The Munich Construction Machinery Exhibition is over, and as in previous editions, many new products and technologies have appeared at this exhibition, which is refreshing. The fair's turnover has also reached a new high, which is not surprising as the three-year interval is enough to allow the global industry to expand significantly, and it is not surprising that the increase in turnover is not surprising.

The most insignificant, but most remarkable, aspect of the show was the signing of a $230 million order for the China Pavilion. This is insignificant, because this figure is really not worth mentioning compared to the total turnover of the entire exhibition, and equipment giants like Siemens and Caterpillar can reach this figure with a larger order.

It is said that it is eye-catching because this is the first time that Chinese construction machinery manufacturers have received large orders at the Munich exhibition. At the end of the Cold War, China has become the only major power in the traditional Eastern bloc after the fall of the Soviet Union, which is full of mystery. The fact that such a poor and backward eastern country in the impression of Westerners was able to grab the market of old European and American enterprises at the Munich exhibition is undoubtedly a topic that can be fully hyped.

The Munich exhibition has always been a stage for developed countries in the West, and developing countries are rarely able to achieve good results in such exhibitions. In the past, a few developing countries at the Munich exhibition, such as Brazil and South Africa, had relatively single products, and sometimes they were directly the products produced by Western multinational companies in these countries, which was nothing new. This time, the booth rented by the China Pavilion was not large, but it brought more than a dozen products, including large-volume mining excavators, large-tonnage electric wheel dump trucks, loaders, concrete pump trucks, etc., with a wide product line, reflecting the volume of a large equipment country.

The prices of Chinese products are so low that they feel like they are buying cabbage, and this low price has also hit the price system of established Western companies, forcing companies such as Prometheus and Haifei to lower their product prices to appease traditional customers.

All of this, of course, could not escape the sensitive eyes of Western financial journalists, and for a while, there were some praisers and some detractors, and Shengsheng hyped up the matter of the China Pavilion into a hot topic in the media.

The European Commission, which has just been established, has also been involved in this topic. On the day of the end of the exhibition, the European Commission received a statement led by the German company Prometheus, in which more than a dozen large European enterprises signed a statement, accusing the Chinese government of manipulating the exchange rate and seriously undervaluing the value of the RMB, resulting in a serious low price of China's construction machinery products, impacting the traditional market of European companies. The statement demanded that the European Commission set up a special team to investigate the matter and impose severe penalties on China.

The European Commission convened trade representatives from various countries to discuss Prometheus' proposal, but the participants almost unanimously rejected the proposal's demands, arguing that the so-called manipulation of the exchange rate by the Chinese government does not exist, and that China is a poor developing country with a very low value and no deliberate undervaluation.

Of course, this is only the Commission's reply to Prometheus and others, but the real reason is that the European Commission believes that China's undervaluation of the currency is a good thing for Europe. At present, thousands of enterprises in European countries have invested in China, using China's cheap labor for production. Chinese workers are paid less than $3 a day at the exchange rate set by the Chinese side, which allows these European companies to make several times the profits of the past while significantly reducing the price of their products.

In addition, although cheap construction machinery from China makes companies such as Prometheus feel uncomfortable, cheap shirts and socks from China are the favorite of European people. Due to the high quality and low prices of Chinese goods, the price level of the whole of Europe has been effectively controlled, and the expenditure of EU countries on social welfare has also been greatly reduced.

It can be said that in the eyes of these trade representatives of various countries, the Chinese are a group of diligent old cattle, eating grass and milk, which farmer thinks that cattle are too easy to feed?

"According to the European Commission, the root cause of this is that your equipment is too profitable and you have been charging customers unduly high prices for a long time. The Chinese did not engage in dumping, they just returned the price of the product to a normal level. ”

An official of the European Commission named Bovard replied to Heinzl. It was Heinzl who provoked the matter, and Promax gave him the mandate to submit a statement to the EU. He originally thought that he had gathered more than a dozen large enterprises, which was enough for the European Commission to pay attention to, but who would have thought that after consultations, the European Commission would actually have such an attitude.

"Mr. Bovard, our products have always been priced like this, and there is no profiteering. The reason why the Chinese's products can affect us is entirely because their exchange rate is low, and I have reason to think that with their quotations, every piece of equipment produced will lose more than 30%. Heinzl argued.

"Can you produce evidence?" asked Bovard.

"I can submit the production costs of our company as a comparison. ”

"But they're not Prometheus. As far as I know, the average worker in your company earns 40 marks per hour, while the average Chinese worker earns 0.5 marks per hour, do you think your production costs are comparable to those of the Chinese?" said Bovard, as the European Commission's trade commissioner, he still has very good economic information.

"0.5 marks per hour!" exclaimed Heinzl, "do you believe that 0.5 marks per hour will be able to hire workers, even if they live more simply, this money will not be enough for the calories they need every day." This only shows that the exchange rate imposed by the Chinese is false, and that the value of their home currency is much higher than they claim. ”

"This is just your speculation, and the Commission will not consider your request until you can provide further evidence. Bovard shrugged his shoulders and declared coldly.

He wasn't interested in arguing with the German in front of him, who was obviously a little stunned. According to Bovard's idea, you Pumai can also find a way to reduce costs, why can't you move the enterprise to China? China's cheap labor will definitely be able to greatly reduce your production costs, so that the competitiveness will not be there? Now the Chinese underestimate the currency, purely to send money to Europeans, Europeans will not pick this layer of window paper, you don't like cheap goods?

The proposal was rejected, and Heinzl had no choice. The bureaucracy of government officials, Heinzl was well aware. Don't look at what "taxpayers" these officials talk about at every turn, but when the "taxpayers" really want to do something with them, they will only put out provisions to perfunctory, and they will do as much as the provisions stipulate, and if the provisions do not stipulate, even if you kowtow to them, they will never do it.

There is no actual evidence for such a thing as an exchange rate. If the EU itself feels that the renminbi exchange rate is too low and wants to force the renminbi to appreciate, then they can find 100 reasons to do so. But if the EU itself is not careful, and the companies want to let the EU take the lead, it will be more difficult than climbing to the sky.

Western companies know that the most important thing to do is to "lobby" and find a few agents to reflect their opinions to the government, and the government will naturally find a way to do it out of consideration for votes. But without this kind of lobbying, people are too lazy to work, a cup of coffee, a cigar, a copy of the Times for half a day, who doesn't like it?

On the European side, it was not done, and Haifei and other American companies submitted the same bill to the US Department of Commerce after they returned, but it was also not adopted. In the 90s of the 20th century, the United States was in the midst of economic prosperity brought about by the rapid development of information technology, and China, as a country dominated by labor-intensive industries, had almost no industrial competition with the United States, but had great complementarity. Cheap goods from China can effectively reduce the cost of living for the American people, thereby reducing the financial pressure on the US federal government, and the Commerce Department will not ask China to let the renminbi appreciate unless it is crazy. As for the threat posed by a few Chinese construction machinery companies to American companies, it is nothing more than a disease of ringworm.

Before a storm could start, it had already subsided. After all, the large Western companies still got a large number of orders at the exhibition, and the difference was not big compared with the previous ones, so as time passed, the little unhappiness brought to everyone by the Chinese disturbed the situation was slowly forgotten.

The China Pavilion, which had not yet been remembered, returned to China happily and received a warm welcome from various units as soon as they walked out of the security area at the airport.

There were not many people who came to welcome the national equipment company, only a few staff members of the company's office, led by Zheng Yuxin, deputy director of the office, who was a lesbian in her early 30s, beautiful, intelligent, lively and capable. Because Feng Xiaochen repeatedly emphasized the principle of simplicity in the company, Zheng Yuxin and they didn't even type a banner, but just made a piece of cardboard on the packaging box and wrote the words "Welcome to Mr. Feng", so that the people next to them mistakenly thought that they were employees of a leather bag company, maybe there were only a few people in the whole company.

The pick-up specifications of Lin Chong, Luo Ye and other units are very different. I heard that a large order was signed at the Munich exhibition, and the top leaders of several units made a special trip to the capital to personally take people to the airport, and the red banners were spread all over the world like a happy event in the countryside. If it weren't for the order in the terminal, these companies would be eager to bring the waist drum team and Yangge team in the factory, the purpose is to let the people of the whole country know that they have achieved a "zero breakthrough" in the world's top equipment exhibitions.