Chapter 2601: Shanghai Machinery Factory

The next morning, Mu Dezhang and Vice Mayor Pan came over together. They went to Su Xinghui's room. Su Xinghui had long since woken up and returned from exercising. He had just changed his clothes when he heard a knock on the door. He opened it and saw Mu Dezhang and Vice Mayor Pan.

Su Xinghui said, "Vice Mayor Pan, Deputy Director Mu, you're here. Come in and sit."

Vice Mayor Pan said with some embarrassment, "Deputy Director Su, did I lose my composure yesterday?"

Su Xinghui said, "It's fine, Vice Mayor Pan. You were quite fine yesterday; it was I who drank too much."

Vice Mayor Pan said, "Sigh, I drank a few too many while receiving foreign guests yesterday. In the future, I can't drink this much; drinking too much leads to mistakes."

Su Xinghui smiled slightly. He brewed a cup of tea for Vice Mayor Pan and Mu Dezhang each and placed them in front of them.

Vice Mayor Pan nodded in thanks and said to Su Xinghui, "Deputy Director Su, I might not be able to accompany you for the research these days. However, Comrade Mu Dezhang will accompany you throughout. In addition, I will send two people from the Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission to follow you and serve as your guides."

Su Xinghui said, "Alright, you are busy with work, so you don't need to accompany us. Having Deputy Director Mu and the others is enough."

Vice Mayor Pan nodded and said, "If you have any difficulties, just tell Comrade Mu Dezhang. As long as we can solve them, we will definitely help you solve them."

Su Xinghui said, "Alright, thank you, Vice Mayor Pan."

Vice Mayor Pan said, "Then let's go down and have breakfast together."

Su Xinghui nodded. He went out, called Xing Guodong and the others, and went downstairs to the restaurant for breakfast. Vice Mayor Pan then left. Before leaving, he repeatedly instructed Mu Dezhang to take good care of the research team.

Mu Dezhang asked Su Xinghui where they planned to go today. Su Xinghui took out the list of Shanghai's state-owned enterprises and looked at it. He asked Xing Guodong's group where they were going today, and Xing Guodong pointed to the Shanghai Television Factory.

Su Xinghui looked through the list and immediately spotted the name of the Shanghai Machinery Factory. His heart stirred, and he pointed to the name of the Shanghai Machinery Factory, saying, "Then let's go to the Shanghai Machinery Factory today."

Mu Dezhang felt a bit strange. How was it that the two had just talked about the Shanghai Machinery Factory yesterday, and today Su Xinghui wanted to go there?

However, he didn't think too much about it. In any case, they could go to any of the state-owned enterprises on the list. The research team could go wherever they wanted. On this point, the local government would not pre-set routes for the research team; otherwise, it would look like they had something to hide.

Mu Dezhang nodded and said, "Alright, then let's go to the Shanghai Machinery Factory today."

The group split into two. Mu Dezhang and a Section Chief Cao, in his thirties from the Shanghai Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, accompanied Su Xinghui and Xia Song to the Shanghai Machinery Factory. Another Division Chief Tang from the Shanghai Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and a staff member from the Municipal Government General Office accompanied Xing Guodong's group to the Shanghai Television Factory.

The Shanghai Machinery Factory was a large state-owned enterprise established in the early days of the founding of the country. Its predecessor was the Shanghai Machine Tool Factory. After years of development, it had grown into a large machinery factory with the capability to produce complete sets of large chemical equipment, and it also possessed relatively advanced technology in the production of precision machine tools.

In the domestic machinery industry, the Shanghai Machinery Factory still held significant influence.

However, the current Shanghai Machinery Factory looked much more desolate. When Su Xinghui and the others arrived at the Shanghai Machinery Factory, the factory had stopped production again because it hadn't received any orders during this period.

To be precise, the Shanghai Machinery Factory hadn't received any decent orders for nearly a year.

Before arriving at the Shanghai Machinery Factory, Mu Dezhang had already contacted the factory. Hearing that the State Planning Commission's research team was coming to the factory for research, the factory leaders were already waiting at the factory gate. After the cars Mu Dezhang and the others were riding in drove to the gate, they respectfully welcomed the two cars into the factory.

Su Xinghui got out of the car and saw that there were few workers walking around in the huge factory area. He couldn't help but frown.

Following these factory leaders to the conference room in the factory office building, those leaders diligently invited Su Xinghui, Mu Dezhang, and the others to sit down, and then someone served fragrant tea, fruit, peanuts, melon seeds, and other things.

The factory director of the Shanghai Machinery Factory, Xiao Minggui, smiled and said, "Welcome, leaders, for your guidance. Leaders, please sit down, drink some tea, eat some fruit, and take a rest."

Su Xinghui said, "May I ask who you are?"

Xiao Minggui said, "I am Xiao Minggui, the director of the Shanghai Machinery Factory."

Su Xinghui said, "Oh, so it's Director Xiao. We don't need to rest. Our time is very tight, so let's start our work."

Xiao Minggui said, "Then may I ask, how should we cooperate with your work?"

Su Xinghui said, "We want to understand the situation of your Shanghai Machinery Factory, including the basic situation of the factory, the business situation over these years, the current status of the factory, and how the factory plans to reform to reverse the current situation."

Xiao Minggui nodded and said, "Alright, then let's start."

Su Xinghui nodded, and Xia Song took out his pen and notebook, ready to record.

Xiao Minggui began to introduce some of the situations of the Shanghai Machinery Factory.

The Shanghai Machinery Factory currently had over 16,000 employees, including over 2,000 engineering and technical personnel, and about 2,000 various skilled workers at level six or above. The technical strength was still very strong, and it could now manufacture a variety of large complete sets of chemical equipment and some precision machine tools.

This year happened to be the 50th anniversary of the Shanghai Machinery Factory. Having gone through fifty years of wind and rain, the Shanghai Machinery Factory's past advantages were slowly being lost, while the burden was becoming heavier and heavier, and it was now very difficult to receive orders.

The main reason for not receiving orders was that because the Shanghai Machinery Factory had a heavy burden, it did not have a cost advantage compared to similar domestic enterprises, and compared to those foreign-funded enterprises, it did not have a technological advantage. This put the Shanghai Machinery Factory in a rather awkward position, failing to compete on either front.

This was mainly because of the current trade embargo by the West against China; many advanced technologies and equipment could not be obtained by China through normal channels. The Shanghai Machinery Factory's technology might be considered relatively advanced domestically, but compared to the leaders in the foreign machinery industry, it was nothing.

Now that China was reforming and opening up, many foreign-funded enterprises had entered China, competing with Chinese manufacturing enterprises for the market, especially in the machinery industry, which was highly technical, making the competition even more intense.

In such intense competition, the Shanghai Machinery Factory slowly fell behind. Their orders became fewer and fewer, their profits became thinner and thinner, and they even began to lose money.

The Shanghai Machinery Factory's orders became fewer and fewer, which caused problems with their working capital turnover. It became harder and harder for them to repay bank loans, and those high loan interest rates became a heavy burden on them. ===== CHAPTER 2603 =====