Material Empire

Both Solem and Nicole were overthinking. This cooperation agreement, which Qin Hai, Ning Zhongying and others personally deliberated, contained no conspiracy at all. To be honest, it was full of conspiracy. That's right, some completely public strategies that you willingly accept.

Graphene is a new material with a wide range of uses. Its raw material is very simple, that is, ordinary graphite. Ability to form mass production.

Daqin Group is only able to temporarily dominate the market by virtue of its first-mover advantage. In this short period of time, if the Daqin Group adopts the oil-skimming pricing strategy, it can certainly obtain a high profit margin, but because the price is too high, it will limit the application of this material, and the total sales volume cannot be too high. The total profit is nothing to worry about.

Instead of trying to make black-hearted money, it is better to lower the price to the lowest point in one go, and then use this as a condition in exchange for some other benefits. There is another advantage of keeping the price down, which is to put the follow-up manufacturers in a position of loss-making competition and consume the power of the other party. Sooner or later, Daqin Group will meet with these material giants in the international market. The more consumed the other party is, the less pressure Daqin Group will face in the competition in the future.

The terms mentioned by Yu Yong mentioned some cooperation projects, including requiring the other party to transfer part of patented technology, help purchase some advanced equipment, cooperate in material research and so on. In the eyes of Solem and Nicol, these conditions are very common and not excessive requirements, but they overlooked one point, if it is not linked to the supply policy of graphene, then even if the Daqin Group offers a higher Marmont will not easily agree to these cooperations.

It's not that Marmon has never had technical cooperation with other companies, but the conditions of cooperation are quite different from company to company. If the partner of the cooperation is a European or American company, since there is no technical gap between the two parties, the cooperation is an act of exchanging needs, and Marmont's quotation will be controlled within a reasonable range, and it is impossible to ask for prices. However, if the partner is an enterprise from a developing country in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, Mamon will not be so easy to talk about. It only charges 1 million authorization fees for European and American companies, and companies in developing countries may receive 10 million or even more. many. There is no other reason, that is, to use technological advantages to bully you, and you can't do it if you don't accept it.

Daqin Group has some advantages in the research and development of materials, but its disadvantages are also very obvious. After all, the gap in technical level cannot be completely reversed by just one Qin Hai. Ma Meng Company has a lot of technologies that Qin Hai needs. If they directly import them to Ma Meng Company, the price offered by the other party will be completely unaffordable for Daqin Group. It is of course the most ideal for the Daqin Group to be able to use the graphene thing to exchange, and the profit lost on graphene for this is not worth mentioning.

Qin Hai knows a so-called Murphy's Law, that is, if I can't convince you, I must at least convince you. Wang Xiaodong and Yu Yong first introduced a lot of conditions to Marmon Company, and Solem and Nicole were already stunned before they knew it. Their attention was drawn to the price of graphene, and they had no time to think about the intrinsic value of these cooperation conditions. They ignored the key point that Daqin Group is a company in a developing country, and they thought according to the standards of cooperation with European and American companies. Of course, you will feel that the price offered by Daqin Group is so favorable.

You two gentlemen don't have to worry about our sincerity. Xiao Dongping said with a serious face, We are a responsible company, and we will never use our technological first-mover advantage to grab unfair profits. We are very We value the cooperative relationship with European companies including Marmont, as long as you are willing to acknowledge our strategic partnership, we can supply you with the lowest price.

A price of $5 a gram? Nicole confirmed.

Not higher than this price. Xiao Dongping replied arrogantly.

Can you please keep the agreement, let us discuss it, and then give you an answer? Nicole said.

Yu Yong immediately handed over a thick stack of texts and said: All our cooperation conditions have been written on it, you can learn and discuss in detail.

Xiao Dongping said slowly: However, I would venture to say that our graphene output is limited, so not all enterprises can be given such preferential terms. If your company intends to cooperate with us, we hope that we can Give us an answer as soon as possible, otherwise, I am worried that other companies will provide us with better conditions, then...

Nicole felt his back go cold, and quickly said: Minister Xiao, don't worry, we will reply as soon as possible.

Then we'll take our leave. Xiao Dongping said, stood up, and bowed his hands to the people from Ma Meng Company opposite.

Solem led his people to send Xiao Dongping out of the company's gate all the way, saying countless times such kind words as welcoming Xiao Dongping and others to come again. Watching the three people leave in a taxi, Solem looked at Nicole and asked, Nicole, what do you think of this?

If I didn't know their real identities, I would almost suspect that they were liars. Nicole muttered.

“Yeah, $5 per gram of graphene, that’s unbelievable. If it’s true, we’ll be able to lower our prices by another 30%, which means we’ll double our sales above, and the profit margin is completely unaffected, Solem said excitedly.

They can increase the price by 3 times, even if it is 20 US dollars per gram, we will accept it, so why do they take the initiative to lower the price? Nicole said puzzled.

Solem said: I thought about it just now. Maybe this is a strategic need for them. Their chairman is a man of great talent. He must want to enter the European market. Graphene is just a stepping stone for him. .They especially emphasize the establishment of a strategic partnership with us, hoping to obtain some of our technology patents.

In my opinion, getting the patents is just a cover up, because the licensing fees for these patents are not high, what they really want to achieve is our recognition of them, so that they can show Marmon in their promotional materials. The company is one of their partners, which is good for enhancing their corporate visibility.

It must be like this! Nicole said, I have come into contact with many Chinese companies. They are willing to pay a high price in order to gain the approval of Europeans. This Daqin Group must be the same.

To put it bluntly, these two have a fairly deep understanding of China. At that time, many Chinese companies were willing to pay a lot of money to find Western partners in order to get a little foreign style. Some enterprises under the banner of Sino-foreign joint ventures actually do not need any foreign partners in the first place, and the purpose of using this banner is only to increase their own dignity.

There is an interesting thing: In order to prove that their technology is imported from abroad, some companies print the head portrait of a foreign old man on the promotional materials, saying that it is Professor Forhergill or Dr. Hoermann, followed by a birth and death Years, and besides, this person is the inventor of this technology or something.

This method worked well in the past, but in the Internet age, it is worn out. Some good people collected the promotional materials of several companies, and found that the avatar used on them was actually the same person, and this person had different names, professions and ages in different companies. After further tracking, it was found that this old man was actually just an old farmer in California. He had neither invented any new technologies nor registered any new patents in his life. Let alone a professor with a Ph.D., maybe even junior high school was taught by correspondence... …

In Solem's view, Daqin Group is such an enterprise. Although Daqin Group became the owner of the graphene patent by chance, this does not change the fact that it is just a Chinese company with a bad reputation. If such a company wants to enter the international market, it must pull a few tiger skins as its banner, and Marmont is obviously a piece of tiger skin that they are eyeing.

If it is explained in this way, then it is understandable for Daqin Group to give up profits to Ma Meng Company.

I think that we can provide the conditions that the Chinese want. The patents they want are a bit outdated for us, and the transfer to them does not have much impact on us. Mr. Solem, What do you think? Nicole asked.

Solem nodded and said: I completely agree, I will let Florian and the others evaluate in a moment to see which patents can be licensed to the Chinese, and also calculate if the price of graphene can be reduced to 5 How much can our profit increase under the dollar.

Then Warren Company and Xinzuka Chemicals, shall we continue to communicate? Nicole asked again.

Solem smiled sinisterly: Of course we have to contact, and we can't tell them the conditions of the Chinese... You have to say that the supply from the Chinese is completely unreliable, and we desperately hope to get their support.

In fact, the matter is very clear. If Daqin Group can supply large quantities at a very low price, it will mean a great risk for Warren Company or Xinzuka Chemical to enter this market blindly. But Marmon will not tell them this risk. For Marmon, with one more supplier in the market, the company will be able to gain greater bargaining power. As for what will happen to Warren and Xinzuka Chemical Look, then it's none of Solem's business.

It has always been the law of the market that dead fellows don't die poor.