Shen Huai didn't have time to meet Cheng Yi, so he didn't make a phone call after arriving in Yanjing; after receiving a call from Sun Yalin, knowing that she was going to pass through Yanjing the day after tomorrow, Shen Huai didn't have time to wait for her, but just told her about Song Hongjun's itinerary, and asked her to accompany the investors to Meixi Town for inspection after meeting Song Hongjun in Yanjing.

The next morning, Shen Huai directly met with Zhao Zhimin and his assistant from the General Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and flew straight to Birmingham.

The new factory is a second-hand production line imported from West Omins Industrial Group, which has a lot of room for technical transformation.

Zhao Zhimin is the person in charge of the technical project of the new Meigang plant designated by the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and is also the vice president of the Fourth Branch of the Yanjing General Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

Zhao Zhimin studied and worked in Birmingham, England in his early years, and returned to China in 88 to enter the General Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and has been engaged in the research of metal smelting engineering.

Zhao Zhimin seems to be a person who focuses on research work and has a rigorous personality, and Shen Huai's schedule during this time is very tight, and several contacts with Zhao Zhimin are limited to the exchange of technical transformation plans.

Of course, Zhao Zhimin is over forty years old, and he has always been puzzled that such a young Shen Huai can preside over a medium-sized steel company.

Maybe there is still a little bit of distrust, after several contacts, Zhao Zhimin has always been careful to keep a distance from Shen Huai, in addition to fulfilling his duties, he has no intention of having further contact with Shen Huai. Having eaten with each other twice, Shen Huai had a very good impression of Zhao Zhimin in addition to agreeing with Zhao Zhimin's technical ability.

This time I flew to Birmingham, from the airport waiting for the flight to the time I landed, it took 12 hours.

Zhao Zhimin also considered Mei Gang's tight budget, and saw that Shen Huai did not have any accompanying personnel when he traveled, and he handled all the big and small matters by himself, and took the initiative to ask to take economy class.

It's not easy for everyone to rest in the narrow seats of the plane, and they mainly sit there and chat.

In addition to the technical transformation plan, Zhao Zhimin is actually a very talkative person, from the gap between domestic and foreign metallurgical technology and industrial development, talking about the economy at home and abroad, urban construction, and domestic and foreign customs, everything is discussed.

Although Zhao Zhimin focused on the research of metal smelting engineering after returning to China, a figure of his level has a very wide range of attention and knowledge, and his ability is also very comprehensive.

Shen Huai is also well-informed, and the things he studied in Meigang before were very miscellaneous, from metallurgical industry to industrial management, to applied economics, all of which took his heart to learn, and he and Zhao Zhimin chatted happily on the plane, from getting on the plane to landing, their mouths barely stopped.

Zhao Zhimin's assistant, Han Wenji, who is studying for a doctorate in the General Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, listened to them chat all the way, and couldn't help but sigh when he got off the plane: "I have been with Dean Zhao for two years, and I have never seen President Zhao so talkative......

Shen Huai laughed, and Zhao Zhimin had a feeling of hating each other late and being like the old man.

Shen Huai originally asked Pan Cheng to arrange a single room for both him and Zhao Zhimin in Birmingham, but after arriving in Birmingham, he had to talk about technical transformation during the day, see the dismantling of equipment, and negotiate with the British representative about technology introduction and support, and then directly live in a room with Zhao Zhimin at night, and then talk about the sea and the sky.

Zhao Zhimin only lived in Birmingham for a week, communicated with West Youmings, found out some technical details of this steelmaking line, and then returned to China.

Before Zhao Zhi left Birmingham, Shen Huai put forward one thing that he had been thinking about in his heart: "I have long hoped that Meigang can set up a special research institute to study the steelmaking process to a deeper extent, so as to narrow the gap between Meigang and world-class enterprises in terms of technical level." However, there has been no suitable person to take charge of this work. At this time, it was brought up, which was a little abrupt, but if I didn't ask, I was a little unwilling, is Dean Zhao willing to give in to Meigang?"

Before Yanjing got on the plane, if Shen Huai opened his mouth to make this request, Zhao Zhimin would refuse without thinking about it. Among the iron and steel companies that have asked him to preside over the research and development work in the past over the years, Meigang can be said to be the most inconspicuous one, and it is not too attractive no matter how you look at it.

Although the research funds of the General Institute of Mining and Metallurgy are very tight, he saw that the domestic iron and steel enterprises generally attach less importance to scientific research, and felt that it was better to do something by staying in the General Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and he had not made up his mind to join any company.

It's just that at this time, Zhao Zhimin hesitated and couldn't make a decision right away.

"If you are worried that after you leave the General Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Han Wenji's studies will be interrupted and you will have to change the tutor and change the subject, Meigang can come forward to coordinate with the mining and metallurgy to move the subject to Meigang's research institute. Zhongyāng proposed that high-tech talents should be trained in enterprises, and the Ministry of Science and Technology has also begun to promote the pilot work of enterprises to build postdoctoral mobile stations. As long as the mine is willing to build the first batch of postdoctoral mobile workstations in Meigang, Meigang is willing to do the work. You have other conditions, such as the treatment after arriving in Meixi, housing and the job transfer of your lover, as well as who needs to be recommended to form a research institute, the selection of topics and research funds, etc., you have put forward. As long as I can agree, I can solve it, and I will help you solve it......" Shen Huai perseveredly persuaded.

"Well, when I return to Yanjing, I will seriously consider your suggestion. Zhao Zhimin said.

The level of domestic metallurgical industry and technological development lags behind foreign countries too much. Previously, Meigang was concerned about having enough to eat, mainly focusing on factory management, but at this time, it needs to consider tracking and developing world-class steelmaking technology and strive to shorten the gap in this regard.

Even if Zhao Zhimin was ultimately reluctant to work in Meigang, Shen Huai still hoped that he could recommend suitable candidates.

After sending Zhao Zhimin and his assistant Han Wenji on the plane, Shen Huai also flew to Liverpool with Pan Cheng to meet Zhou Zhibai, who came to the UK to discuss business.

After Pan Cheng arrived in the UK, he had been stationed for more than four months and had not returned once.

When he first came over, Pan Chengying stumbled and lived in Birmingham for more than four months, and he spoke in an authentic Birmingham accent that was even more slippery than Shen Huai, but he still thought in his heart that in two months, the equipment would be dismantled and loaded on the ship, and he would rush back to Meixi as soon as possible.

Zhou Zhibai went to Liverpool this time to discuss the export of rebar with local steel traders.

Although the capital injection of Zhongxin and Hongji is foreign exchange, which can offset a considerable part of the cost of introducing second-hand steelmaking wire and technology introduction, the additional foreign exchange quota for application is not particularly large.

However, the current scrap recycling work in China is relatively imperfect, coupled with the limited total domestic steel stock, the domestic electric furnace steel production line has been more in the past two years, resulting in a rapid rise in scrap prices, so after the establishment of the new plant, Shen Huai considered strengthening the import of scrap steel from overseas.

When it comes to total steel stocks, although the population of the UK is much smaller than that of China, the total amount of steel accumulated in society and the level of scrap recycling are much higher than those of China.

However, the import of scrap charge from overseas requires the use of foreign exchange, and the current domestic foreign exchange management is very strict.

Today, Pengyue imports scrap steel from overseas, using about 10 million US dollars of foreign exchange every year, which is already a matter that Wu Haifeng painstakingly promoted when he was in power.

After the completion of the new Meigang plant, the supply of charge material must be guaranteed to be relatively cheap, and the amount of scrap imported from overseas may rise to hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

At present, the total amount of the country's foreign exchange reserves is only more than $70 billion, and the acceleration in the past two years will increase by $7 or 8 billion per year.

The most feasible compromise is for Meigang to increase overseas steel exports and earn foreign exchange to offset the use of foreign exchange.

Although China has a strict management system for the use of foreign exchange, it is much easier for an enterprise to apply for the use of hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign exchange if it exports more than 100 million US dollars of foreign exchange every year. It really doesn't work, scrap imports and steel exports are all transited by Song Hongjun's company in Hong Kong, which can directly offset most of the foreign exchange consumption.

As long as there are no technical problems, Meigang exports steel to the UK, and the profit margin is higher than that in China.

The labor cost of the steel produced by Meigang is only 80 yuan per ton of steel, while the labor cost of Western European countries is extremely high, and the labor cost per ton of steel is as high as 150 US dollars - not to mention the impact of other aspects, in the construction steel with relatively poor technical content, only the labor price difference, in addition to offsetting the cost of shipping, tariffs and other aspects, there is still a huge profit margin.

However, due to the serious shortage of the domestic steel market, most of the domestic iron and steel enterprises are not very worried about sales, and the domestic overseas market is not familiar with the overseas market and the procedures and various restrictions on the export of steel overseas are complex and cumbersome, the vast majority of domestic steel enterprises have no relevant experience, so the export of steel is not strong.

Song Hongjun's trading company in Hong Kong mainly imports steel from overseas to sell in China, and he did not say before that he thought of organizing steel exports to overseas in China - Peng Yue did this work first.

After meeting with steel traders in Liverpool, Shen Huai brought Zhou Zhibai to Birmingham, hoping that Pengyue and Meigang could have further contact with steel traders in Birmingham.

Birmingham is an inland city in the United Kingdom, there is no convenience of sea transportation, and Birmingham's steel industry is saturated, saturated to the point of drastically reducing production capacity - Zhou Zhibai has little interest in organizing steel from China to Birmingham to sell, and profit margins will obviously be squeezed a lot.

"Sometimes it's better to lower the profits for a while, but you can't give up the long-term vision," Shen Huai advised Zhou Zhibai, Meigang has no experience in overseas import and export trade, and the relevant work still needs Peng Yue to take the lead, saying, "The economy of Birmingham is in a period of industrial transformation, and the economic structure is turning to commerce, finance, service and tourism, and the living space of traditional manufacturing enterprises in Birmingham is getting narrower and narrower." However, these manufacturing companies are still very advanced for China. So, this time, we not only have to dismantle the equipment and transport it back, but also establish the connection between people and things, technology and capital as much as possible. The current contact is preliminary, but when we have accumulated enough trust, that is, what we are doing in Donghua to be attractive enough to them, we can invite Birmingham's traditional industrial capital forces to invest in Donghua......"

Zhou Zhibai had to admit that Shen Huai looked at the problem at a higher level than him, thought more deeply than him, and no longer stuck to the gains and losses of one city and one pool, but planned everything from a higher industrial height.