturer of fishing rods, fishing reels and fishing gear production equipment in China.
Although fishing rods are inconspicuous, professional fishing guys know best how expensive these things are.
One or two hundred yuan that ordinary people play with is nothing in the eyes of a fishing guy.
As for high-end fishing rods, they are made of carbon fiber material.
And the more high-end they are, the more they want to use better carbon fiber materials for production.
For example, after the materials of T300 and T700 are made into fishing rods, the prices will definitely be completely different.
Prior to this, Guangwei mainly purchased its carbon fiber materials from Toray.
In order to confirm whether Guangwei really uses carbon fiber to produce products such as fishing rods, Toray comes to the site from time to time to confirm every year, which can be said to be full of humiliation.
So Guangwei also made up his mind to develop carbon fiber himself.
So far, certain results have been achieved.
Materials like T300 can already be produced on a small scale.
However, large-scale industrial production is still in progress.
Now I suddenly heard that Nanshan Group has the production capacity to mass produce T700. It would be strange that they don't pay attention.
"I have heard of the famous name of Nanshan Group for a long time."
"They looked up to me and I've only been driving it for more than a month, and I already don't want to drive another SUV anymore."
"I didn't expect that the starry sky sports car they are launching now uses a large amount of carbon fiber produced by themselves."
"It's really surprising. It's like releasing a satellite of David."
"You contact the other party and see if you can arrange for me to go over and communicate with their Mr. Cao."
"Nanshan Group's main business is not carbon fiber. Let's see if there is any possibility of cooperation between the two parties."
Chen Liang's business sense is very keen.
From what his subordinates heard about, he sensed an opportunity.
On the one hand, Guangwei’s carbon fiber material purchasing channels can finally be established in China.
On the other hand, he felt that Guangwei and Nanshan Group might consider technical cooperation.
Nanshan Group already has the production capacity of T700 carbon fiber, so according to normal logic, they should have been studying T800, and even T800 has been produced in the laboratory.
Then low-level materials such as T300 and T400 are not so important to Nanshan Group.
We can have a good discussion about whether we can authorize Guangwei to produce it.
Nanshan Group doesn’t like it, but Guangwei likes it.
(End of chapter)
