Material Empire

"No, this news must be reported to the president immediately!"

Sadao Hirano came to his senses and returned to the venue with the magazine in hand. Nakagawa Motoku looked at Sadao Hirano's back, shook his head slightly, and said to himself, "Go and report the news to the president at this time, alas..."

The people in the venue were still laughing heartily. They got together in twos and threes, talking freely about the sales prospects of new permanent magnet materials, and joking about the Chinese who handed over a cash cow to them. When Sadao Hirano walked up to Miyagawa, Miyagawa was discussing with Saburo Okazaki about holding a new product launch event.

"Mr. Hirano, you came at a good time. We are discussing how to fully publicize the superiority of the dysprosium-terbium ferroalloy material. What do you think about this?" Miyagawa said to Sadao Hirano who came over, but he didn't pay attention Seeing that Sadao Hirano's face was a little stiff, maybe it was because the Japanese often had a dead face on weekdays, so it was not easy to see any changes.

"President, there are some things I want to talk to you alone." Sadao Hirano said in a low voice.

"What? Did something happen in the laboratory?" Miyagawa just remembered that Sadao Hirano was called out by a messenger just now, and now his voice was a little low, as if something was not going well.

"No, I think... Uh, forget it, I will report this matter to Director Okazaki sooner or later, so I'll tell you about it together." Sadao Hirano said with his head down.

Miyagawa suppressed his smile and said, "Hirano-kun, just tell me if you have any problems. If you encounter any difficulties, the company will help you solve them."

"It's not my problem, but the company..." Sadao Hirano said, he handed the magazine in front of the two of them, and said, "President, Director Okazaki, please read this article."

"Articles?" Miyagawa Masaaki and Okazaki Saburo were both a little strange. Reading academic journals has always been out of their reach. Seeing Sadao Hirano like this, both of them leaned their heads forward, half-understanding to recognize the English words on it: "Permanent magnetic material...preparation...cerium-based, um, cerium-based?"

Same as Sadao Hirano's reaction, Masamu Miyagawa and Saburo Okazaki froze when they said the word "cerium". As a company specializing in rare earth materials, executives are still very familiar with rare earth elements. Seeing that the word "cerium" is associated with the word "permanent magnetic material", they immediately thought of many terrible things.

"The Chinese... To put it simply, the Daqin Group has mastered the preparation method of permanent magnet materials with cerium as the main component, and announced it to the world." Sadao Hirano said with a bitter expression.

"Daqin Group?" Okazaki Saburo only felt his heart beating fast, he pointed to the article and asked Hirano Sadao: "What do they say about the performance of this cerium-based material? Can it be compared with NdFeB? "

Sadao Hirano said: "According to the situation they introduced in the article, the magnetic energy product of this cerium-based permanent magnet material is higher than that of NdFeB, which is only about 10% lower than that of the dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy we have just put into production. It ranks The temperature can also reach over 500 degrees Celsius, which is close to the level of dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy. That is to say, it can be used as a substitute for dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy.”

"Will the data be wrong? What if the Chinese are just trying to bluff?" Miyagawa asked.

Sadao Hirano shook his head and said, "This possibility is unlikely. After all, this is a top international academic journal. Sun Yuzhi is a rigorous scientist. It is impossible for him to falsify in such an article."

"So..." Saburo Okazaki was dumbfounded. Of course he also knew the price difference between cerium and dysprosium and terbium. One percent of one kind, then a fool can imagine what fate the other material will have.

The most frightening thing is that there are hundreds of tons of expensive dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide stored in the warehouse of Spring Mountain Company. Turned into a heap of wasteland.

"Baga!" Miyakawa slammed the table, his eyes staring like copper bells. The executives in the room who were talking and laughing were so frightened that they almost fell down. All of them closed their mouths subconsciously and turned their heads to look at Miyagawa Masa.

"Mr. Hirano, why didn't you and your team realize the existence of cerium-based materials! Why did the Chinese discover new rare earth permanent magnet materials again and again! The research funds invested by the company for you are all Where have you spent your money!" Miyagawa reprimanded Sadao Hirano angrily.

"Cerium-based material, what do you mean?"

"Chinese? Could it be that the Chinese have discovered new rare earth materials?"

"Cerium-based... how is this possible, such a cheap raw material..."

The senior executives heard a lot of implication in Miyagawa Masa's words, and when they thought about it carefully, they suddenly felt a chill hit their backs. They are all people who have been immersed in this industry for many years. How can they not understand the things in the industry? If there is a rare earth permanent magnet material with cerium as raw material, and its performance is not significantly different from dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy , then the dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy is finished. In this market, after all, it is necessary to use the price to speak.

"President Miyagawa, I have failed your expectations. I request the company to give me the most severe punishment." Sadao Hirano bowed deeply, without saying a word of excuse, and took all the responsibility on himself .

In fact, Sadao Hirano has something to say. In the past two years, all the energy of the company's research department has been devoted to dysprosium-terbium ferroalloy. This is not what Hirano Sadao meant, but Miyagawa Masaaki's own order. Inspired by dysprosium-terbium-iron alloys, Sadao Hirano did develop the idea of ​​using other rare earth elements, especially light rare earth elements, to develop new permanent magnet materials. Even several preparation methods mentioned in Sun Yuzhi's article were also made by Sadao Hirano. ever thought of. If it wasn't for Miyagawa asking him to concentrate on developing dysprosium-terbium ferroalloy, maybe he would really develop cerium-based permanent magnet materials before Sun Yuzhi.

However, what's the point of saying such hindsight wise words? The company was put aside technically and faced extremely serious losses. As the technical director, he had to bear the main responsibility no matter what. Instead of jumping out and making excuses in vain, it's better to let Miyagawa vent all his anger and then speak.

After all, Miyagawa is also the president of a large company, so he still has some restraint. He just lost control of his emotions temporarily because he heard such bad news for the first time. After venting a few words, his reason finally returned to him. He let out a long breath, then bowed to Sadao Hirano, and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Hirano, I shouldn't have gotten angry with you, I apologize to you."

"No, President, it is indeed my fault, you are right to reprimand." Sadao Hirano replied.

"Everyone sit down." Miyagawa made a gesture to everyone to sit down, and then sat back in his original position. All the people were no longer as excited as they were just now. They returned to their seats with gloomy expressions, looked down at the table in front of them, as if they wanted to carve some patterns on the table with their eyes.

"Mr. Hirano, did you mention in the article when did the Chinese develop this new material?" Miyagawa asked.

Sadao Hirano said: "The article did not clearly state when they developed this material, but judging from the data they released and the preparation method they introduced, they had mastered this technology at least a year ago. It just hasn’t been made public.”

"A year ago?" Miyagawa calculated it in his head, and then sneered: "Yes, at that time we were still begging the Chinese to sell us dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide at a high price. This article, then we won’t import so much dysprosium and terbium anymore.”

"They did it on purpose!" Changyou Yongsi, who was in charge of raw material procurement, said angrily, "They want to use this method to lure us to purchase their raw materials at a high price."

"However, we got into this trap ourselves." Miyagawa Masao said, "They controlled the export volume of dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide, and threatened not to export to us. We asked them to increase exports. In order to do this , We also helped them obtain seller's credit in Japan, and they used the funds to purchase Japanese steel products and earn high prices in the Chinese market."

"This Qin Hai is the most shameless businessman I have ever seen!" Changyou Yongsi commented, thinking of the scene when he met Qin Hai, recalling Qin Hai's inscrutable smile, Changyou Yongsi wanted to run away Impulsive: "He is a very good actor. He obviously wanted us to fall into his trap, but he acted very detached and refused to sell us these raw materials. As a result, we actually... Sigh!"

He originally wanted to say that he was actually played by Qin Hai, but how could he say such things in front of everyone. He froze for a while, and finally ended his speech with a long sigh.

"I think we are not going to discuss how shameless our opponents are now, but how we should deal with it." Okazaki Saburo first returned to the topic, "If the cerium-based permanent magnet material comes out, it will definitely have a serious impact on us. market. Not only the new dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy market will face collapse, even the traditional NdFeB market will not be able to maintain. Therefore, now we must find a way to delay the promotion and application of cerium-based permanent magnet materials. , developed our own cerium-based material patent.”

"Okazaki-kun is right." Miyagawa nodded heavily, "Obviously, we have been tricked by the Chinese. It is meaningless to hold anyone accountable now. The key is how to deal with this challenge. Okazaki Jun’s proposal is very reasonable, we will join other manufacturers to boycott cerium-based permanent magnet materials until we develop similar patents ourselves.”