Chapter 548: Cooperation with a New American Home Appliance Giant

Chapter 548: Cooperation with a New American Home Appliance Giant

Chapter 548: Cooperation with a New American Home Appliance Giant

The characteristic of the stock market and the housing market is that the more people participate, the more money everyone makes. As long as there is no bear market, everyone wins. This is completely opposite to the industrial market, where the more people participate, the more everyone will lose everything.

This is also the reason why many industrial powers have gradually become financially empty. Working in industry means working hard but not making any money, and being bothered by issues such as trade unions, workers, and environmental protection. Finance is much simpler. As long as you don’t make the wrong investment, you can make money without doing anything.

Therefore, there is a reason why the mainland's A-share market could not rise in the past. Because finance and industry are naturally opposed, in order to stabilize industry, finance must be suppressed. This is a national policy. Otherwise, no matter how good the financial stocks of some countries are, and the top ten listed companies in the world are all there, what does it matter? A bag of bearings costs $9, and tens of billions of dollars are invested in high-speed railways that are only built for a few kilometers. What is the meaning of the trillions of dollars in market value? There is no way to convert it into real industrial value.

Of course, from a national perspective, financial prosperity is not a good thing, but for individuals, especially time travelers, financial prosperity is like sweeping gold with a broom;

However, the funds earned from the financial market and real estate production still need to be transformed into industry, otherwise they will be like rootless duckweed.
Today, Yang Wendong has a certain influence in some countries around the world, entirely relying on huge industrial production capacity and even infrastructure, which is much stronger than finance.

After staying at the Far East Exchange for noon, Yang Wendong arranged some matters for Fang Xianming and then stopped paying attention to it;
In the future, as long as it is not a future giant company going public, there is no need for him to participate in person. The current operation is just equivalent to investing in the Hang Seng Index. In this era, there is no way to directly purchase the Hang Seng Index, but purchasing a large number of real estate company stocks is equivalent to indirectly obtaining the double benefits of the Hang Seng Index and the real estate market.

On December 12, Yang Wendong arrived at North Point, Hong Kong. Many people were walking on the street, many of them wearing factory work clothes.

Su Yiyi smiled and said, "There are so many workers here, and their clothes are not very dirty, right?"

Yang Wendong said: "Yes, in fact, the higher-end the factory, the higher the cleanliness level, unless it is some special heavy industry."

Traditional textile, injection molding, and hardware industries are all synonymous with dirty and messy conditions. Workers exchange their health and even their fingers for money. In the 90s, there was a saying in the mainland that a certain province in the southeast could exchange an average of one finger for a certain amount of foreign exchange.

As for mid- to high-end industries, because of their high profits and high demand for products, they must improve the environment and labor quality, thus also improving the working environment of employees, just like the air-conditioned constant temperature rooms in electronics factories in the past. Although the main reason is for the equipment, the workers also benefit from it.

Soon the two arrived at RCA's factory. The second largest shareholder and local tycoon arrived. Naturally, the American management representative accompanied Wang Zhiqun and others to personally greet them, and then took the group on a tour around the entire factory.

Although the TV factory is of high value, it is not very dangerous, and Yang Wendong has basically been exposed to all the processes;

When it comes to the final packaging process, many pallets are being packed and then directly sent into containers.

Wang Zhiqun said: "Mr. Yang, now all of our company's export products to Europe and the United States have begun to use container transportation. This model directly reduces the transportation cost by more than half, and we no longer have to worry about the goods being scratched and lost on the road."

The biggest advantage of containers is that the products in the boxes are fixed together by nails, straps, and air cushions, and then the containers are fixed on the ship. This is much more convenient than transporting them one by one into the ship's cargo hold and then finding ways to fix them yourself. Everything can be planned.

"Yes, it's not just yours. Changxing Industrial and Watsons are the same. Just stuff the container in." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "This one change alone can greatly reduce our costs. In the next few years, our orders will definitely increase on a large scale."

Other regions in Asia were just beginning to develop, and when container terminals were not yet popular, Hong Kong and Singapore still had an advantage, and that was good for a few years.

"Yes." Wang Zhiqun also said.

Yang Wendong put on his mask again and said, “We need to strictly control the glue and compounds here. They cannot be poured into the sewer at will. In addition, we need to find a way to directly discharge these odors. We need to install a suction device at each workstation.

There are many residents near North Point, and it is on Hong Kong Island, so the situation is much stricter than in Tuen Mun, so we must keep it under control.”

Although large electrical appliance factories are different from chemical factories and do not produce chemical products, they require many compounds in the production process, such as special glues, heavy metals, special powders, welding gases, etc. The pollution in Taoyuan City in Taiwan in the past was also caused by these.
Whether for the sake of his own reputation or the future interests of the land under his feet, he will never allow pollution to occur in Hong Kong factories. He would rather spend more money to deal with it early so that the future impact can be minimized and the benefits can be maximized.

Wang Zhiqun replied, "Don't worry, Mr. Yang. I manage this very strictly. In our contract with RCA, management, technology, and quality are mainly the responsibility of RCA, while finance, environmental protection, and personnel are supervised by both parties. I have also invited several foreigners from Europe and Japan who are responsible for the environment to keep an eye on this."

"Okay, I will find a third-party inspection agency. I hope nothing goes wrong." Yang Wendong nodded and said.

Changxing Group arranges third parties to randomly check environmental issues in not only this joint venture factory, but also its own factories in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and even Europe every year, so as to prevent subordinates from destroying the environment for KPI and bringing bad luck to themselves in the end.

Of course, it is not just the environment. Other aspects such as finance, senior management quality survey, employee satisfaction, welfare, corruption, etc. will be randomly checked. This is also to let the boss Yang Wendong know the situation of his subordinates in time, and at the same time it can also give all branch managers a deterrent, similar to the ancient supervision, but because of technology and productivity, the frequency is naturally higher. Wang Zhiqun smiled and said, "No problem, Mr. Yang's investigation is always welcome."

Yang Wendong nodded and asked, "How is the localization of the supply chain going?"

It doesn't really matter how much money the joint venture with RCA makes. According to the mainland's experience in cooperation in the automotive field in the past, the lion's share will most likely be taken by foreign capital, especially since the market and technology are in their hands. It would be unfair to split them equally. If Yang Wendong is in a strong position, the result will be the same.
The supply chain is the core that we can control. By leveraging the powerful advantages of RCA's localized production, we can strengthen the local industrial chain. As long as these are in our hands, we can assemble a new color TV of our own at any time in the future, which is completely easy.

Wang Zhiqun said: "At present, except for the light source and some parts and materials of the cathode ray tube, other components have begun to be gradually produced in Hong Kong. At most, the quality may not be very stable. RCA's US headquarters has high quality requirements in this regard, and many people are still going through the review process;
Some even think that the Americans are deliberately making things difficult for us and want to keep importing parts from the United States.”

"There are definitely challenges, but only through challenges can one grow. If you want to learn technology, this is the price to pay." Yang Wendong said, "On the other hand, we won't just give Hong Kong technology to Singapore or Malaysia, right? We also hope that many parts are produced in Hong Kong and then sent to Singapore for assembly, right?"

The biggest benefit of foreign investment overseas for local companies is that many parts are still produced locally;

The same was true for mainland cars in the past. For example, many parts of Volkswagen were designated for production in Germany. This also resulted in many high-quality towns in Germany, where each town was supported by an auto parts factory. Even though the products had little technical content and could be produced in mainland China, they were sold at high prices, thus creating a better life in Germany. In essence, they were sucking blood from the mainland.

After 2020, with the rise of electric vehicles led by BYD, Volkswagen of Germany no longer has checks from the mainland. Then, from Volkswagen to ZF, there will be large-scale layoffs in the entire automotive industry chain. It is time for Germany to return to the life it deserves.

Wang Zhiqun nodded and said, "Yes, but if RCA wants to reduce costs, it can only promote localization in Hong Kong, otherwise the costs will not be reduced at all."

"Keep working hard." Yang Wendong smiled and then asked, "The Hong Kong government has designated North Point as a home appliance industrial park, and many electronics factories have begun to move here, but the scale is too small;
Didn’t we negotiate before to introduce suitable white goods industry from the United States? Is there any progress in this regard? "

There is almost no market in Hong Kong, and it is difficult to expand overseas. Although there have been some achievements, they are still too slow, which has also led to the slow development of the local industrial chain.

If we want to develop rapidly, we have to learn from the mainland in our previous life and introduce foreign-funded factories.

Wang Zhiqun said: "Mr. Yang, there is a Whirlpool company in the United States. Have you heard of it?"

"Whirlpool? I've heard of it. It seems that they provided the refrigeration and garbage disposal equipment for the US moon landing this year." Yang Wendong replied.

In 1969, a major event in human society was the Apollo moon landing. Although Yang Wendong felt that the authenticity of this was very questionable, since so many countries, even hostile countries, did not come forward to testify, he should just treat it as true.
All the industries that can participate in this matter can be said to be elites in the industry, and Whirlpool is one of them;

Even this company was well-known in the mainland for a while in its previous life, but was later strangled by companies such as Midea, Gree and Haier.

Wang Zhiqun said: "As early as two years ago, our Rongyao company's motors became the supplier of electric fans and refrigerators for Whirlpool's US factory. Later, through gradual contacts and RCA's investment in Hong Kong, Whirlpool also intended to invest and build a factory in Hong Kong."

"This is a good opportunity." Yang Wendong nodded and asked, "Is it a refrigerator and air conditioner? Is there a washing machine?"

Wang Zhiqun said: "We don't have any washing machines. Whirlpool's washing machines are mainly drum-type public washing machines, which have a small market and no market in Asia, so this cooperation only includes refrigerators and air conditioners."

In the Asian market, many people do laundry at home, so the market potential for washing machines is very large; while in Europe and the United States, public laundry is popular, unless you are very rich.

"That's fine. Washing machines have a much lower technical content. Refrigerators and air conditioners are more important." Yang Wendong also agreed and said, "Have you started negotiations on cooperation?"

Among large household appliances, the most technically complex is the color TV, which is even more complex than air conditioners. However, because it is too complex, Hong Kong simply does not have the ability to develop it on its own. In addition, it will be replaced by LCD in the future, so Yang Wendong does not want to invest too much money in it.

On the contrary, although air conditioners will change in the future, their essence will remain the same, and this industry is still worthy of heavy investment; the same goes for refrigerators.

If these two things are cooked well, they can really be eaten for half a century.

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)