Marmon Industrial Company, located in Lyon, France, is a company specializing in the production of advanced industrial film materials. The film products they produce cover various fields such as aviation, automobiles, home appliances, microelectronics, etc. In the past, Marmon Company used a variety of materials to manufacture industrial films.
The raw materials come from local chemical material companies in Europe, but recently, a new type of material that appeared in the East has begun to make the company's executives scratch their heads and become restless.
"Nicole, have you asked clearly whether the Chinese can provide us with enough graphene? I don't want to stop production due to limitations of raw materials after our products are developed." Company President Solem said in his speech
asked Nicole, the purchasing manager, anxiously in the office.
"I have asked many times..." Nicole said timidly, "They have repeatedly assured me that... they have enough."
"What do you mean by enough!" Solem said angrily. "There are rumors that the daily output of graphene of China Daqin Group is only 5 kilograms, and our Mamon Company alone is expected to use at least 10 kilograms every day. Even if they use them
Even if all the production capacity is used to supply us, it will not be enough. Haven't you confirmed this to them?"
Nicole said: "I asked, and the sales department of Daqin Group said that the daily output of 5 kilograms is inaccurate. Their output will be more than this number. However, as for their true production capacity, they
They refused to disclose... By the way, they said they would send someone to communicate with us."
"What do you mean?" Solem asked in surprise.
"What they mean is that they have the ability to expand production capacity, but they need to sign a stable supply contract with us before they can do so. Also, it is not enough for our company to order from them, they need to negotiate with more companies.
The company has contacted us before confirming whether they want to expand production capacity. To get such a guarantee, they need to negotiate with us in person." Nicole said with a helpless attitude.
Given Mamon's prominent position, it is indeed irritating to have people push you around when you want to purchase raw materials from a Chinese company. But this is the rule in the market, and companies with tight resources are
Sir, Marmon Company also has times when it plays a big role in front of its customers. Now it's just about changing positions on offense and defense.
After the Anhe Institute of Materials announced the discovery of graphene and its preparation process, Mamon Company was also invited to send a technical team to Hongze to study this newly emerged material to see if it could be applied to its own products. Initially, the company
An ordinary technical manager was sent with two average assistants. After the technical manager arrived in Hongze, he made a preliminary analysis of the graphene samples provided by the School of Materials and immediately reported to the company. Claims
This material has epoch-making significance. The company must pay special attention to it.
When Solem got the news, he immediately sent CTO Florian and several technical backbones to China. There, Florian met many familiar colleagues, all of whom were well-known in the world.
technical authority in the company, and some companies' products are even competitive with Marmon.
Anhe School of Materials opened its testing laboratory to all technical teams, and also sent some teachers and students who were early participants in graphene research to work with these technical teams. Florian got a lot of inspiration from experts in the School of Materials,
He quickly discovered the application prospects of this new material in Marmont Company's product line. He had to admit that this new material was indeed fascinating. If Marmont Company missed the development and application of this material, it would be
At a disadvantage in the market.
Qin Hai's open test is indeed quite vicious. Generally, it takes several years from the advent of new materials to their widespread application. This time is the running-in period for various downstream companies, and it also provides material manufacturers with
There was a buffer period for the formation and expansion of production capacity. But this time, as soon as Qin Hai released the material, a competition for material application was immediately launched. All large companies came to Hongze, and they were invisibly competing with each other.
A kind of competitive pressure has been formed in time, making every enterprise feel that time is running out.
After completing part of the testing work, Florian returned to France with dozens of grams of samples purchased from Daqin Group, and then began to develop various new products. He and his team developed graphene-based
Raw materials include industrial sealing films, display coatings, aviation anti-corrosion films, etc. These products all have good market prospects and can take Mamon's business to a new level.
Nowadays, the development of various products has come to an end. We are just waiting for enough raw materials to carry out small tests, pilot tests, and then enter formal production. But the problem arises. According to the market expectations, Mamon Company needs
Only about 10 kilograms of graphene raw material can guarantee the supply of products, but Daqin Group has never made it clear how much graphene it can provide to Mamon Company.
"Is there any news from Warren Company?" Solem asked Nicole.
Warren Company is a well-known chemical materials company in Germany and one of the main raw material suppliers of Mamon Company. In terms of scale, Warren Company is equivalent to dozens of Daqin Group, and its technical strength is beyond the reach of Daqin Group.
Lem believes that if Warren Company can produce graphene, then the production capacity problem is not worth worrying about at all. Such an established company can easily expand its production capacity to ten or a hundred times.
Of course, Nicole can think of things that Solem can think of. However, in response to Solem's question, Nicole can only smile and shake his head: "I asked, and Warren Company said that they
They are also paying attention to the market prospects of graphene and have invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the development of the preparation process. However, there has been no major breakthrough so far. According to their estimation, it is necessary to develop a new preparation process and create sufficient production capacity.
It won’t be until two years at the earliest.”
"Haven't the Chinese already launched two preparation processes? Why don't they buy the process patents from the Chinese?" Solem blurted out.
Nicol said: "I heard that the patent licensing fees offered by the Chinese are very high, which will make Warren's products completely uncompetitive, so they would rather develop new preparation processes themselves."
"It's not because of the licensing fee, but because Warren Company is unwilling to pay patent fees to a Chinese company they have never heard of. They have their pride." Solem revealed the secret.
There was nothing wrong with Solem's guess about Warren Company, but he didn't know that Warren Company had not heard of Daqin Group, but had fallen in front of Daqin Group before, and it could be considered that it was a small or medium-sized relationship.
I had a grudge, so I held my breath and had to develop my own technology. To talk about this grudge, it was a few years ago. When dealing with the oil spill on the French beach, the water purification filtration membrane developed by Daqin Group defeated
Warren Company's similar products made Warren Company lose face. Since then, Warren Company has listed Daqin Group as an important potential competitor.
With the technical level of the modern chemical industry, after understanding the basic properties of graphene, it is not difficult to develop a new preparation process, it just takes some time. Warren Company is an old chemical company, and it is even more so in this regard.
With strong technical strength, they can completely solve the problem of graphene preparation. But the problem is that the application of graphene is developing too fast, leaving no time for Warren Company to develop the process. Like Marmon Company, products have already been developed
After it comes out, we are just waiting for the graphene raw materials to be put into the pot. Warren's graphene preparation process is still in a conceptual demonstration stage. How can this be done in time?
"At present, apart from the Chinese, the only one we can count on is Japan's Nitsuka Chemical." Nicol said, "The sales director of Nitsuka Chemical, Yoshiki Morioka, contacted me and said that they can do it within three months.
Later, they provided us with sufficient graphene raw materials, and the price was more than 30% cheaper than that of the Chinese."
"Nitsuka Chemical, well, it seems we can only believe in the abilities of the Japanese." Solem said, "Although their technology is not as good as Warren Company, their efforts are much better than those lazy Germans.
"
Nicole said: "I also have some confidence in Ninzuka Chemical, but they said that their products will be cheaper than the Chinese. I can't believe it. I consulted Mr. Florian, and he said that currently Daqin Group has
The chemical vapor deposition production process is the theoretically lowest cost graphene production process. If Daqin Group's production capacity is not only 5 kilograms per day as they said, but can reach more, then their prices will definitely be higher than now
It is much lower. The new technology developed by the Japanese in a hurry will probably be difficult to compete with them."
Solem chuckled: "This is not something we need to care about. It is very beneficial for us to have the Japanese compete with the Chinese. I think we need to send a clear message to the Chinese and tell them
Their market demand for graphene is very large, which induces them to expand production capacity and compete with the Japanese. In this way, the price of graphene can drop significantly, which is good for our products to enter the market.
.”
"I understand, and that's exactly what I did." Nicole nodded.
The two people were chatting when the office secretary came in and said to Nicole: "Mr. Nicole, three Chinese people came outside and said they had an appointment with you. By the way, they said they were here to discuss graphite.
supply issues.”
"Oh, the Chinese are finally here!" Nicole's eyes lit up, "Invite them to the negotiation room quickly!" (To be continued.)