Rebirth 76: Industrial Internet Empire

"Plaintiff's attorney! You must provide a legal way to obtain the production line sales contract, otherwise the court will not accept it!" the presiding judge warned.

Harada Koki showed a proud look. The presiding judge's obvious favoritism gave him hope of winning the case. It seemed that Nippon Steel's public relations had been effective.

"The original draft of this contract was provided to us by a woman named Yui Komatsu." Lin Jianshan and Liao Tingxuan said helplessly after discussing in a low voice for a while.

"Your Excellency, the presiding judge, we request that witness Yui Komatsu appear in court for questioning!" said the Nippon Steel legal agent.

The presiding judge pondered for a moment and then nodded and said: "In view of the emergence of new key evidence that needs to be verified and admitted during the trial, the second trial was temporarily adjourned. The third trial will begin three days later. The plaintiff is obliged to allow witness Yui Komatsu to appear in court. Accept the questioning from the defendant!”

On the way back to the hotel, Liao Tingxuan asked worriedly: "Lawyer Lin, is there any problem with Yui Komatsu?"

Lin Jianshan smiled and said: "I have to ask Yang Mo, he arranged this witness!"

Yang Mo was secretly proud of himself. This was a plot he carefully designed to clear up the relationship with Zhiyuan International. Yui Komatsu, the front desk clerk at the East Asia Hotel, unknowingly became a chess piece:

After Qian Ning heard the news that Japan Railway Co., Ltd. was sued for commercial fraud, he decided to terminate cooperation with Japan Railway Co., Ltd. and left Tokyo early. When checking out, he deliberately left a document bag at the hotel front desk.

When Komatsu Yui found the document bag forgotten by the guest, Qian Ning and Yuliye had already left the hotel and went to the airport. At this time, Li Heping "happened" to appear at the hotel front desk, and encouraged Komatsu Yui to open the document bag and see what was inside. What, see if there is any lost customer contact information.

After Yui Komatsu opened the document bag, she found a string of phone numbers, and this number was the landline in the Oriental Hotel room where Liao Tingxuan stayed.

After the phone call was made, Liao Tingxuan sent someone to retrieve the folder. The 1200-ton complete production line contract signed between Zhiyuan International and Japan Railway Co., Ltd. unexpectedly ended up in the hands of the Chinese negotiating team.

As an international consulting company, Zhiyuan International has visited senior Chinese officials and left contact information with each other. This is a very reasonable thing...

Yang Mo took all the trouble to go around in such a big circle because of the reputation of Zhiyuan International. Obviously, as an international consulting company that will need to deal with many equipment manufacturers in the future, leaking the purchase contract is always an unseemly thing!

The scene of the third court hearing.

Yui Komatsu appeared in court as a witness for the plaintiff to accept questioning from the Japanese side. Yui Komatsu explained the incident exactly as it was. Although the process was a bit bizarre, there were indeed no obvious flaws.

Japanese agents have begun to make a fuss about the fact that the technical equipment sold to China is not backward.

In response to Japan's defense, Lin Jianshan found various information about the 1750 steel rolling mill and the 2050 steel rolling mill from mainstream metallurgical academic journals such as the British Journal of Mineral and Metallurgical Materials, the Materials Transactions of the Japanese Metal Association, and the American Transactions on Metallurgy and Materials. Comparison of technical parameters, plus some papers on converters and continuous casters, form a complete chain of evidence.

Aoyama Law Firm's practice of throwing out some new evidence in every trial made the Japanese a little unprepared and almost completely disrupted their debate plan.

Knowing that the situation was over, Harada Koki and his legal agent discussed the situation for a long time, and then once again submitted a request to the court for an out-of-court settlement.

Koki Harada, who has been engaged in sales work for most of his life, knows that reputation is the life of a company. Japan Steel Co., Ltd. cannot afford to lose such a large commercial fraud case.

From the 1.7M rolling mill project of Jiangcheng Steel Plant to the complete production line of Tokai Steel Plant, Nippon Steel Corporation has always been the largest vested interest in the Chinese market.

Losing the case will not only cause Japan Steel to completely lose a piece of the Chinese market, but will even affect their business reputation in developing countries as a whole.

In order to speed up negotiations for an out-of-court settlement, Japan Railways sent higher-level leadership and continued to put pressure on mainland authorities through diplomatic channels.

Under pressure, Liao Tingxuan had to make concessions, and the two parties finally reached an out-of-court settlement:

1. According to the contract, Nippon Steel Co., Ltd. rectified the blast furnace ironmaking workshop, coking workshop, and steelmaking workshop reformer equipment under construction in the first phase of the Tokai Steel Plant within a time limit, and compensated the Chinese side for a total of 3.7 million, including materials and construction delay. dollar losses.

2 The supply agreement for the second phase of complete automated production lines is temporarily suspended until Japan Steel Corporation’s rectification measures gain China’s understanding.

3. The sales price of the second-phase complete production line signed in the early stage is suspected of commercial discrimination. China has the right to request a suitable price to be renegotiated after the rectification of the first-phase project is completed. China reserves the right to re-select equipment suppliers.

The victory of Donghai Steel Plant not only alleviated the dilemma of foreign exchange distress, but also had benchmark significance in pulling Japanese equipment companies off the altar.

These Japanese equipment companies have enjoyed the dividends of China opening up the country and seized most of the equipment market share. They also have a condescending air and take advantage of information asymmetry to set up a large number of traps in contracts.

When equipment malfunctions, free repairs should be provided in accordance with international practice. However, the Japanese side not only deliberately adds exemption clauses in the contract and charges high repair fees, but also prevents Chinese technicians from approaching during the repair process. It also deliberately hides the consequences of the equipment failure on the grounds of commercial confidentiality. Critical data for equipment failure.

What’s even more astonishing is that after selling the machinery and equipment, the Japanese side should provide the corresponding equipment usage methods for free. This is almost an international business practice that does not require a contract, but the Japanese side can still set traps in the contract and you can buy it back. It's none of my business if you don't know how to use the machine. If you want to learn, you can just pay for it...

Even Westerners with pirate backgrounds are ashamed of this. Japanese equipment manufacturers use various means to seize the equipment market with "low quotations and high profits".

As the saying goes, success depends on failure. With the rise of China's heavy equipment enterprises, Japan has sounded the death knell of its heavy equipment industry precisely because of these "smart" means of deception and abduction!

The commercial dispute between Tokai Steel Works and Nippon Steel Co., Ltd. awakened Yang Mo's long-standing memory. Metallurgy and chemical industry, two pillar industries with heavy asset operations, have suffered too much frustration and hardship along the way. They have been discriminated against and Getting stuck in the neck is a common occurrence, and you know the taste of it!

The dream of building a first-class modern steel enterprise is like a huge mountain, weighing Yang Mo breathless!

Small and medium-sized special steel plants like Zhiyuan Steel Company can bring him a steady stream of cash flow, but with this little money, he will never be able to build a first-class complete production line.

The procurement negotiations between Tokai Steel Plant and Nippon Steel Co., Ltd. regarding the complete production line for the second phase of the project broke down again, which gave Yang Mo a sudden bold idea...