In mid-May 1991, a container truck passed through Shenzhen Luohu Port from Hong Kong and entered the mainland without undergoing any customs inspection.
Inside the car were more than twenty simply sealed wooden boxes. Each wooden box weighed two to three hundred kilograms and was extremely heavy. The border inspectors did not interfere with the goods in the car at all, and a company of armed policemen came to move them in person.
In the cargo yard near the port, all the wooden boxes were opened one by one, and specialized technicians came to count them.
The box was filled with shiny high-end machine tools and hundreds of thousands of chips piled randomly.
Thousands of knives are registered one by one, and all are numbered. As for the chips, they are too complicated, and the model must be identified to facilitate transportation and subsequent use.
"Why is it such a mess?"
Zhou Qingfeng drove over in person, and Xiao Jinlang followed him to ask. The technicians who came to inspect the goods frowned. The tools were easy to talk about, but the cleaning of the chips was really troublesome.
"Alas... just think of them as scraps. Otherwise, I won't be able to get them." Zhou Qingfeng said half-truthfully, "Isn't that what scraps are like?"
Xiao Jinlang thought to himself, "You brought the chips embargoed abroad as scrap? This is a way, and it is easy to deceive the supervision."
Chips are also scrapped.
In later generations of Shenzhen Huaqiangbei, the chips were differentiated into black chips and white chips. White chips are those that have undergone complete testing and formal procedures before leaving the factory, and their quality is guaranteed.
Black chips are ‘scrap products’ during the testing and packaging process. However, some scrap products can also be used. After all, wafer cutting and packaging will allow a certain scrap rate.
If the scrap rate can be reduced without reporting it, then the corresponding goods can be sold privately for money.
Because the price of black films is low and profits are high, its gray industry chain has even spawned practitioners of secondary testing. They try to pick out the usable ones from the black films.
There are many small electronics factories in Dongguan that specialize in using low-priced black chips. Among them, memory chips have the best sales, and many people make a fortune from this.
This is off topic.
Zhou Qingfeng used a similar excuse to fool Xiao Jinlang.
It is impossible to rely on a small number of technical personnel to complete the selection of hundreds of thousands of chips. Everyone can only ask their superiors for instructions and choose another location to carry out the work.
Zhou Qingfeng completed the first batch of deliveries and followed Xiao Jinlang to Guangzhou and flew back to Tianyang.
This time when I returned to Tianyang, everyone in the city came to welcome me with smiles. They held a banquet to express their gratitude to President Zhou of ‘Shengguang Machinery’ who actively invested in Tianyang.
Before the banquet started, a small press conference was held, at which Zhou Qingfeng signed an agreement of intent with the city.
Mainly the second phase of clean-up and rectification of state-owned non-performing assets, as well as the joint-stock reform of many state-owned enterprises in the city, "Shengguang" invested 51% in foreign exchange, and the development of Tianyang agricultural resources, etc.
At the end of several agreements, there is a rough investment amount, which adds up to a total of 300 million Hong Kong dollars. This is a typical example of "Holy Light" using small things to make big gains, swallowing up a large amount of state-owned assets.
Although it was only a contract of intention, seeing Zhou Qingfeng actually sign it made all the heads and bank staff present smile.
It was unimaginable in the past that the little Tianyang could obtain such a large amount of foreign exchange. The real money falling into his pocket was a real political achievement. The leaders present wished they could kiss Zhou Qingfeng.
But Zhou Qingfeng's heart was not at the banquet. He claimed to be tired and tired and left early. However, he pulled Xiao Jinlang over and asked: "Where is the machine tool I want?"
Originally, China wanted a nine-axis, five-linkage CNC machining center. However, if this machine was not directly imported as a complete machine, it would be very difficult to assemble the sub-systems.
The ministries and commissions finally recognized the reality and decided to acquire more tools and components that could immediately significantly improve the performance of existing machining capabilities and electronic products.
After all, you have to eat food one bite at a time.
In return, Zhou Qingfeng wants to produce a thousand three-axis, two-linkage CNC machine tools domestically. Even if he provides key components, they can only assemble them domestically.
Regarding Zhou Qingfeng's eagerness, Xiao Jinlang smiled bitterly and said: "Tianyang Machinery Factory will be restructured and 51% of the shares will be sold to you.
This factory originally had some machining capabilities, but after discussion among several ministries and commissions, it was decided that several domestic machine tool factories would support a group of technicians and scientific researchers so that this factory could have machine tool assembly capabilities."
Oh..., the wool comes from the sheep!
Let me spend money to buy a factory and produce the machine tools I want later.
People in ministries are really good at calculating things.
Zhou Qingfeng has taken control of Tianyang Machinery Factory and will definitely make further investments. The city and even the ministry will also take advantage of the opportunity to own a new machine tool factory.
But Tianyang Machinery Factory originally only provided supporting equipment to other large factories in the province. The factory's equipment was outdated, its technology was backward, its products were not competitive at all, and even its employees were all old, weak, sick and disabled.
If Tianyang Machinery Factory was transformed into a machine tool processing factory, Zhou Qingfeng was sure that all the benefits would be kept in his hometown. But after thinking about it, he shook his head and said, "No, we can't do this."
"Why?" Xiao Jinlang was very surprised. He felt that the ministry was actually showing favor to Zhou Qingfeng, "This is also good for Tianyang."
"Tianyang's industrial foundation is too poor, really too bad." Zhou Qingfeng still shook his head. Only those who have truly engaged in industry will understand the importance of the industrial chain.
"Shengguang Machinery" worked very hard to build a motorized tricycle, and it took half a year to achieve something. If you go to a machine tool factory, you don't know how long it will take you to achieve output.
Forcibly launching a project in a place without an industrial chain will result in half the effort with half the effort. Time is money now. Zhou Qingfeng shook his head and rejected Xiao Jinlang's idea.
"Can't you find a ready-made machine tool factory to produce it for me?"
"Of course you can. If you use foreign exchange to purchase domestically, there are actually several machine tool factories trying to grab your assembly order. It's just because there are so many people trying to grab it that it makes it difficult for the ministry to make decisions."
"Then let's open the bidding."
What......?
Zhou Qingfeng explained: "I have thought about it for a long time, really for a long time. There are so many industrial categories, what should the 'Holy Light' do? What can it do?
The advisory group of veteran comrades you helped me convene wrote a lot of materials for me. I have been reading them over and over recently, and there are a lot of inspirations. The more I read, the more I feel that my previous thinking was too narrow.
The domestic market is huge, and this is a treasure. There are many domestic companies, and this is also a treasure.
The advantage of ‘Holy Light’ is that there is no shortage of capital and technology, so I should integrate it from a higher perspective instead of duplicating investment and setting up a separate business.”
Xiao Jinlang listened thoughtfully, and he seemed to have some clues about Zhou Qingfeng, so he asked: "You... want to spread money again?"
Eh......
Lao Xiao, how can you say this?
What is throwing money away? What I call it is clearly long-term investment.
Make the cake bigger and benefit more people. After all, there is a big market with a population of over one billion. If you work hard, you will definitely gain something.
"Let's find a few willing machine tool factories to bid. I will provide the core components and guarantee the sales, and the machine tool factory will be responsible for the assembly. As long as the finished product is of high quality, we can order for 10,000 units, let alone 1,000 units."
Zhou Qingfeng's words made Xiao Jinlang's scalp numb. The latter saw a very feasible path.
According to the original history, the domestic manufacturing industry developed along a similar path. The home appliance industry is like this, the communications industry is like this, the automotive industry is like this, and even the semiconductor industry is also following this path.
In the color TVs, refrigerators and washing machines of the 1990s, the core picture tubes, compressors, and even motors were imported from abroad.
Public intellectuals always laugh at the fact that China can only build a shell, but in the beginning it was indeed only a shell.
Sometimes even the shell can't be made well.
Now the core components that cost foreign exchange to purchase from abroad will be provided by Zhou Qingfeng, and the sales will be taken care of by him. For the enterprise, it just needs to produce as much as possible.
When you make money, you will slowly engage in import substitution, gradually increase the localization rate, and move from low-end to high-end one bite at a time.
Why not learn from the proven successful experience?