time is money.
Putting this in a shopping mall, there is often no problem.
Nowadays, the demand for hot stamping parts from various car companies is so strong that every supplier is trying to put their production lines into production as soon as possible.
Otherwise, it would be extremely difficult to get orders even before your production line has started.
That is to say, there are not many manufacturers with ready-made production lines now, and the demand from OEMs exceeds their production capacity.
Otherwise, it will be very difficult to get orders before your production line is put into operation.
If you already have a production line in mass production, but the production capacity is insufficient and needs to be expanded, then everything is easy to say.
You don’t have a production line, and you haven’t officially made this kind of parts at all, so the difficulty is completely different.
Naturally, Yi Feng and the others also knew this.
So soon, these manufacturers began to decide how to purchase equipment.
Nanshan Equipment received orders for more than five hot stamping production lines in one month in May 2007.
And they are all turnkey projects, with all equipment provided by Nanshan Equipment.
For such a big move, Nanshan Equipment naturally had to make some sense of ceremony.
Various automotive media will also have some relevant reports.
"Molde, I have basically inquired clearly. The package solution provided by Nanshan Equipment is quoted at around 70 million yuan."
"The value of the laser cutting equipment is about 22 million yuan."
"If you buy laser cutting equipment from TRUMPF, even at the lowest discount price, it will cost 30 million yuan."
"In this case, there is no way we can get orders without making any changes."
Chen Liang is very anxious now.
What he worried about was becoming reality step by step.
If this pace continues, international auto parts giants such as Cosma and Gestamp may also choose to purchase related equipment from Nanshan Equipment.
After all, no one wants their investment to become that big.
"With our laser cutting equipment, the slit width can be controlled at 0.5mm, and the cutting accuracy can reach ±0.02~0.01mm."
"This is a performance that Chinese companies do not have. Those customers now only see the low price of Nanshan equipment and do not fully realize the difference in technical level between equipment."
"Chen, you have an obligation to make more customers aware of this."
"TRUMPF's laser cutting equipment is the best in the world. When the time comes, we can also work with customers like Benteler and Cosma to promote this."
Although Molde has strong objections to companies such as Yifeng not purchasing equipment from him.
But the confidence in our own equipment is always there.
"You are right, but these parameters are actually related to factors such as the nature and thickness of the material to be cut, laser power, focal length and focus position, laser beam diameter, injection gas pressure and flow rate, etc. The degree of influence is roughly the same as that of drilling holes. The effect of diameter is similar.”
"From what we know so far about Nanshan Equipment's laser cutting equipment, their drilling accuracy seems to be no worse than ours."
When Chen Liang said this, Molde immediately became angry.
"Can the equipment parameters promoted by Chinese manufacturers be compared with ours?"
"They are able to achieve a certain value under extremely ideal circumstances, and they have been promoting according to this."
"And we promote the values that can be achieved under normal circumstances as equipment parameters."
"You must understand this."
"Also, aren't the Chuncheng Fourth Ring Factory and Chuncheng Stamping Factory already using Nanshan equipment for their products?"
"You can also take the technical staff to visit them directly, visit the site and get a feel for the opponent's specific situation."
Molde now fully vented his anger on Chen Liang.
In his view, China's market demand is so huge, but orders have not reached Trumpf's hands.
That's why the sales manager below is not doing his job well.
As for your own equipment being expensive, isn’t that normal?
When did Deutsche equipment get orders based on its cost advantage?
Other domestic peers can do this, why can’t TRUMPF do it?
Seeing the furious look on Molde's face, Chen Liang did not dare to say anything.
He already felt a little regretful. Shouldn't he have come to TRUMPF?
Do you need to consider continuing to look for your next home?
…
"Brother, although the company currently has a lot of orders for hot stamping parts, it is difficult to say whether BYD and Great Wall Motors will start reviewing point B after other manufacturers' production lines are put into production."
"I heard that for parts such as aluminum wheels, BYD has found two suppliers at the same time to make parts for the same model."
"Basically, whoever has the lower price will buy more parts from that company and force the other company to lower its price."
"Then, in turn, the price of another supplier is used to suppress the price of the newly introduced supplier, thereby achieving a continuous reduction in costs."
"Although this approach is unsustainable and it is impossible to keep lowering prices, as long as it is not on the verge of losing money, suppliers will be forced to grit their teeth and carry on."
"This is not good news for us."
"The sales of various OEMs are constantly rising, and there will definitely be more and more B points opened in the future."
Guo Shufu has obviously also noticed that several domestic manufacturers have recently begun to invest in hot stamping molding production lines.
This is definitely not a good thing for Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory.
"It will definitely be impossible to continue to obtain orders as easily as in the past two years."
"However, the production lines of other manufacturers have just been put into operation, and mass production will not be possible until next year at the earliest."
"It will definitely take some time to observe the quality after mass production."
"So our advantage is still there in the short term."
"However, future technology improvement and cost reduction work indeed needs to be carried out as soon as possible."
Guo Shuyin thought about what Cao Yang told him about improving the accumulation of hot stamping molding technology, and he understood more and more that it would be impossible not to do this work.
Without any core technology of its own, if you simply process drawings, it will be difficult to outperform other domestic manufacturers in the future.
At that time, if you only earn two or three points of profit from a part, you will lose money accidentally.
"Compared with Cosma, Benteler and Gestamp, our technology does still have some gaps, but we also have advantages in integrated door rings."
"Mr. Cao has mentioned some other technical directions to us before. When the time comes, we will arrange for people to work hard and communicate more with Nanshan Mold."
"By then it should still be able to catch up with the international mainstream level and be a level higher than those domestic manufacturers."
“As for cost reduction, we just start from the aspects of material fees, processing fees and mold fees.”
"In terms of material costs, it should be difficult to widen the differences."
"However, since our current usage is large, we should be able to get a slightly lower price, which will still be an advantage in the short term."
“What requires the most effort is the processing fee.”
"Whether it's parts heating, stamping, or laser cutting, the cost of every step is not low."
"Especially in laser cutting, there is a lot of room for improvement."
"As long as we can reduce the length of laser cutting by half, the cost can be reduced a lot, and even the investment in laser cutting equipment can be saved."
After Guo Shufu has been in sales for so many years, he naturally has some ideas for cost reduction.
As a supplier, facing price reduction requirements from OEMs is a topic that can never be avoided.
"We should also work hard on mold processing. We ourselves also need to have certain related capabilities."
"Otherwise, when the mold costs of other manufacturers drop, our competitiveness will drop."
Guo Shufu basically mentioned all the ways to reduce costs. Guo Shuyin has not thought of any other better methods for the time being.
"Brother, is it possible for Nanshan Equipment to increase the price of equipment from other manufacturers?"
After the two brothers chatted for a while, Guo Shufu struggled to come up with a new idea.
In his opinion, Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory also has shares in Nanshan Group.
It stands to reason that selling equipment to other manufacturers will definitely affect the development of Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory.
But he also knows that for Nanshan Equipment, the income from selling equipment may be greater than the benefits obtained from Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory.
"When Nanshan Equipment sells equipment to those manufacturers, it must have fully considered the impact of all aspects."
"However, if the price of Nanshan equipment is not much different from that of imported equipment, many manufacturers may choose to import it directly."
"So it is inappropriate for us to discuss these things with Nanshan Equipment at this stage."
"There will be no better outcome than damaging the relationship."
"They are taking care of us by giving priority to our equipment supply under such circumstances."
Guo Shuyin did not think that Nanshan Equipment should take full care of him because 30% of his company's shares were owned by Nanshan Group.
This is simply unrealistic.
Besides, Nanshan Equipment is now competing with Benteler, Schwarz, Schuler, TRUMPF and other manufacturers for various hot stamping equipment. If Huaqiang Factory is holding back, then Cao Yang will be blamed and everyone will be blamed. Quite embarrassing.
The current situation is that Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory cannot do without Nanshan Group, not that Nanshan Group cannot do without Yangcheng Huaqiang.
"Some manufacturers adopt very flexible methods in order to obtain orders."
"There are even cases where the company directly provides procurement shares to some OEMs."
"In this case, our future sales funds also need to be appropriately increased."
There is not much that can be done elsewhere, so Guo Shufu naturally has to think about how to obtain orders from customers in the future.
Competing quotations must be competitive, but whether you can get an order after competition is actually a bit mysterious sometimes.
After so many years of sales, Guo Shufu naturally knows this very well.
"Well, starting next year, sales expenses will increase by 50% compared to this year, so that our new production line will always have enough orders to support it."
Guo Shuyin naturally understood the situation, so he agreed without much hesitation.
…
Various actions in the thermoforming industry naturally attract the attention of relevant manufacturers.
As the first company to invest in hot stamping production lines in China, Benteler is no exception.
As a parts company, Benteler is also an equipment manufacturer.
For example, they can produce heating furnaces themselves and sell them externally.
Of course, they don’t make stamping machines and laser cutting equipment themselves.
Under this circumstance, their new production line investment must naturally be fully integrated with the situation of the Chinese market.
"Peter, are you saying that several manufacturers in China have added more than 5 hot stamping production lines this year?"
“Then all these manufacturers’ production lines are purchased from Nanshan Equipment?”
As the general manager of Benteler China, Feng Bo naturally pays close attention to the development trends of the industry.
As a supplier of Modu Volkswagen and Modu GM, he is probably aware of the gap between his own cost level and that of Chinese manufacturers in the industry.
At the beginning, due to Volkswagen's supportive policies, even if the price of Benteler was higher, orders could be obtained directly from Volkswagen headquarters.
However, as the situation changes, unless it is a part that customers think Chinese manufacturers cannot handle, if Benteler wants to win an order, the cost cannot be higher than that of other manufacturers.
As a result, Feng Bo paid more attention to the developments of other manufacturers in the industry.
"That's true. Chinese manufacturers make investment decisions very quickly and build factories very quickly."
"Currently there is insufficient production capacity, but in a few years there may be overcapacity."
As the sales director, Qian Hui is naturally very concerned about his opponents' movements.
Compared with Cosma and Gestamp, he is still confident.
But compared with domestic manufacturers in China, he felt weak.
"For our third hot stamping production line, the previous proposal from the purchasing department was to directly COPY the second production line."
"Now it seems that this plan may not be suitable."
Feng Bo personally presided over the investment in previous production lines and the situation of manufacturers of various equipment.
All equipment is imported from abroad, and is also imported through Deutsche Benteler.
As a result, the cost will definitely be very high.
"I heard that the entire hot stamping production line provided by Nanshan Equipment costs only 70 to 80 million, which is a lot lower than ours."
"Except for the heating furnace, which is produced by our company, other presses and laser cutting equipment can indeed be purchased from Nanshan Equipment."
Qian Hui naturally also heard about the famous name of Nanshan Equipment.
He even knew that Benteler's biggest competitor in the field of hot stamping, Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory, purchased all its equipment from Nanshan Equipment.
"Well, you tell the people in the purchasing department and ask them to also inquire about Nanshan Equipment's price."
"Then make a new plan."
Although Feng Bo also wants to continue to support TRUMPF, which is also a German company, he must first consider his own interests.
If the price of your TRUMPF equipment can be the same as that of Nanshan equipment, he will definitely give priority to using TRUMPF.
But if the price difference is too big, it will be embarrassing.
Even Benteler has this attitude, not to mention other manufacturers.
Therefore, there has not been a single order for TRUMPF’s laser cutting equipment in recent months.
If no one in the entire industry invests in new factories and there is no demand for equipment, then this situation can be considered normal.
It just so happens that China's hot stamping industry is currently at its hottest stage. TRUMPF still hasn't received any orders, so something is definitely wrong.
"Molde, Benteler's procurement department called me. Their company is planning to go to Yangcheng next week to inspect Nanshan Equipment's laser cutting machines."
"I think in this case, it is necessary to report to the headquarters and lower the price of our laser cutting equipment."
"Otherwise, it will be difficult to get orders from customers."
"Even if this situation lasts for a period of time, everyone will gradually forget that there is still an option of Deutsche TRUMPF in the market."
Chen Liang found Molde again with a serious expression.
“Bentler is considering purchasing a laser cutting machine from Nanshan Equipment?”
Molde looked at Chen Liang in surprise.
This situation was obviously beyond his expectation.
"Yes, they were the first hot stamping manufacturer to enter China, so they don't have particularly high requirements on cost."
"In particular, the relationship between Volkswagen and Nanshan Group is very bad. The Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory, the largest and earliest hot stamping manufacturer in China, is not wanted by Volkswagen in Shanghai."
"So Benteler faced very little pressure before, but it's different now."
“Not only Cosma and Gestamp will compete with Benteler, but domestic manufacturers such as Yifeng have also begun to invest in hot stamping lines.”
"I heard that the relationship between this manufacturer and Volkswagen is quite good, so Benteler must be feeling the pressure."
Chen Liang reported all the information he learned to Molde, hoping to make him fully aware of the seriousness of the situation.
TRUMPF's laser cutting equipment is very good, but Nanshan's equipment is not bad either.
Chen Liang himself knows this best.
Nanshan Equipment can handle the CNC system of machine tools and various high-precision machine tools. It is also normal to handle laser cutting equipment.
But it was very difficult for Molde to understand this logic that Chen Liang took for granted.
Fortunately, Bentler's incident gave him a relatively direct impact this time.
Slowly, Molde's thoughts changed.
However, whether it is TRUMPF's response speed or the intensity of price reduction, there is definitely no way to compare with Nanshan equipment.
Therefore, even if Molde reports to the German headquarters, there will be no obvious effect in a short period of time.
Regardless of the new domestic manufacturers entering the market or the expansion of production by existing players such as Benteler, they ultimately did not continue to use TRUMPF’s laser cutting equipment.
This made Chen Liang make up his mind and once again chose to change jobs.
However, he himself was a little confused. Will his luck be so bad next time?
(End of chapter)
