521 Blockade of the Dirt Eight Road

The chairman of the Japanese Xihu Company is called Osawa Hiko, who is over 60 years old this year, with a short figure, a strong physique, and full of vigorous energy. He has been at the helm of Sihu for 30 years, and during these 30 years, he has hardly had a moment to rest, and has been busy running the company's affairs. In the past 30 years, Xihu Company has maintained a growth trend and gradually ranked among the world's first-class equipment manufacturing enterprises.

Osawa has a keen business vision, as early as more than a decade ago, he saw the potential business opportunities brought about by China's reform and opening up, and decisively made the Chinese market the focus of the company's marketing. He specifically asked a consulting firm to conduct a study, and came to the conclusion that if China can maintain an economic growth rate of about 10%, then by the end of this century, China's industrial equipment market will exceed $200 billion in annual sales, and by around 2020, it is more likely to reach more than $1 trillion.

The entire Western industry has already begun to decline after entering the 80s of the 20th century. With the rise of labor costs, the industry of western developed countries has gradually shifted to developing countries, and the industrial structure of western countries has increasingly shifted to the service industry.

In this case, as a company that mainly produces traditional industrial equipment, it is natural to shift the focus of sales to developing countries, and the Chinese market is the most valuable.

From the mid-80's to the early 0's, the increasing share of Sihu's products in the Chinese equipment market greatly supported the company's growth, allowing it to stand alone in the turbulent times of the Japanese economy. It was because of this sales performance that Osawa made the decision to establish two subsidiaries in China, aiming to increase sales in the Chinese market to more than half of the company's total sales.

However, with two subsidiaries already in place and ready to make a difference, the Chinese market has undergone some unexpected changes. When Matsushita Eizo, the sales director of China, returned to Tokyo to report to the headquarters: Xihu's products have encountered serious obstacles in the Chinese market.

That's right, it's blocking, and it's a defensive war launched by Chinese companies. Because of Xihu's technological lead, Chinese companies are not yet able to carry out a counteroffensive, but their resistance is very tenacious, and Xihu's efforts to rapidly expand its market share are becoming increasingly difficult under this resistance.

"In the past, our competitive advantage was mainly to have CNC machine tool technology, which can meet the needs of Chinese enterprises in the transformation to numerical control. The proportion of China's local machine tool enterprises mastering CNC technology is very low, and CNC machine tools are far from meeting the demand. However, since last year, the situation has changed in a reversal. Matsushita Eizo introduced at a meeting at the headquarters.

"Why, has any company in China begun to put a large number of CNC machine tool products on the market?" Osawa asked.

"Not one." Matsushita Yongsan said, "Rather...... Hundreds, probably hundreds, to be exact. ”

"What? Hundreds of Chinese companies have started to produce CNC machine tools? Osawa asked in surprise. He knows that there are several large enterprises in China that have mastered the technology of CNC machine tools, including Hanhua Machine Tool Company, Xingbei Heavy Machinery, etc., these companies also sell CNC machine tool products in the Chinese market, but they are not enough to pose a serious threat to Xihu Company. China is a very large market, and a few companies are not enough to occupy the entire market.

In the Chinese market, there are many overseas companies, including Japanese companies such as Xihu Company, as well as companies in Germany, Italy, the United States, South Korea and Taiwan, China. These overseas enterprises do not have any special advantages compared with Xihu Company, so they are all at the same level of competition. Sihu has a greater marketing effort than these companies, and has some unique technical features, so it can become a competitive leader among all overseas enterprises. …,

However, once local Chinese companies start to enter the CNC machine tool market, the situation is completely different. Local enterprises have a cost advantage, which is not only reflected in the cost of production and manufacturing, but also in after-sales service. People's engineers are in China, and they can fly from Guangzhou to Harbin with a phone call, compared to Tokyo, which may be closer to Harbin, but can Xihu's engineers fly there so quickly and cheaply?

In addition to cost advantages, local companies also have the advantage of personal connections. China's machine tool users are enterprises in all walks of life, they have the competent authorities in the industry, as well as the regional authorities, this kind of protectionism in the industry and the region, is not just to say. In the past, because China's machine tool companies could not meet the demand for CNC machine tools, officials could not protect if they wanted to. Now Chinese enterprises can produce CNC machine tools by themselves, and the products of whom the enterprises buy are the same.

It is precisely because of the recognition of all these problems that Osawa is so shocked by the situation reported by Matsushita Eizo. Hundreds of Chinese companies have acquired CNC machine tool technology at the same time, which is an extremely serious threat to Xihu.

"Panasonic-kun, have you ever understood how these companies were able to obtain CNC technology in such a short period of time? According to your last report, many Chinese machine tool companies do not even have electronic engineers, and they will not be able to obtain CNC technology for at least 10 years. Osawa asked.

Matsushita Yongsan said: "About this matter, I have inquired, its cause is that China's State Machinery Commission has made a plan to revitalize the machine tool industry, requiring enterprises with CNC technology to transfer CNC technology to other enterprises. Hanhua Heavy Industries, which is the most proficient in CNC technology in China's machine tool industry, took the lead in responding to this request, and soon after, Xingbei Heavy Machinery also responded to this request. With these two leading enterprises taking the lead, some other machine tool companies that have mastered CNC technology will naturally follow suit. ”

"It's as simple as that?" Osawa looked at Matsushita Eizo with disbelief, "The transfer of technology between companies is somewhat reserved, right?" Besides, even if the two companies Hanhua and Xingbei are willing to transfer technology to the outside world, can those companies that receive the technology be able to master it in a short period of time? ”

Matsushita Eizo said: "The Chinese style of doing things makes me very incomprehensible. As far as the companies I know are concerned, they all have CNC engineers from Hanhua Heavy Industries who directly help them develop their technology. China's Huaqing University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and other colleges and universities have also opened training courses for CNC engineers, and professors from these universities go directly to enterprises to teach technical personnel. So, the speed at which technology is gaining popularity is very fast. ”

"This is the consistent style of doing things." A board member named Masamori Sato said in a sigh-like tone. This old man is almost 80 years old, and when he was young, he went to China as a member of the Japanese army invading China, and fought against the Eighth Route Army in North China.

"When we were in North China, we saw this kind of tactic. They broke up some of the battle-hardened soldiers and sent them to various villages to organize guerrilla units. Each soldier is a seed, capable of raising dozens of new soldiers to fight us, and they call this crowd tactic. Zuo Teng Masamori said to everyone with a slightly helpless and somewhat frightened look.

Osawa can imagine such a scenario, and in fact, the speed of industrial technology diffusion can be done quickly, provided that the party that owns the technology is willing to transfer technology to other companies without reservation. If, as Matsushita Yongzo said, Hanhua Heavy Industries directly sent engineers to other enterprises to preside over technological transformation, then it is not impossible to produce several Hanhua in a short period of time. "However, even if these companies have obtained CNC technology, will their products be able to reach the level of our products in a short time?" Even if it is Hanhua Heavy Industries, there is still a big gap between its technology and ours, right? Osawa said.

Matsushita said with a bitter face: "The chairman's judgment is very correct, but the problem is that Chinese companies do not need such high technology. For example, there is a company called Su Forging Machine Tool Factory, which produces shearing machines and plate rolling machines, which has some overlap with our product line.

Since last year, they have carried out technological transformation and launched more than a dozen CNC shearing machines and plate rolling machines. We have compared the level of automatic control and accuracy of their products, which is only equivalent to the level we had 10 years ago, but the price of these products is only one-third of the price of our current products. For customers, the defects in data technology are not worth paying attention to at all, and the requirements for accuracy are not so high, so they are naturally more willing to choose Su Forging's products. ”

Speaking of Su Forging's shearing machine, Matsushita Yongzo really felt helpless. He personally went to see the machine, known as a CNC machine tool, the final scale fine-tuning part, and actually had to find a worker to turn the handle to realize, Nima, is there such a CNC machine tool? This is simply an insult to the word CNC.

However, people are cheap. Didn't you say that the handle is bad? People sell a shearing machine and send five handles, just to be angry with you. Su forging not only machine tools are cheap, even all the accessories are much cheaper than the parts of Xihu company, so those chemical container companies, what shipyards, are willing to buy Su Forging's shearing machine, can you tell customers that they are stupid?

The example that Zuo Teng gave just now is really right, the Chinese engaged in industry, it is really the same method of fighting the Tubalu war in the past, the soil has to get rid of the slag, but the indiscriminate punch to kill the teacher, Xihu Company in the face of this kind of crowd tactics, there is really no way at all.