Chapter 872 Prepare for a Rainy Day
After completing the task assignment, the specific finalization and identification work quickly started step by step.
Apparently not only the project team headed by Chang Haonan is paying attention to the situation of China's aerospace industry...
Haojing City, Weiyang District.
Inside the headquarters of Ciro Company.
Adam Whittle hurriedly walked into the company door with an envelope in his hand, and then walked quickly up the stairs.
Compared to more than two years ago, the layout of this building has not changed much, but the decoration inside has become much more gorgeous.
Whittle and George Breen, who took the lead in negotiating with the Hokyung Engine Group and finally used an M250 engine introduction project to retain Ciro Company, are still jointly responsible for the daily business here——< br>
It’s not that the two of them have been standing still in the past few years.
In fact, their treatment at Rolls-Royce has been improved to the same level as the deputy department manager.
The pace of progress is not unsatisfactory.
However, as a platform, Ciro's importance within Rolls-Royce has progressed faster.
According to general rules, it is even necessary to assign a department manager half a rank higher to serve as the British supervisor.
However, the headquarters considered that the two of them were familiar with the situation in China and had accumulated a certain network of contacts. They rashly parachuted a leader over. Not only would they most likely be ignored, it would also be unfavorable for business development.
That’s why there is a situation where “two deputies are in charge of the same department at the same time”.
Fortunately, the two of them have completely different expertise and have shared hardships along the way, so they haven't caused any major troubles in the past two years.
Whittle strode all the way and soon arrived outside Brin's office.
The door is open.
The former reached out and knocked twice casually, and then walked in.
George Brin was sorting out the business reports for this quarter. He raised his head after hearing a knock on the door and saw Whittle already sitting in front of him.
However, before the latter could explain his purpose, Brin spoke first:
"Adam, you came just in time, I was about to go find you."
As he spoke, he turned the stack of forms 180° and pushed them to the other end of the desk.
Before Whittle could take out the contents of the envelope, he was interrupted from casting the spell. He picked up the report and took a look at it:
"Isn't this growth momentum very good?"
He pointed to the above results of a 35% year-on-year increase in sales and a 17% year-on-year increase in profits and said -
Ciro Company's status can soar like a rocket. It can only support small helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles. The machine-powered M250 engine is definitely not enough.
At most, it can only be regarded as a life extension, allowing the company to barely survive until the next critical time point.
In fact, what really changed the fate of the two of them and the Xiro Company was the rapid development of China's air transport industry and the construction of the Luzhou Aviation Industrial Park.
This has directly led to the explosive growth of China’s investment in the aviation industry in the past two years.
In the past two years, major Chinese airlines have purchased almost more passenger and cargo aircraft than in the previous ten years combined.
As one of the world's three largest aerospace suppliers, Rolls-Royce benefits from its location in Europe and has also reaped considerable dividends.
Ciro Company, which was not originally born for this purpose, has naturally transformed into a large joint venture responsible for aviation engine maintenance, spare parts storage and turnover, and ground staff training.
It is not an exaggeration to even say that Luo Luo Hua Xia is divided into Luo.
This, in turn, further increases the market share of Rolls-Royce engines in China.
Among the Airbus A330, A340, Boeing 737 and Boeing 767 newly purchased by China in recent years, more than 70% have chosen RB or Trent series engines as power.
In short, everything seems to be in a stable and good situation.
The report in front of Whittle seems to illustrate this point.
But Brin shook his head:
"On the surface, this is indeed the case, but the hidden dangers are actually still huge."
As he spoke, he turned the table to the third page, and then pointed to a table above:
“Our business growth this year mainly comes from the additional batches of Boeing 767 and Airbus purchased by China two years ago and last year. A340."
"That's right."
Whittle nodded.
“But according to my judgment, the subsequent development of these two models is not optimistic, especially the A340. The economics of a four-engine passenger aircraft of this size are really poor. Airbus is better than Boeing in the field of cargo aircraft. Relatively weak.”
Brin replied:
“As for the Boeing 767, although the order volume and delivery volume in the next few years are okay, the order quantity is too stable and there is no fluctuation at all, so I think this may be due to Affected by the agreement China reached with the United States during its WTO accession negotiations, it is not entirely market behavior. "
"When the deadline stipulated in this agreement is reached, Boeing, at least Boeing 757 and 767, will be in China. The sales volume may usher in a round of Waterloo.”
“In other words, although we don’t have anything to worry about now, the sales situation in the next five years or longer is actually not optimistic.”
Although Whittle is not good at business, the other party has already spoken for this reason, and he will not understand:
"There is nothing we can do about it."
After thinking for a moment, Whittle replied in a helpless tone:
"We have the absolute majority in the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320. Most of the sales models do not get a share of the cake. Although the profit margins of the remaining larger engines are higher, the sales volume is much smaller after all, especially aircraft like the 767, which also have two engines. ""Plus. If China has to set aside enough share for the passenger planes they produce, then the number of pieces of cake will be even smaller.”
Brin was silent for a while, and then moved forward. Qing, slightly closer to Whittle:
"We have to do something, Adam."
"The headquarters will not be anxious about this matter, but it is very important to the two of us."
For a moment, There was silence in the office -
In order to provide users with more choices and share possible supply chain risks, some passenger aircraft models will use multiple engines, or engine-wing combinations.
For example, the Airbus A320 uses either General Electric's CFM56 series or International Aero Engines' (IAE) V2500 series.
But in fact, IAE is a joint venture established by four companies: Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, Nippon Aerospace Engineering and MTU.
So for Rolls-Royce in the UK, they can still make money by selling V2500.
But it is different for Ciro Company in China, especially Brin and Whittle.
The maintenance and technical training of the V2500 will not be left to them.
A proper competitive relationship.
Whittle frowned:
“But even so, we can’t change the Chinese people’s procurement strategy.”
Brin also had a mask of pain on his face.
Persuading others to give up A and choose B between two competing products is still within the scope of public relations.
But to persuade you not to give up the A320 and choose the 767 or the A340, that is probably something that can only be done by mind control.
Not on the same level at all.
Airlines have a decision-making process for purchasing aircraft, and they are not 4S shops. You can budget 200,000 yuan and then add money to the down payment of 200,000 yuan.
“If I have to say it, we can only focus on new models.”
After a while, Whittle proposed a new idea.
"New model?"
Brin quickly went through all the mainstream passenger aircraft models currently under development in his mind:
“The new generation 737max and 757 have been delivered, so the new engine model has not yet been selected, probably only The only one left is the Airbus A3XX.”
“But that is a 550-seat three-cabin super large passenger aircraft...can it really have enough sales?”
A3XX, Airbus’ benchmark? Boeing 737 super large passenger aircraft project.
That is the future A380.
However, this meeting has not yet been officially named.
As for its competing product, the sales volume of the Boeing 747 in China is actually not optimistic.
So Brin showed some concerns.
But Whittle is not too worried about this:
“China has 1.2 billion people, which is about four times the number of all EU countries combined.”
"Imagine if one-fifth or even one-tenth of these people will use airplanes as their main mode of travel in the future, what a terrifying scale it will be."
"By that time, they will Domestic routes may even require such super-large passenger aircraft.”
At the turn of the century, the industry’s predictions for future air transportation were still based on a center-to-center model.
That is, passengers in a region are transferred to the regional center airport through regional aviation, and then transported to another regional center through super large passenger aircraft.
Under this thinking, the demand for passenger aircraft such as 737 and A380 will be extremely huge.
China's polycentric human geography is undoubtedly the second market that fits this model after the United States (population is concentrated on the east and west coasts).
In fact, even if it is calculated using a point-to-point passenger model, this conclusion will not deviate much.
But at this moment, no one can predict that China will build a unique high-speed railway network in the future, taking away most of the passenger flow that originally belonged to the civil aviation industry...
< br>So, Whittle’s rhetoric of “fighting the future” sounds very reasonable.
So much so that Brin was convinced without much struggle.
"This matter can be included in the report to the headquarters at the end of the year..."
He took out a pen, pulled off a piece of note paper from the side, and wrote down Whittle's thoughts just now:< br>
[The engine selection of the Airbus A3XX project is crucial to expanding the Chinese market...]
(End of this chapter)