Sail across the sea

Chapter 324 Are You Interested?

Hearing Gao Fan's words, Yu Guorong smiled and said repeatedly:
"That's great! I've known for a long time that Chief Engineer Pan is the most outstanding chemical expert in Shuinan. There must be no problem with anything he develops. Now that Gao Fan has said so, I feel completely relieved."

His words were somewhat awkward. He complimented Pan Yue on his skills, and at the same time he wanted to use Gao Fan to endorse Pan Yue. The subtext was still that he didn't trust Pan Yue enough. However, there was nothing he could do. He didn't trust Shui Huashe's technology enough before, so it was not easy for him to deny it now.

Pan Yue was too lazy to argue with Yu Guorong. After receiving Gao Fan's affirmation, he became modest and said, "There is no problem with putting this design into production now, but there is still a big gap in efficiency compared with imported equipment. I think there are many places that can be improved. Time is too tight and funds are limited..."

"Chief Engineer Pan, you don't need to be too hard on yourself," Gao Fan advised. "We are still a developing country after all. We should first solve the problem of 'whether we have it or not', and then consider the problem of 'whether it is good or not'. As far as the current design is concerned, the biggest advantage is its low cost. The investment per ton of polyester is only 2000 yuan, which fully meets the requirements put forward by Minister Zheng last year."

Pan Yue finally had some smile lines on his face. He sighed and said, "Yes, with this equipment from Director Yu, I can finally give an explanation to Minister Zheng. To be honest, I couldn't sleep well in the past year, for fear that Minister Zheng would send someone to check and I wouldn't be able to produce anything, which would be embarrassing."

"Based on the current progress, when will the equipment be put into production?" Gao Fan asked.

"Maybe before next Spring Festival." Pan Yue said.

"Director Yu, has the problem of raw materials been solved?" Gao Fan asked Yu Guorong again.

Yu Guorong nodded, thought about it, shook his head, and said, "For this matter, we applied to the Planning Commission through the Second Light Industry Bureau of the region. The Planning Commission wants to see the polyester products we produce first before applying to the provincial foreign trade department for the import of raw materials."

Gao Fan was stunned: "Without raw materials, how can you produce finished products?"

Pan Yue said: "The Chemical Industry Department has negotiated with Huanglan Chemical Plant and will first borrow a batch of PTA and EG from Huanglan Chemical Plant to Guoguang Chemical Plant, mainly to test the feasibility of a small polyester plant."

"Gao Fan, do you have time to come and attend the commissioning ceremony before next Spring Festival?" Yu Guorong asked enthusiastically.

Gao Fan shook his head. "That's a stretch. We also have a device that will be put into production before the Spring Festival next year. I came up with the overall design of that device, so I guess I'll have to keep an eye on it."

"I heard from people in your company that you are planning to develop a set of vitamin equipment, right?" said Yu Guorong.

His factory has been producing cleaning agent bottles for Canghua Science and Trade and exporting them to Japan. Over the past six months, he has been to Cangtang several times and had some contact with Xie Qin, Xue Chujiang and others, so he has some understanding of Canghua Science and Trade.

"What vitamins? Why are you dealing with vitamins again?" Pan Yue had never heard of this matter. He just asked casually after hearing the two of them talking about it. He remembered that the last time Gao Fan came to him, he said that he had exported cleaning agents to Japan. How come they are dealing with vitamins now?

"Vitamin C, a set of equipment with an annual output of 5000 tons." Gao Fan replied.

"A vitamin plant with an annual output of 5000 tons? That investment... wouldn't it be hundreds of millions?" Pan Yue blurted out, with some shock in his eyes. He had worked in the Intelligence Department of the Chemical Industry Department for a period of time. Although he was idle all day, he still read a lot of chemical journals subscribed by the Chemical Industry Department. He remembered that he had seen literature on vitamin C production equipment and knew that a 5000-ton plant would cost hundreds of millions.

He felt depressed when he thought about the small polyester plant he had worked hard for half a year to build with an investment of only over 1000 million yuan and the fact that Gao Fan was working on a project with an investment of over million yuan.

"We have adopted some new technologies that can simplify the design, so the investment is not that much. In terms of RMB, it is less than 5000 million," said Gao Fan.

This vitamin C device was financed with a $2500 million loan from the Hatch Group. At the current exchange rate, it was only equivalent to 5000 million RMB. However, considering the underestimation of the exchange rate, the actual value of this loan was about 1 million RMB.

Pan Yue keenly grasped the message of "calculated in RMB" in Gao Fan's words and asked, "Are you saying that your equipment is imported from abroad?"

Gao Fan said: "We are using loans from the United States. Some of the equipment will be ordered from the United States, and some equipment needs to import key components and some raw materials from the United States and then manufacture them domestically."

“Which domestic company should I look for to manufacture it?”

"Of course it's the Maohua machine."

"Does Maohua Machinery have such capabilities?" Pan Yue asked subconsciously, and then said belatedly, "So, you helped Maohua Machinery to form a joint venture with an American company just for this?"

Shuihua Equipment and Maohua Machinery are the largest chemical machinery factories in Shuinan Province and Maolin Province respectively, and they know each other a little. Shuinan's economy is better than Maolin's, so Shuihua Equipment's technical strength has always been stronger than Maohua Machinery. In Pan Yue's heart, he looked down on Maohua Machinery.

However, such a company, which is not as good as Shuihua Machinery, announced a few months ago that it would form a joint venture with an American chemical machinery factory. At an industry conference, Pan Yue met Yang Jinglin, the chief engineer of Maohua Machinery, and asked him about this. Yang Jinglin was very excited and boasted to him that the American factory was willing to provide Maohua Machinery with so many advanced equipment and send technical experts to provide guidance.

Pan Yue was an expert in the business. After listening to Yang Jinglin mention some of the equipment names and the production processes that the US side had promised to transfer, he knew that Maohua Machinery had really found a treasure. If it could digest and absorb these technologies, the level of Maohua Machinery would in turn surpass that of Shuihua Equipment.

"My first contact with the Odin factory in the United States was indeed about this vitamin device. Later, I planned to outsource the manufacturing of this device to Maohua Machinery, so that they could use this opportunity to digest the technology transferred from the United States." Gao Fan explained.

"With the strength of Maohuaji, I hope he won't suffer from indigestion when the time comes." Pan Yue muttered, with a strong hint of sourness in his words.

Gao Fan laughed and said, "Chief Engineer Pan, actually, I came to Shuinan this time for another purpose, which is to hire you as our Canghua Science and Technology Project Consultant to supervise the production process of this vitamin equipment made for us by Maohua Machinery. I wonder if Chief Engineer Pan is interested in this."

(End of this chapter)