Chapter 190

All of this requires a considerable amount of money.

Moreover, the purchase price is calculated separately.

However, with carbon fiber equipment currently being strangled, Lin Yi had no choice but to spend heavily.

Looking at the 24.3 billion US dollars remaining in the system after deducting the Dragon Nation transactions, plus the cash on Fengyi Technology's books including the Tesla deposit,

by mid-March, there was already 1.353 billion Chinese yuan in cash.

These were all part of Lin Yi's current wealth.

"System, how much does it cost to bundle and upgrade the carbon fiber manufacturing equipment to the 2010 level?"

Lin Yi asked.

Because without an upgrade, the entire technology tree for equipment in the system consisted of products from the 40s to the 80s,

just like the weapon catalog.

However, since production technology inevitably involves multiple types of equipment, upgrading them one by one would be too troublesome.

Lin Yi wanted to ask if a bundled upgrade was possible.

"Ding... Calculating..."

Carbon fiber manufacturing equipment includes surface treatment equipment, gas-phase or liquid-phase oxidation equipment, and so on.

It mainly consists of injection molding machines, melt spinning machines, carbonization furnaces, stretching machines, winding machines, mixing machines, crushers, and more.

"Host can spend 200 million US dollars to resolve all production equipment..."

"What if upgrading to the 2020 level?"

"Ding... Calculating..."

"Host can spend 800 million US dollars to resolve all production equipment!"

Hearing this price, Lin Yi found it acceptable.

In reality, for carbon fiber production technology, the most critical components are the melt spinning machines and carbonization furnaces.

Equipment like injection molding machines, mixing machines, and crushers, even if they were products from the 70s, would not differ greatly from modern ones.

The system's pricing for upgrading these machines was extremely low.

This was completely different from upgrading the weapon catalog.

"Then upgrade all carbon fiber production equipment to the 2020 level!"

"Ding... Upgrade complete, 800 million US dollars deducted."

Looking at the funds in his overseas account, 24.3 billion US dollars minus 800 million,

he now had only 23.5 billion US dollars left.

Lin Yi couldn't help but sigh; money really doesn't last long. 2.5

Just moments ago, he had spent four billion Chinese yuan in one go; probably no one could match him in spending money.

The benefit was that after deducting the 800 million US dollars,

the procurement price for carbon fiber production equipment was no longer expensive.

Even for the most advanced production equipment from Japan's Toray Company,

a production line with an annual output of 5,000 tons

would only cost over 60 million.

Do not mistake this small quantity for insignificance; it is because carbon fiber is difficult to manufacture and very lightweight.

In the entire year of 2015, global carbon fiber production was only 135,000 tons.

As long as Lin Yi was willing to build ten production lines,

he could achieve nearly one-third of the global production capacity.

This would deal a heavy blow to Japan and the United States, countries that had always refused to expand capacity in pursuit of high profits.

It would make them suffer a great loss.

Especially since these countries, relying on their technology and using the COCOM agreement as an excuse, had always refused to export advanced carbon fiber products to Dragon Nation.

Soon, the carbon fiber products from these nations would no longer be the most advanced on the market.

As for whether they would still be willing to sell, no one in Dragon Nation would likely care.

Thus, quietly and unnoticed,

a carbon fiber manufacturing brand was born under Fengyi Technology: the "Vigorous Dragon" carbon fiber products.

Although as the company's CEO, Yang Chen had no idea how the boss had managed to acquire such advanced equipment.

However, as a subordinate, there were some things one should ask about, and others one absolutely should not.

He was merely the company's manager, after all.

As the machinery arrived, Dr. Wen Xia, a chubby man wearing glasses, saw them and his eyes lit up.

"This equipment is excellent; it fully meets our technical requirements!"

he said excitedly.

During this period, he had nearly completed his research on the carbon fiber technology the boss had given him.

Now, with all the equipment beginning to arrive on site,

it meant that very soon, another flagship product of the company would be unveiled.

How could Dr. Wen Xia not be excited by this?

After inspecting the equipment one by one, he said excitedly:

"Boss, everything passes inspection. Moreover, this is a highly advanced fully automated production line, far superior to domestic carbon fiber equipment!"

Currently, the global state of the carbon fiber industry is dominated by U.S. and Japanese enterprises.

Just Toray Industries alone from Japan produced as much as 47,000 tons in 2015,

while other companies like Japan's Toho and Mitsubishi, and America's Hexcel, each produced over 10,000 tons.

However, within Dragon Country, most producers had an annual output of only dozens or hundreds of tons.

Dragon Country's total carbon fiber production in 2015 was merely 7,000 tons, not even matching the output of a single Japanese company.

Furthermore, the most critical issue was that most of Dragon Country's carbon fiber products were of medium-to-low modulus, such as T300 and T700 grades.

This type of carbon fiber had low technical content and cheap finished product prices.

As for the high-modulus grades like T800 and T1000, which serve as the true benchmark for carbon fiber technology,

domestic production volumes were quite limited.

Yet, materials for aircraft wings, such as those on the domestically produced J-20, required very high-modulus carbon fiber.

This had always been a headache for military scientists.

However, with the future production launch of Fengyi Technology,

Dragon Country would completely overtake others in carbon fiber technology, achieving true supremacy.

Moreover, as carbon fiber production expanded massively and flooded the market,

the price of this new material would inevitably plummet.

In fact, for many products that Dragon Country previously had to import at great cost in money and foreign exchange,

once the people of Dragon Country mastered the production technology, the price of that product would inevitably crash.

Actually, although products like carbon fiber were difficult to manufacture,

those overseas manufacturers were not incapable of expanding their production scale;

it was simply that these enterprises wanted to maintain a certain output level to preserve excessive profits.

After all, scarcity breeds value; if carbon fiber production surged dramatically,

the price of this material would naturally drop.

This would be detrimental to those enterprises wishing to maintain excessive profits.

At this moment, Lin Yi looked at the equipment he had purchased from the System.

Since there were no nameplates, manufacturer labels, or production dates, no one could trace who had manufactured these devices.

"With this equipment, what is the fastest time our Weilong Carbon Fiber can achieve mass production!?"

Lin Yi asked Dr. Wen Xia.

"This equipment still requires debugging, production process design, and employee training;

I estimate that the first batch of products can roll off the line in about half a month!"

— Author's Notes —

(PS: New book seeking flowers, tips, and review tickets; your support is the author's motivation!)