"The Chinese have disrupted the normal market order!"

In a café in the center of Munich called Skelsey, sales representatives from more than a dozen Western construction machinery giants are engaged in an informal consultation, and the core issue of their discussion is precisely the new variable that has emerged at this year's exhibition: the disruption of Chinese products.

Indeed, for various companies, the emergence of Chinese products is just a disruption. In the past three days, Chinese manufacturers have received orders of less than 100 million US dollars, compared with the sales of these construction machinery giants, that is, a fraction, not a threat at all, let alone a challenge.

However, due to the emergence of Chinese products, the tacit agreement on the price formed by the giants has been torn apart. All the customers are complaining to the manufacturers, saying that the price of their products is too high and the appearance is too ugly. The traditional practice of grabbing high profits from accessories has also been severely criticized, customers have said that the Chinese company's approach is correct, the price of accessories is abnormally high, it is completely an unfair competition, suspected of sales fraud, this is not a cooperative attitude.

Although most merchants choose to buy products from Western companies after complaining, once the gap is formed, the future will grow bigger and bigger, until it leads to the breakdown of cooperation. Some merchants have purchased 90 sets of equipment from Western companies, and at the same time purchased 10 sets of similar equipment from Chinese companies, which is obviously with the mentality of comparative experiments. Once they find that the products of Chinese companies are not inferior to those of Western companies, then in the next round of procurement, they will inevitably increase the number of purchases from China and reduce the number of purchases from Western companies. Others have reduced their expected purchases, waiting to see the results of other peers using Chinese equipment before deciding whether they should shift their purchases to China.

This kind of thing is not unheard of by various manufacturers. Thirty years ago, Japanese companies were eating away at the market of Western manufacturers little by little, and then gradually growing and developing into a challenger to the West. In the 50s, Japanese products were also known for their poor technology and poor quality, and Western companies did not feel that the Japanese could be their competitors in the slightest. But somehow, the Japanese actually grew up and took a large share of the profits of Westerners.

Finally, the Americans took the lead in a Plaza Accord, which forced the yen to appreciate, and suppressed the development momentum of the Japanese, but the Chinese came again, and it was still the same good quality and low price, and everyone felt tired and didn't love it......

"These damn Orientals, they completely ignore the rules, do what they do, and they will rob us of our profits in the future!" Lester, a sales representative of Haifei, said hatefully.

"I'm not worried that they will steal our profits, the poor manufacturing capacity of the Chinese is simply not enough to compete with us." I just find them very annoying because I have to spend three times as much to explain our price structure to my regular customers because of their presence. Rasul, a sales representative from the Dutch company Keton, shrugged his shoulders and said. His company produces a large road roller, and this time the China Pavilion did not bring similar products, so it did not pose any competitive threat to him, but his customers were affected by other people, and he was also very picky about the price of Keton's products, which made him very uncomfortable.

"Rasul, don't underestimate the manufacturing capabilities of the Chinese. You know, China is not Japan, Japan has a population of only 100 million, which cannot support a huge production capacity, while China has a population of 1.2 billion, which is much more than the population of the whole of Europe plus the United States. Sadie, a sales representative at Steiner Spain, reminds.

Rasul said disdainfully: "Population doesn't say anything, as far as I know, the entire Chinese literate population is less than 70 million, and most of the Chinese are illiterate, and they cannot master modern industrial technology." ”

Sadie looked at Leicester for a long time before he said, "Mr. Rasul, I don't think you have any misunderstanding about China, China is a country with nuclear weapons and artificial satellites, are you sure that most of its citizens are illiterate?"

Rasul said: "Of course, haven't you seen the movies made by the Chinese themselves? If you've seen those movies, you'll know that China is very poor, and in their rural areas, people even have a problem with drinking water. ”

Sadie shook his head and said, "I suspect that this is a trick by the Chinese government, and the writers and directors of these films must be employees of China's strategic cover department, and they make such movies precisely to make people like you who have never been to China ignore the Chinese threat." ”

"It's true that I haven't been to China, but what does that mean? Have you ever been to China?" asked Rasul, whose face was a little hung up, in turn.

"I'll admit, I've never been to China either. However, I have come into contact with some Chinese engineers who have come to our company for training, and they are very capable and very hardworking, and I think their level is no worse than that of European engineers. ”

"That's just a tiny minority, and you're talking about 1.2 billion people. "Rasul found a reason.

"But ......"

Sadie wanted to say something, but Heinzl interrupted him and said, "Everyone, I think we should not go off topic, the issue we are going to discuss today is how to deal with the disturbance of the Chinese." I think there may be serious dumping by the Chinese, who are selling their products to the market at prices below cost, and this unethical behavior harms the interests of all of us. ”

"Heinzl, you said that the Chinese dumped, is there any evidence?" Lester asked.

Heinz said: "Isn't their quotation evidence?"

"This is not enough, to charge them with dumping, you must prove that the price they quoted in Munich is lower than the price they sold in China, otherwise it is not enough to be called dumping. Sadie said.

The so-called dumping, simply put, means that manufacturers sell things at a discount in order to seize other people's markets. However, the production costs of each manufacturer are different, and simply looking at the price of one manufacturer's products is lower than that of others, it is not enough to prove that the manufacturer is dumping. For example, if a piece of equipment produced by a Chinese enterprise is quoted at 1 million yuan in China, or about US$120,000, if it is quoted at US$110,000 abroad, it is dumping, and if it is quoted at US$130,000, it is not dumping. Whether the price of similar equipment produced by Western companies is 200,000 or 400,000 US dollars cannot be used as evidence to accuse Chinese products of dumping.

"As far as I know, the 175-ton dump truck produced by the Chinese is sold for 3 million yuan in China, which is equivalent to 350,000 US dollars at the exchange rate. And their offer at the show was $480,000, so it's hard to say that they were dumping. Lester said. Haifei has had a long-term cooperation with Luo Ye, and although the cooperation has been interrupted now, Lester still knows something about Luo Ye's situation. Lester was also puzzled that Luo Ye was able to sell dump trucks in China at a low price of $350,000, but he couldn't lie.

Heinzl sneered: "This is precisely the conspiracy of the Chinese, who manipulated the exchange rate of the yuan and depreciated the yuan sharply, thus winning the advantage in trade." Don't forget, that's what the Japanese did back then, they undervalued the yen in exchange for trade competitiveness. ”

"Didn't you Germany do the same back then?" Rasul unceremoniously revealed. On the one hand, based on the principle that peers are enemies, they don't buy each other, but on the other hand, everyone is doing sales, and there is a feeling of sympathy for each other. This allows them to come together to discuss things, but the process of discussion is full of verbal swords.

"Well, I don't deny that, but we've corrected that inappropriateness. ”

Heinzl was a little embarrassed, and in fact, the West German mark was also underestimated in the early years, which gave West Germany a lot of trade advantages, and also played a large role in the recovery of Germany after the war. The Plaza Accord of 1985 was not only aimed at Japan, but Germany was also required to increase the value of its currency, and Germany suffered some losses as a result. Because of this experience, Heinzl was very sensitive to the issue of currency value and immediately realized the source of the competitiveness of Chinese products.

Leicester didn't feel the same way as Heinzl, and he asked: "Heinzl, you mean that we need to do another Plaza Accord and force the Chinese to raise their exchange rate?"

Heinzl nodded: "Exactly. ”

"I don't think it's that bad, is it?" Lester said, frowning. Luo Ye's dump truck did not pose much of a threat to Haifei, and Lester felt that it was a bit of a fuss to make a new Plaza agreement for the sake of a few dump trucks. The reason why the United States wanted to engage in the Plaza Accord was because the Japanese made a bold statement of "buying the whole of the United States," and China is still a poor country, so poor that the Americans don't bother to pay attention to it at all.

"Heinzl, this should be a matter for the finance ministers, right? We are just a businessman, do we need to think about something as big as the exchange rate?" Rasul also questioned.

"I think we should make such a request to the EU, and the EU will come forward to investigate China's manipulation of the renminbi exchange rate," Heinzl said. If they can raise the exchange rate to the level of 1 US dollar to 2 yuan, their product price will be the same as ours, and we will easily beat them with our quality and brand advantages. ”