Countercurrent 1982

Chapter 1593 Defeat
Although Duan Yun had already made some mental preparations before coming to Jinbei Bakery, he was still surprised by the scene in front of him after he came here.

Compared with the 130 Truck Factory, the Jinbei Bakery Factory is smaller in scale, with three workshops side by side, covering an area of ​​about 40 mu.

It is hard for outsiders to imagine that such a small automobile factory can produce the famous Jinbei van and Sea Lion van. However, when entering the workshop, all the truth is clear at a glance.

Compared with the workshop of the 130 truck factory, the workshop of the van is very clean and spacious. The reason is also very simple, because in the huge workshop, in addition to the two overhead cranes for lifting and transporting goods, there are also electric welding machines stacked neatly on both sides of the workshop. You can hardly see any other equipment. There are more than a dozen workstations painted on the ground, each of which has a van being assembled, and the workers are welding the car.

As a car project where 99.5% of the parts need to be imported, Haishi Motors imports almost all Toyota parts, the only exception is the car shell, to be precise, a part of the shell, only the front part is a subsidiary of Jinbei Automobile Factory Made by the company, all other components are imported.

Before the reform and opening up, cars were an absolute luxury, and ordinary people couldn't afford them at all. Vehicles imported from abroad were mainly used for official vehicles.

From the founding of the People's Republic of China until the 70s, China imported a lot of GAZ, Volga, Warsaw and other cars from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe for special vehicles for leaders at all levels.

Although there is a blessing of socialist brotherhood, the quality of these cars is really not flattering. Due to the rough craftsmanship, the chassis will make a rhythmic hoarse sound when driving, which has become a common impression of Chinese people on Eastern European cars.

Later, when Sino-US relations were normalized in 72, the Japanese responded quickly. As soon as Nixon left, Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka came to China, which directly contributed to the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Japan.

As a part of showing the friendship between China and Japan, China agreed to import a batch of cars from Japan. This is the first time that a large number of advanced cars have been imported from Western countries since the founding of New China.

The Japanese agreed happily and took out their world-renowned housekeeping baby-the Toyota Crown.

Japanese cars caught the eyes of the Chinese people at that time. Compared with the cars of the socialist brothers, they were full of advantages, such as streamlined shape and central locking of car air conditioners. The most important thing was that the workmanship was much better.

Soon after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, Toyota cars came in handy. In order to solve the shortage of cars at the Canton Fair in 1973, Premier Zhou personally introduced 200 Toyota Crowns to undertake the reception work of the Canton Fair.

Therefore, the Japanese Three Musketeers: Crown, Crora, and Datsun, naturally became the official car choice after 1972, and those cars from the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries left the roads of China for a while.

However, before 1985, China’s auto import tariff was 120-150%, and an 80% import adjustment tax was added on this basis, which was nearly three times the original price, that is, a car worth 10 yuan abroad. Imported to China, it becomes 30 yuan.

Tariffs led to super high premiums, exacerbating the shortage of foreign exchange reserves, so that in 1987, the country suspended the import of mid-to-high-end cars from the West as official vehicles.

However, since the mid-80s, China's automobile supply has been in an embarrassing state in the face of the growing automobile demand of the domestic masses.

Although Shanghai Volkswagen was established, because the joint venture car has just been established not long ago, the production capacity is seriously insufficient, and it cannot meet the strong domestic demand at all.

On the other hand, the quality of domestically produced cars is too poor, and the performance is difficult to meet the requirements of domestic consumers. Therefore, the sales of domestically produced cars are bleak. Except for some trucks such as Jiefang, almost no one cares about domestically produced buses. Only some government departments make designated purchases.

It was also at that time that car smuggling began to become rampant, especially in the Hainan smuggling incident in 1984. Since the central government authorized Hainan to use foreign exchange to directly import industrial and agricultural production materials, some people took advantage of the loophole and used precious foreign exchange A large number of cars were imported, so that the whole of Hainan fell into a frenzy of reselling cars on the island. At the craziest time, there were more than 800 car companies in Hainan, from directly affiliated agencies to kindergartens, and they used approval documents to arbitrage.

Although the smuggling case in Hainan was settled in the end, domestic consumers still had a strong demand for imported automobile products, and this gave Shenyang Automobile Factory an opportunity.

Although in the mid-to-late 80s, the phenomenon of large-scale smuggling no longer existed, the way of car smuggling was changed and became another form.

At that time, the import of complete vehicles required government approval, but if it was the import of parts, the restrictions would be much less. Although the price of imported auto parts is not cheap, nearly three times the tariff is still reserved for some domestic car manufacturers. It opened up profit margins and let them discover a new way to make money.

At that time, many domestic automobile manufacturers imported auto parts through coastal cities, and Xiamen was the main entrance. Xiamen Yuanfang Foreign Trade Co., Ltd. accounted for more than 80% of Xiamen's entire import and export trade volume, and automobiles were also one of their key products. The charges for business items are also quite reasonable, which makes many automobile factories import auto parts from abroad through this foreign trade company.

To put it bluntly, these so-called auto parts imported from Xiamen are actually dividing a whole car into 2 or 3, cutting from the front or roof, and importing them as auto parts when declaring customs. After going to manufacturers all over the country, you only need to perform simple welding and replacement of the shell, and put your own brand on it, and it will become a brand new "domestic car".

And Shenyang's Hiace van project is also operating in this way. A few years ago, after receiving funds from the stock offering, Zhao Xiyou saw the current business opportunities in the domestic auto market. After repeated research, he finally launched the Hiace van project.

Thanks to the Hiace van project, Shenyang Jinbei Automobile Factory has indeed made a lot of money. The highest annual profit was 2000 million yuan. However, since the signing of the Plaza Agreement between the United States and Japan, the yen has appreciated rapidly, and this has also led to sales of Hiace vans. The sharp decline, with the maximum sales of less than 2000 vehicles per year, the return funds are not enough to buy parts with rapidly rising prices, so that in the end, there is no money for the purchase, but because the order contract has to be fulfilled, Shenyang Jinbei is now still paying every year. To pay 16.5 million yuan, plus a [-]% dividend, has led to the current Shenyang Jinbei Automobile Factory on the verge of collapse...

(End of this chapter)