Chapter 116: Hearing Thunder in a Silent Place

Now, when a company develops a new product, there are only a few ways to promote it: advertising through newspapers and television stations, participating in exhibitions, etc. After gaining fame, they go to major companies to seek cooperation. These are basically the routines.

BYD was also advertising and promoting the nickel batteries they developed, but domestic manufacturers responded sparsely. In this day and age, foreign parts were more popular than domestic ones. Domestic parts were labeled with rumors like shoddy, unreliable, and dropping the chain at critical moments, which made domestic companies prioritize using foreign parts even when procuring parts.

BYD's current nickel battery's most direct competitor was Sanyo, which provided batteries for Shenzhou telephones, as well as several Japanese manufacturers like Panasonic.

But starting last year, Japanese battery giants like Sanyo and Panasonic made rapid progress in lithium battery technology. Various experiments also showed that lithium batteries were more widely used and had lower costs than nickel batteries. Still the same sentence: you can say the enemy is bad, but you must never say the enemy is stupid!

Japanese companies had indeed acted as technical pioneers in the last 20 or 30 years. Many new technologies were first developed by Japan. After eating enough of the nickel battery dividends, several major Japanese battery giants like Sanyo and Panasonic prepared to switch to lithium batteries, claiming to close nickel battery production lines for environmental reasons.

But whether they were really closed or fake closed, that was unknown. Anyway, Sanyo had increased the price of batteries supplied to Shenzhou telephones, and companies like Sanyo also didn't allow the sale of nickel battery production lines and technology, fearing that other companies would catch up in technology!

Hearing that Xu Kai was from Dongling High-Tech's procurement, Boss Wang's heartbeat suddenly accelerated. He had advertised in the newspaper that BYD had also developed domestic nickel batteries, but almost no companies came to ask. He was preparing to go to overseas manufacturers, but he didn't expect Dongling High-Tech to come to his door!

"Yes!"

Boss Wang said very firmly, "Nickel battery technology is not a big problem. The key is the production line. Building a production line for nickel-cadmium batteries that guarantees production capacity requires tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan in capital, so BYD developed a production line by itself!"

Boss Wang knew this was an opportunity for BYD. The method he used was the human sea tactic. He knew that in terms of machinery and equipment, BYD was no match for Sanyo, so he split the mechanized production line into manual operations. If this were played in America, the production cost would be estimated to explode, but at the current wage level domestically, it was affordable.

"The construction cost of this production line was only over 1 million yuan. If production is released, it can produce 4,000 nickel batteries a day!"

Bringing Xu Kai into the workshop, Boss Wang introduced this production line to him. Looking at the still very simple production line in front of him, Xu Kai asked the key question, "What about battery performance? Compared to Sanyo?!"

After Boss Wang's thoughts passed, he still told the truth, "Compared to Sanyo and Panasonic's high-end batteries, BYD battery cores are indeed inferior due to materials. But for ordinary batteries, supplying them for big brothers, cameras, camcorders, electric toys, etc., is enough. In addition, our battery price is only 60% of Sanyo's. If we are given more time, the price can be reduced to about half of Sanyo's batteries!"

After finishing, Boss Wang's heart couldn't help but rise with some tension. If he could get Dongling High-Tech's order, BYD could survive, or even become a foreign exchange export company. This was the best opportunity since BYD was established, so Boss Wang couldn't help but be nervous.

"Send a batch of batteries to testing institutions in Hanxi and Shanghai for testing!"

Xu Kai took out his big brother phone and made several calls back and forth. Later, technical personnel from Dongling High-Tech's Yangcheng production center came over. After preliminary testing of BYD batteries, Xu Kai said to Boss Wang.

"Boss Wang, if BYD batteries pass Dongling High-Tech's procurement audit, we hope BYD can increase production capacity as soon as possible!"

"No problem, we can build another production line!" Boss Wang gritted his teeth and said. As long as he could get Dongling High-Tech's order, he could take the contract to borrow money from the bank.

"One production line?!"

Xu Kai couldn't help but laugh after hearing this, "Does Boss Wang know how big the battery gap for Shenzhou telephones is now? If the order is signed, BYD must supply at least 3 million batteries every month!"

"3 million batteries?!"

Boss Wang gasped after hearing this number. With BYD's current production capacity, if he didn't improve the process and increase the production capacity of each production line, he would have to add hundreds of production lines to meet Dongling High-Tech's demand.

At this time, Xu Kai's phone rang again. Boss Wang saw that after Xu Kai received this call, his attitude changed sharply. Even across the phone, Xu Kai's attitude was visibly respectful.

After saying a few words to the person on the other end of the phone, Xu Kai walked over and handed the big brother phone to Boss Wang, "Boss Wang, it's our Li Zong's call!"

"Boss Wang, if BYD's battery test audit passes, Dongling High-Tech hopes that BYD can increase production capacity as soon as possible.

Dongling High-Tech will provide help for this. Dongling High-Tech is willing to invest 41 million RMB in BYD in exchange for 35% of BYD's equity, which will be used to increase BYD's production capacity and technical R&D. In the future, BYD will become Dongling High-Tech's battery supplier!"

After Boss Wang got the phone, a gentle voice came from the other end. Until the phone was hung up, Boss Wang still felt dizzy.

Looking up at the sky, the sun was shining brightly at noon. Boss Wang might never forget this call from Hanxi in his life. In these few minutes, BYD got its first venture capital since its establishment, and the company's valuation directly reached nearly 120 million RMB. Looking back at the small broken workshop behind him, he felt a sense of unreality.

"Congratulations in advance, Boss Wang!"

Xu Kai said to Boss Wang with some envy. Although this investment would only take effect after BYD's batteries passed the audit, Xu Kai knew that if the batteries didn't have major defects, BYD batteries entering Dongling High-Tech's supply chain system was already a nailed-down thing. And he had witnessed the birth of a billionaire!

Just when Boss Wang was still somewhat dizzy, a person who had traveled far from Hanxi also came to the former electronic tube factory in Yanjing, now renamed BOE Company.

"Factory Manager Wang!" Gao Peng reached out to the Wang Dongsheng in front of him.

Looking at the business card Gao Peng handed over, Wang Dongsheng was surprised, "Dongling High-Tech?!"

Dongling High-Tech being able to come to his door somewhat exceeded Wang Dongsheng's expectations. When Wang Dongsheng took over the Yanjing Electronic Tube Factory, this factory, which once claimed to be the first in the country, was already on the verge of bankruptcy. After Wang Dongsheng took over, he adopted the method of raising funds from employees like the Pingyang Xicheng Wireless First Factory, raising 6.5 million for self-rescue. The only difference was that the Xicheng Wireless First Factory finally played out, while BOE was pulled back by Wang Dongsheng.

"We heard that BOE is developing display screens?!" Gao Peng said directly to the point.

"Your company has very well-informed news!" Wang Dongsheng laughed and didn't deny it. The most profitable project for BOE now was the CTR industry, which was that kind of big-butt television and computer screen. This business was a business BOE cooperated with Panasonic, and BOE was an OEM for the other party.

However, Wang Dongsheng had never given up the intention of letting BOE develop screens by itself, and had always let BOE's technical department track display screen technology from Japan and South Korea.

"Factory Manager Wang should have heard about the encounter of Shenzhou telephones, right?!"

Gao Peng looked at Wang Dongsheng and said. The latter also nodded with a solemn expression. Other companies didn't know what they felt, but he had a deep understanding. Previously, he had always wanted BOE to get involved in the CTR color TV business, but Japan wouldn't give the technology no matter what. Finally, he had to rely on working for Panasonic to enter this line, but the profits were all taken by Panasonic, and BOE just earned some hard-earned money.

After deliberating, remembering Li Dongling's instructions before coming to Yanjing, Gao Peng looked at Wang Dongsheng and said, "Before I came, Li Zong asked me to tell Factory Manager Wang that Dongling High-Tech is willing to support BOE in entering the LCD panel field!

Dongling High-Tech is willing to invest and establish a joint venture with BOE. Dongling High-Tech provides money, and BOE provides technology to develop electronic screens for Dongling High-Tech's products. In the future, if necessary, Dongling High-Tech can support BOE in investing and building a panel production base in Hanxi provincial capital or Pingyang!"

Wang Dongsheng listened to Gao Peng's words. If he said he wasn't moved at all, he wouldn't believe it himself. R&D was very expensive. Now, relying on OEM for Panasonic, BOE finally had an easier life. At least the money owed to the bank could be repaid, and he didn't have to worry about bankruptcy at any time. But counting on having money for R&D was thinking too much.

He had always been tracking advanced screen technology abroad. Japan's Sharp started the production of LCD screens this year. Wang Dongsheng had a premonition that LCD screens would be the technology to replace CTR big-butt display screens. But if BOE wanted to develop LCD screens, it couldn't come up with money at all.

If there was Dongling High-Tech's support, Wang Dongsheng felt there was some hope. He heard that Dongling High-Tech had continuously launched several products that were hot overseas, and had just obtained over 100 million USD in foreign exchange from Bandai. With Dongling High-Tech's support, BOE might really have a chance to develop it.

"I will go to Pingyang to see Li Zong!" Wang Dongsheng said to Gao Peng, deciding to go to Pingyang in person to meet Li Dongling.

Zhang Ao and the people from Dongling High-Tech's procurement department were busy everywhere, constantly looking for new parts suppliers, which was actually rebuilding Dongling High-Tech's supply chain. This time, they checked every parts manufacturer and recorded them. Later, if any parts manufacturer had problems, they could be replaced at the fastest speed.

Li Dongling in Pingyang was also very busy, waiting for people from two places to arrive in Hanxi provincial capital.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 117 =====