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After the regular working meeting of the Spark Team, Zhang Guanfeng returned to the Shanghai Jiao Tong Research Institute. At this moment, his mood was completely different from a few days ago.

I’m rich!

Previously, the R&D + manufacturing budget for the entire project was less than 100 million. Now, the R&D budget allocated for the first phase alone has reached 80 million.

This feeling of getting rich overnight is really great.

Of course, the money is not for him.

But as long as you are engaged in scientific research, who doesn’t have a big dream of “buying whatever you want and testing whatever you want”?

Now, his dream has come true ahead of schedule.

When he thinks of his colleagues who are struggling to buy a new hot isostatic pressing furnace and are frugal, Zhang Guanfeng's sense of superiority is filled to the brim.

Huh? What Tianjin Waterway Bureau? Where did so many poor relatives come from? What Boss Liu?

Xiao Liu!

——

Of course, this is just a joke. In fact, if this project wants to proceed smoothly, it still needs to rely on the talents and policy support of the Tianjin Waterway Bureau.

Zhang Guanfeng sat in his office with high spirits. At this time, the drawings in front of him had changed.

It was originally a drawing of the Tiens that was almost completed, but now, there is only one drawing with the general framework designed, and the details are basically blank.

But this made him more satisfied.

Sky Whale!

Compared with Tiens, the new design has nearly doubled the size of the hull, with the length reaching 198 meters. The width of the ship has not been enlarged in the same proportion, but has been expanded to 42 meters. Compared with Tiens, it is more "slim".

"Fat".

This design is to install a more powerful reamer shaft system and a more flexible hoisting pipe.

If the Tianshi is a dredging ship that can be used to build islands, the Whale is an island-building ship through and through.

Only at sea can it play its greatest role.

Zhang Guanfeng took a deep breath, took another piece of white paper, and began to make a rough calculation of the overall budget of the project.

The dense numbers kept falling, but he no longer felt the same anxiety as before.

In the end, the total design and manufacturing cost of the entire ship was approximately 1.7 billion yuan.

This number cannot be said to be huge, it can only be said to be an astronomical figure.

After all, when the Netherlands originally wanted to sell us a sand dredger, its price was only RMB 300 million.

But for Zhang Guanfeng now, it’s just a small amount of money.

It feels so good to be hugged by golden thighs.

Just leak a little broth from other items and it will be enough for you to drink.

Moreover, the Spark Team does not have the ethos of the old-school agencies at all. They don't care about spending money, as long as they complete the project to perfection and achieve the optimal results.

It is very consistent with the perfectionism he pursues.

Therefore, in summary, it can be said that the current Tianjing Project has the right time, place and people.

If that's the case, then let's just go one step further.

Thinking of this, Zhang Guanfeng picked up the phone and called his assistant Xiao Wang.

"Xiao Wang, please help me contact VOSTA LMG in Germany."

"Yes, they have rich experience in building large cutter suction dredgers. We can consider cooperating with them."

"As for the quotation, let's see what they say first. Of course, if it's too expensive, we won't consider it."

"Yes, we have money now, but we are not taking advantage of us. If we raise the price on the ground, they will not make any money."

Germany, VOSTA LMG headquarters.

Miller looked at the two documents in his hand in a dilemma, his eyes showing a sense of helplessness but also deep relief.

Fortunately, both documents are invitations for cooperation, or inquiry letters, and both come from high-quality customers.

One of them is the China Tianjin Waterway Bureau, which is an official organization with strong financial strength and good reputation.

The other one was from a shipyard of the Vietnamese military.

Needless to say, no matter which field these two customers are in, as long as they extend an olive branch, a large number of companies will rush to do business with them, and now, they have found themselves at the same time.

This fully proves that the strength of VOSTA LMG has now been widely recognized, and future development will be much easier.

——

But at the same time, what made him helpless was that the cooperation target proposed by both parties actually crashed.

They are all large cutter suction dredgers.

It's normal to think about it. Some time ago, they had some conflicts on the sea because of the island issue. Now they are all trying to regain their face. Reclamation and island building are the best "offensive" without using hot weapons.

sexual means”.

Therefore, it is not surprising that they also targeted dredgers.

But the problem is, they want to build it, but VOSTA LMG may not be able to satisfy it at the same time!

Although VOSTA LMG is a professional dredging solution provider, in fact, the scale of its company is not too large, and its project parallelism capabilities are not strong.

In addition, the company has received many orders from Europe and South America in the past two years, and its design and manufacturing capabilities are close to saturation. It is not easy to solve the problems of both China and Vietnam at the same time.

.

——

No, it should be said that it is not difficult, but basically impossible.

Because both projects have put forward time limit requirements, China requires within 18 months, while Vietnam requires within 12 months.

In this case, even if VOSTA LMG wanted to accept the order, it was forced to choose one of the two.

Thinking of this, Miller let out a long sigh.

This is such a sweet trouble.

He raised his head, looked at the commercial director sitting opposite and asked:

"August, you know the situation, and I want to ask your opinion."

"From your perspective, is there any better way for us to protect two customers at the same time?"

Hearing his question, August shook his head and replied:

"I don't think so."

"Actually, this is not a question of design capabilities or production capacity, it is a question of taking sides."

"We all know these conflicts, and we all know the reason why both sides put forward the request to build dredgers at the same time. In this case, if we still only use purely commercial logic to look at the problem, it is actually undesirable.

."

"Of course, you won't see the exclusivity requirement on the inquiry letter because they won't put it on paper."

"But believe me, if we take an order from any one of them, the other one will immediately give up cooperating with us."

"So, there's no room for us to be opportunistic."

"All we can do is comprehensively evaluate the benefits of cooperation with both parties and make the choice that maximizes benefits."

After hearing August's words, Miller nodded with deep understanding.

He has also considered this issue, but before August said it, he still held some unrealistic illusions in his heart, hoping that through his own mediation, both parties could spend money here.

.

Isn’t that what the United States does?

Arms are sold all over the world, including fighter jets to the attackers and anti-aircraft missiles to the defenders.

Well, VOSTA LMG is not the United States, and indeed it does not have this capability.

Thinking of this, he said:

"I see."

"Now, our problem is very clear."

"Should we choose Vietnam or China?"

Seeing August want to speak, he directly raised his hand to interrupt him, and then continued:

"Let me tell you what I think first."

"First of all, I personally prefer to cooperate with Huaxia. The reason is very simple. Their reputation is better and the market is broader."

"We don't have to worry about repayment, and if we can open up the market with this project, we are likely to get a steady stream of orders in the future."
To be continued...