Chapter 114: Boiling Frogs in Warm Water
This building in Hanxi Provincial City occupies a large area, but it is very low-key and inconspicuous. There is no sign hanging outside, and it seems that it does not want to attract attention from the outside world.
Security is also very tight. Not only are there guard posts outside the building, but as soon as you enter the gate, there are security personnel guarding the inside. The entire building is being installed with surveillance technology that was introduced from abroad only seven years ago. After going upstairs, I saw the words "Dongxin Semiconductor" posted upstairs.
The building is still a little empty now, but there are many professionals busy inside, renovating laboratories, moving equipment, etc.
“Donngling Hi-Tech really wants to develop chips?!”
Looking at some of the chip experimental equipment that can be purchased in China, including etching equipment, thin film deposition equipment, cleaning equipment, etc., have begun to be moved into the laboratory. Compared with the equipment from Japan Benzene and America, these equipment are definitely not as good as those from Japan. They are considered advanced, and some are even second-hand, but these are already the best equipment that Dongxin Semiconductor can buy in China.
Looking at the experimental equipment in front of him, even if it is domestically produced, Liu Youguo, a professor at Hanxi Jiaotong University and the current nominal head of the joint laboratory, knows that these things are by no means cheap; Li Dongling was really cruel this time.
“Nippon Toshiba’s chip motherboards increased the price by 20% to Donglin Hi-Tech. Donglin Hi-Tech contacted NEC, Panasonic, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Texas Instruments and other companies. These chip companies are all in a wait-and-see mode. Some They are willing to supply Dongling High-tech, but the asking price is not low, even..."
Li Dongling felt a little itchy when he mentioned this, but he said helplessly, "Siemens is contacting us over there. Tangling Hi-tech has threatened to let its subsidiary Infineon Semiconductor provide chips for the three digital cordless phones of Shenzhou, Coolpad and Simon!”
Siemens is obviously adding insult to injury. It is taunting Donglin Hi-Tech, but Tanglin Hi-Tech really has no power to fight back against those chip manufacturers' price hikes and Siemens' taunts. If it doesn't exist, it doesn't exist. This thing can't appear out of thin air.
"This price increase for Dongling High-tech will not be the first time, nor will it be the last!"
Li Dongling looked a little heavy and said to Liu Youguo. He had clearly felt that those overseas companies The company has already begun to target Dongling Hi-Tech.
Dangling Hi-tech has made rapid progress since its establishment, especially its ability to turn defeat into victory in the battle with Siemens. I am afraid that it has been targeted by many giant companies. This time the price increase of parts and components is probably just a test. , there will be more and more small actions in the future.
Especially after notifying Donglin Hi-Tech of the price increase, Toshiba and other companies immediately announced to other domestic companies that they would not raise prices for them, threatening to raise the price of Donglin Hi-Tech's parts and components. Because the demand for Donglin Hi-Tech's parts is too high, their production capacity is insufficient, so they raised prices.
Sales of the Shenzhou series of phones continue to soar. This month, sales have more than doubled compared to the previous month, reaching 2.6 million units. Companies such as Toshiba are now also facing serious shortages in chip component production capacity. Insufficient, we need to invest in the construction of new production lines, so we started to increase prices to Tanglin Hi-Tech!
This is just like the memory chips of Nippon Toshiba and Samsung. As long as they cannot be produced domestically, they will be in dire straits for three days or two. There will be power outages, water outages, earthquakes, floods, or fires. Every time an accident occurs, the price of memory chips will rise. The price is 30%, and the price is also targeted at the mainland, and the rest of the world will not be affected...
Now Tanglin Hi-Tech has just enjoyed this treatment in advance, and the taste of it is not too obvious.
Japan, Toshiba, Sharp, Sony and other companies do not want to see an existence that threatens them in Asia, which they regard as their back garden!
When it was first reported in China that Donglin Hi-Tech had been raised in price by Toshiba and other companies, there was still a lot of anger. Many domestic companies were a little bit sad, fearing that the price increase of foreign parts would fall on them. But when Toshiba When the company announced that it would raise prices only for Donglin Hi-Tech, and especially after it announced the global sales of the Shenzhou series phones in the latest month, public opinion changed obviously.
Two.6 million Shenzhou series phones were shipped in a single month, and revenue soared to over 270 million US dollars. Although the net profit was far from that high, when I heard this number, It still makes many domestic companies really jealous of Donglin Hi-Tech.
Toshiba's move is very vicious, and the differentiation effect is very obvious. It is the same as Qualcomm's previous strategy against the Chrysanthemum Factory, which only targeted one company and then announced that it would continue to supply other companies. This made it difficult for the entire domestic industry companies to share the same hatred and directly An industry is artificially divided into two camps. The method is not very sophisticated, but the effect is very obvious.
After seeing the revenue of Shenzhou Phone, many domestic companies have obviously changed their attitudes. Seeing that Tanglin High-tech has such high revenue relying on Shenzhou Phone, they expect them to stand with Donglin High-tech. It is simply impossible to fight against Toshiba and other companies, and some companies even have the idea of wishing Toshiba and other companies to raise prices even more, making Shenzhou Phone unprofitable and exiting the market, so that they can seize the market!
There is not much support from public opinion now. Unless Tanglin Hi-Tech is willing to accept its fate and work for a foreign company, or stay in the domestic territory and not go overseas, it can only get rid of it on its own. This dilemma.
Listening to the troubles Dongling High-tech encountered, Liu Youguo also felt sad, "I have said long ago that those foreign devils are unreliable. They always say that it is better to buy than to build. In the future, they will be the best." When you regret it.
Those companies now, seeing Donglin High-tech’s jokes, will be hurt sooner or later. When the pain comes, they will know the current situation of Donglin High-tech!” “They will have to make their own chips! , otherwise you will be pinched by others all the time," Liu Youguo said angrily, and then asked Li Dongling with some concern, "What about the lithography machine? The most important thing in developing chips is the lithography machine. Where does Dongxin use it? Lithography machine? ”
“45 Research Institute of the Ministry of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering!”
Li Dongling said, “Donngling Hi-Tech wants to invite someone to serve as the chief designer of Dongxin Semiconductor. The lithography machine team has moved to the provincial capital!”
There are teams that develop lithography machines in China, and there are more than one. The step-by-step projection light developed by Huaqing University fourteen years ago The level of engraving machine is not much different from the international mainstream technology.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that in those years, chips had not yet reached a dominant position in the technology industry. At that time, Mao Xiong was still obsessed with transistor miniaturization.
But the watershed was just nine years ago when a large number of foreign chips began to enter the country. The domestically produced chips were worse in performance and more expensive than the imported ones, so they were naturally abandoned. Without the market, no one would research and develop them. The R&D team If you don’t have money, you can’t continue working.
In the 45th Research Institute of the Ministry of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, the lithography machine prototype produced at that time was not much different from the lithography machine developed by American lithography machine giant GCA, and it was better than the most advanced Toshiba and NEC at the time. The gap between the lithography machines produced by other companies is only seven or eight years, which can barely be regarded as the first echelon of lithography machines in the world.
But after that, the 45th Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, which had no R&D funds, became like other research institutes. It did not start designing washing machines, refrigerators, TVs, etc. As for the lithography machine, it had no funds for R&D.
“Looking for cooperation with the 45th Research Institute of the Ministry of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering?!”
Liu Youguo frowned, “In nine years, in the technology industry, there has been a technology gap of more than two generations!”
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"Is there a better lithography machine R&D team in China than the 45 Research Institute? Is there a better R&D team that can be poached by Donglin Hi-Tech?!"
Liu Youguo was speechless when asked, Although he is unwilling to admit it, as Li Dongling said, the domestic lithography machine R&D team has not made much progress in recent years. It is trapped in the 193 nanometer light source. Not only domestic, but also the current lithography machine companies around the world. The R&D team and the team are all trapped here.
In China, there are indeed better R&D teams than the 45 Research Institute, such as the lithography machine R&D teams led by Huaqing, the Academy of Sciences, etc., but can those teams be poached by Donglin Hi-Tech? Even if If you are willing to cooperate, will you listen to Tanglin Hi-tech? It is estimated that a lot of money has been spent, and Tanglin Hi-tech has no say at all.
On the contrary, the 45th Research Institute of the Ministry of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering will be fine. It has been building the third line before. As long as Tanglin Hi-tech pays for it, it will then go through the Binh Duong and Han Tay provincial municipal departments, and the Ministry of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering and the Electronics Department After the agreement was discussed, there was great hope to poach the lithography machine team of the 45 Research Institute. In the previous life, this R&D team was moved to Shanghai in 2002 to participate in the research of lithography machines. project.
It can be seen that this R&D team has been gritting its teeth over the years, otherwise it would not have been possible to bring this R&D team over to tackle technical problems more than ten years later.
"Now Shenzhou Phone and Tanglin Hi-Tech are developing new products. The requirements for chips are not too high. As long as Dongxin Semiconductor can develop products with usable performance, Tanglin Hi-Tech is willing to purchase them!"
Li Dongling looked at the Dongxin Semiconductor Laboratory in front of him and said to Liu Youguo that he did not expect the 45 Research Institute to develop any top-notch lithography machine, as long as it could meet the current needs of Dongling Hi-Tech.
In the workshop with the BYD brand in Liantang, Pengcheng, Boss Wang was busy improving the production line with more than 20 technicians when there was a sudden knock on the workshop door.
“This is BYD Battery Company?”
After Boss Wang opened the workshop door, he saw a person standing outside and looked inside hesitantly.
"This is BYD Company, who are you?!" Boss Wang immediately pulled the people into the rest room set aside. The conditions were not that good, but they were definitely better than in the workshop.
"I am Xu Kai from the Purchasing Department of Dongling Hi-Tech," Xu Kai introduced himself directly, took out a newspaper, and asked Boss Wang with a serious face, "Can your company really produce the second-generation products?" Rechargeable batteries? ”
(End of this chapter)