"Well, it's pointless to discuss this."

Wadenberg stopped the game of snatching each other's blame. The situation is clear. The Chinese have indeed developed machine tool products that are enough to compete with Botai. No matter how the company holds accountable, this fact cannot be changed.

Everyone also understood in their hearts that the reason why the company fell into this situation was not that the Chinese people did not talk about martial ethics, but that Botai was careless.

30 years ago, Botai was very enterprising. The company invested huge amounts of money in technology research and development, and finally defeated its competitors and became a monopoly in this market.

Once it gains a monopoly position, other companies in the market will no longer dare to covet this market. Botai can make high profits while lying down. At this point, Botai will no longer have the motivation to continue to improve its technology. In the past, it was to make it so that it is now so popular. If you have to continue to work hard, then what is the need for previous efforts?

Lawser said that he had been working hard, and this kind of thing was just to make a fool of himself. The company used to allocate a lot of funds to the technical department, but the technological progress was very slow. Lawser explained that this was because Botai was already at the top of the technology and had to pay more costs for each step forward, which was in line with the so-called "decreasing marginal effect".

The actual reason is that the technical system is slack, the engineer's salary level continues to rise, and the work pressure continues to be reduced. Everyone claims to do some emotional technology, and in the end they only make a bunch of flashy things to deal with the board of directors.

If there is no competition from China, it would be okay for Botai to do this. In the market they control, Botai is the only supplier. Users can accept it, and if they don’t accept it, they must accept it. This is the benefit of monopoly.

But there was a China that appeared. It was so poor that only 300,000 people could afford Coke. The rest of them could only drink Wanglaoji, but they were willing to tighten their belts and carry out research and development at any cost. They wanted to take all the technology into their own hands before they could give up.

The EU restricts the export of precision machine tools to China, forcing China to do it on its own. This is something Botai can understand. But Botai has convinced the EU to relax its controls. Chinese people can buy these machine tools from Botai, and the prices are also discounted. What do you still need to do by yourself?

What's wrong with saving on R&D funds?

But now, is it meaningful to say these? If it were a few years ago, Botai might have been able to grit his teeth and spend some money to compete with the Chinese for R&D strength, and strive to squeeze the Chinese out of this market. But now the whole of Europe is in a debt crisis. Although Germany is not a country with a debt crisis, it has been dragged down and has to bear the obligation to rescue the "Four European Pigs". This is a typical landlord's rhythm that there is no surplus grain.

At this time, can you afford to work hard with Chinese people?

Fighting is a hard work, but this requires everyone to live a few hard days, who is willing to do it?

"What do you think about what Scholter just said?" Wadenberg returned to the topic and asked everyone.

"The European market will not see hope for recovery in the short term, and at this time, we cannot lose the US market. So, I think we must fight back and stop the Chinese people's attempts." Polling said passionately.

"But Shoult just said that American customers require us to cut the price by more than 50%, otherwise they will have to choose Chinese machine tools. Mr. Polling, do you agree with the price reduction requirement of 50%?" Another executive named Fruin said coldly.

"Of course this is impossible!" Pollin shook his head firmly, "If the price is reduced by 50%, we will not only not make a profit, but also lose money, which is absolutely unacceptable."

Fruin said: "But, if we don't cut prices, how can we stop the Chinese?"

Paulin said: "I think the Americans' request is just a blackmail. Over the past decade, Americans have been clamoring for us to reduce prices. Now they have just an option like Chinese machine tools, so their voices are even louder. I know machine tool users very well. They will not easily change suppliers because the cost of changing suppliers is much greater than the difference they can save. So, I think their request is just a threat."

Sholt said: "Mr. Polyn's words may make some sense. But the price difference between Chinese machine tools and us is also true. American customers suspect that our profits are inflated, as Mr. Polyn said, they had already said this more than a decade ago.

"Now, with Chinese machine tools as a reference, their demands will only become stronger. In this case, if we cannot make some concessions and make the Americans feel comforted, it is entirely possible that they will turn to the Chinese."

"Of course it is necessary to make concessions." Paulin began to reclaim his words.

He knew that Scholt's judgment was reasonable. In the past, Botai's machine tools were sold at high prices, and customers had no other choice but to accept it. Now there is a second supplier on the market, so it would be strange if customers don't take the opportunity to put pressure on them.

Botai’s machine tools are all high-end precision machine tools, so naturally the users are also some large companies that take the high-end route, such as Boeing, Los Angeles, Puhui, etc. They also have personalities and tempers. Is it good to have no choice in the past, so it would be fine if you were angry with you, but now there are other options, and they still look at your face?

"I think it's acceptable if it's a symbolic price reduction, such as a price reduction of about 10%," said Polling.

"I have talked to people from Lockheed Martin, and they flatly denied the plan to reduce the price by only 10%, claiming that if the price reduction is less than 30%, it will be exempted from negotiation, which does not include the attached after-sales service terms. As we all know, the advantages of Chinese products are not only reflected in the price of the product, but their after-sales service is more attractive to customers. Compared with our after-sales service terms, their after-sales service is simply free." Scholt said.

"free……"

Everyone gasped, Damn, how can I play this?

Machine tools are durable tools, and it is not surprising that some high-end machine tools have been used for decades. If machine tool companies want to maintain long-term profits, they cannot just rely on the hammer sale of machine tools. Making money through after-sales service is a more important part.

Botai’s after-sales service fee is calculated in minutes. When the after-sales service staff go to the customer, they have to calculate the money for eating, drinking, defecation, and when changing a handle, they dare to charge tens of thousands of repair fees from others. This is not the case with the accessories fee for the original handle. You must know that the accessories fee has always been a sky-high price.

Everyone knows how high the profit margin of after-sales service is. Even if Chinese companies only charge 10% off, they still make profits, but for customers, it is indeed equivalent to free.

"The Chinese are crazy about poverty! If they do this, they will have no profit at all!" Polin shouted.

"I have warned the company from the beginning to be wary of threats from China, but no one cares. Chinese people are like the Japanese back then, good at minimizing costs and making Europeans unable to survive. We Europeans live too comfortable and cannot imagine how Asians work hard." Fruin sighed endlessly.

Wadenberg didn't care about Fruin's words. He said: "We cannot bear the price reduction by 30%. The company's financial situation in recent years is very bad. It has been losses on the books for two consecutive years. In the US market, at the current price, we can only barely break even. The price reduction by 10% means that we need to compress some departments to avoid losses. If the price reduction is 30%, we will definitely lose money. Instead of doing so, we might as well give up the US market."

"But we will be worse for giving up the U.S. market," Fruin said.

"I know this," said Wadenberg. "So giving up the US market is not an option for us. What we need to consider is to maintain the US market while maintaining the original price."

"Can you consider suing China for dumping in the US market?" Lawser offered his advice.

"It requires cooperation from American companies," Fruin said. "But the Americans won't do that. They are willing to see us compete with the Chinese so that they can profit from it."

"We can sue the WTO." Lawsel said unwillingly.

"We have done this, but the WTO arbitration agency believes that our evidence is insufficient and asks us to supplement the evidence," Scholt said.

"Then have you added it?" Paulin asked.

Sholt smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Mr. Polling, in fact, we have no strong evidence. The Chinese people's machine tools are cheaper because their labor costs and management costs are lower than us. Our company is too large, and the management costs are shared on the products, resulting in high costs. This is our problem, and the WTO will not support us."

"So, as we say so, we can't stop the Chinese?" asked Polin.

Scholter looked at everyone and said, "There is a way, but it needs to be operated at the company level and there will be certain costs."

"Tell me," Wardenberg said calmly.

Scholter said: "The Chinese have broken through the obstacles in machine tool design, and it will be very difficult for us to curb them in this regard. But we have studied that most of the key components used in Chinese machine tools are from Europe. If we can convince European accessories companies to restrict the export of key components such as spindles, guide rails, and transmission mechanisms to China, Chinese machine tools will be unable to deliver due to the lack of these components, so Americans will have to accept our products.
Chapter completed!