"According to our analysis, they are convinced that we have to purchase equipment from one of them, so they will be so tough. According to their current offer, they can get at least $60 million in excess profits for each piece of equipment, and 20 units is $1.2 billion. If they sign a secret agreement, promising that no matter which one wins the bid, they will transfer benefits to the other two, then it is entirely possible to join forces to raise the price together. Han Hong explained to Feng Xiaochen.

Feng Xiaochen nodded, he had thought of this just now. In fact, when it comes to international trade, each country will adopt a selective attitude of ignoring the monopolistic behavior of its own enterprises, because this monopoly harms the interests of consumers in other countries, and the country where the monopoly enterprise is located will not take care of it.

If the consumer country is strong enough, it can naturally impose sanctions on the production enterprises and issue huge fines, and later generations of multinational companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm have suffered huge fines from other countries, and they have to obediently admit the fine, the reason is that the other party controls the target market of these enterprises, so they have to refuse to admit it.

But this time, China can't punish companies like Seamanz, because China needs them to provide equipment, and they can sell at a price. In this world, justice will always exist only within the range of naval guns. For the market, strength determines everything, people are willing to sell a piece of equipment at a high price of hundreds of millions, what can you do?

"So, what is the opinion of the Development and Planning Commission?" Feng Xiaochen asked.

Han Hong smiled and said, "This question needs to be answered by you, Mr. Feng." ”

Feng Xiaochen thought for a while and said, "In my opinion, although there is no evidence that there is a price collusion between the three companies of Ximanzi, Tongyong and Shuangluo, the facts are already here, and it would be strange if they were not colluding. In the case of their collusion, it is probably impossible for us to negotiate to get them to lower their prices. ”

"We've tried, and it's basically not possible. Wang Zhenbin said. He is an official who has participated in negotiations and knows how those companies are doing at the negotiating table.

Feng Xiaochen said: "Since this is the case, then we only have two plans left, first, accept the high price they offer and suffer this dumb loss." Second, we make it ourselves. ”

"How sure are you that you can make it yourself?" Han Hong asked seriously.

Feng Xiaochen said: "Yuzhong's long-distance natural gas compressor has been developed as early as three years ago, and industrial experiments have been carried out for the past three years, and the experimental results have been very good so far. But objectively speaking, there are still several defects in Yuzhong's compressor, first of all, the industrial experiment is not long enough, many problems have been found in the experimental process, and they have been corrected, and it is not sure whether there are other problems that have not yet been discovered. Secondly, due to material and process problems, the expected service life of Yuzhong's compressors is lower than that of Ximanzi and other three, and all performance indicators are also slightly inferior. Third, Yuzhong's production capacity is limited, and it is difficult to provide 20 compressors. ”

Han Hong said: "We also had a general understanding of this situation, so in this bidding, we excluded Yuzhong. The West-East Gas Pipeline is a major cross-century project, and the guarantee we have made to the central authorities is foolproof, but it is obviously difficult for Yuzhong's compressor to meet the foolproof requirements. ”

"What if we give up the foolproof request?" Feng Xiaochen asked.

"How is this possible!" Han Hong blurted out.

Feng Xiaochen said: "Director Han, in fact, imported equipment can also not meet the foolproof requirements, the reliability of any equipment can not reach 100%, their equipment may be able to reach 99.9999%, we may only be 99.99%, a few less than them." ”

Han Hong said with a wry smile: "These 9s are also very important, people can do it for 3 years without failure, we can only do it for 3 months, the difference between them is too big." If you don't use reliable equipment and use unreliable equipment that you produce, if something goes wrong, who can take the responsibility?"

"But what if there is an embargo on us abroad?" Feng Xiaochen asked.

"Embargo?" Han Hong was stunned for a moment, then frowned and began to think.

The word embargo is not new to Chinese. After the opposition between China and the Soviet Union at the end of the 50s, China suffered from the embargo on the technology and equipment of the two camps of the East and the West at the same time, and the equipment needed for domestic production was almost entirely dependent on self-sufficiency. In the early 70s, when Sino-US relations thawed, China began to be able to obtain some technical equipment from Western countries, and introduced a series of complete sets of equipment, including 1,700 mm rolling mills, 300,000 tons of synthetic ammonia, and 300,000 tons of ethylene, which raised the industrial level to a higher level. However, even in the so-called "honeymoon period between China and the United States", Western countries still maintain an embargo on high-tech equipment against China, first with the Batumi agreement, then with the Wassenaar agreement, not to mention a series of actions after the United States golden commander came to power.

Chinese industrialists, who have rich experience in being "embargoed", are actually very calm about the embargo. If you can buy advanced equipment, of course, you have to buy it, and the people of the Qing Dynasty understood the principle of mastering the skills of the people, but how can people nowadays not understand it? If you can't buy it, then you don't have to be afraid, it's a big deal to tighten your belts and do it yourself. Two bombs and one star are made like this, what's the big deal?

In the matter of natural gas compressors, the Development and Planning Commission actually drilled the tip of the horns. Yuzhong has already made a compressor, but the performance is not as good as that of Western companies such as Seamanz. If the products of Seamanz are cost-effective and the use of imported equipment with more mature technology to ensure the quality of the West-East Gas Transmission Project, it is of course a good choice. But now people are asking for a lot of money, and the cost performance is already very poor, what is the difference between this and the embargo? In this case, why can't we use our own equipment?

As for foolproof, in fact, imported equipment will also fail, and there are also service life constraints, how can there be anything foolproof in this world?

"There is some truth to your idea. Han Hong thought for a while and said slowly, "However, the current situation is still not the same as the foreign embargo after all, because the foreign country did not say that it would not sell to us, but the price was higher than our expectations." Some experts believe that the high price in foreign countries does not mean that they are blackmailing us, but that foreign companies pay more attention to product quality. If the product quality is good, the price will naturally be high. We blindly pursue low prices and give up quality requirements, which is irresponsible to the country and the people. ”

"I'm grass, what kind of expert is this, do you understand what is the pricing mechanism? 80 million pieces of equipment sold abroad to us become 140 million, isn't this called blackmail?" Feng Xiaochen directly burst into a foul mouth.

Wang Zhenbin smiled slightly and said: "Boss, this is the opinion of an expert we had at the meeting last month, this expert, in fact, you also know him, it is your old acquaintance, Professor Gao Lei. ”

"Ha!" Feng Xiaochen couldn't help laughing, he had been making trouble for a long time, it was this benevolent brother. Back then, he put forward the theory of international cooperation, asking China to give up the equipment manufacturing industry and focus on becoming an international assembly factory. As a result, after a period of uproar, his theories were rejected by the top and practical departments, and he fell silent for a while. In recent years, he has gradually become active again, but the "ocean-phobia" complex in his bones has never changed. Feng Xiaochen has also read several articles he published and remarks made when he was interviewed by reporters, and the tone of his remarks is basically that foreigners are omnipotent, China is useless, and China can only kneel to be the right way.

"Your Development and Planning Commission's taste is too heavy, how can you invite such a hypochondriac patient to be an expert?" Feng Xiaochen commented disdainfully.

Professor Gao is also an internationally renowned economist, and when we hold a seminar, we will definitely invite a big expert like him to express his opinions." Besides, he is not the only one who holds a similar view, and his view is still relatively representative. ”

Wang Zhenbin added: "At least six or seven out of ten economists we invited had similar views to Professor Gao, and even if he hadn't been invited, others would have said the same." ”

"Six or seven out of ten?" This time it was Feng Xiaochen's turn to smack his tongue. The circles he usually contacts are mainly engaged in industry, and what everyone talks about most is how to catch up with and surpass the developed countries in the West. He doesn't know that in the circle of economists, Western omnipotence is the mainstream, and you dare to say that China has the ability to catch up with and surpass the West, and believe it or not, people can ask hundreds of alumni to sign a petition for expulsion from your university in a minute?

"Director Han, what is your point of view?" Feng Xiaochen turned to Han Hong and asked.

Han Hong smiled faintly and said, "The opinions of these scholars are just for reference. According to some people's opinions, there is no need for us to engage in industrial policy at all, and there is no need for our Development and Planning Commission to exist. To tell you the truth, at one meeting, a scholar actually proposed that the NDPC should be abolished, and that the existence of the NDPC has hindered China's development. If we listen to them for everything, we don't work. ”

"Well, this scholar is also a scholar. Feng Xiaochen teased.

Han Hong sneered: "Of course you want it, but at the same time, you also have to have brains." Forget it, these words are not worth paying attention to, and the direction of our economic development and self-reliance will not change. Xiao Feng, the idea you just mentioned is good, if foreign countries directly impose an embargo on us, we will also have to carry out the transmission of gas from the west to the east. Since we can't afford imported equipment, we will use domestic equipment, which happens to give domestic equipment a chance. ”