Chapter 803 GT Company's Concerns

France, GT Company.

"Damn, they won't really master the core technology of LNG ships, right?" The head of GT frowned, a little worried and a little unbelieving.

GT is not a big company, with only more than 300 formal employees, but they can almost sleep well with their patents on LNG ships.

This is also the reason why the West can have high wages and high benefits. Their industrial development is earlier, and all kinds of patents are registered by them. When the French were studying how to transport liquefied natural gas, the East had not considered this issue.

The first-mover advantage is like this. As long as it is solved, it will have a very big advantage in this field.

Although the latecomer advantage can point out the way with the first-mover advantage and take fewer detours, it is inevitable to encounter the intellectual property rights constructed by the first-mover party.

China is now weak in patent awareness. It's okay in China. Once it goes abroad, it needs to face the patent lines constructed by European, American and Japanese countries.

If you don't pay patent fees, you can't go out at all.

Take LNG ships for example. If you don't pay the French patent fee, you can't use them at all. If you use them, you will be sued. Which shipping company dares to order LNG ships from the shipyard?

"Will they really make Invar steel? Or even make a new material like Invar steel?" Frank looked at the news with a frown.

For decades, the manufacturing process of Invar steel has been mastered by only GT. After all, they have been studying in this industry, including their liquid cargo maintenance system. From the initial NO82, it has been continuously developed. After N085 and NO88, it has become more and more technically mature and has become the top existence in this industry.

In the world, only they can make Invar steel.

GT's Invar steel production capacity is limited, which also makes Invar steel expensive.

Therefore, GT is arrogant to customers who want to obtain their patent licenses, and asks for a 5% patent licensing fee for each ship. Customers can only bite their teeth and accept it.

For an LNG ship, the patent fee paid to GT alone is 5 to 15 million US dollars!

It is also because they can make money even when they are lying down that GT's employees are paid very high salaries. They only work five hours a day, which is very relaxing, and they can also drink coffee leisurely.

If it were other countries, Frank would only sneer.

Because even the Americans and Japanese have not been able to produce Invar steel, nor have they been able to bypass GT's core patents and come up with a new set of core patents for LNG ships.

But China is different. This country is too good at creating miracles.

The impression China has left on Europe and the United States is very complicated. On the one hand, it is poor and backward, and even many Europeans and Americans still have pig tails behind their heads; on the other hand, China is holding millet and rifles, and a group of farmers holding simple weapons can beat them to a pulp.

In addition, China is particularly good at creating miracles in industry.

Two bombs and one satellite, this is the patent of industrial powers. The United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France are undoubtedly industrial powers, but China, which is poor and blank, has come up with "two bombs and one satellite".

There is also the high-speed rail. In recent years, the reputation of China's high-speed rail has become more and more famous. For visiting foreign guests, they are often arranged to take a high-speed rail. Now China's high-speed rail has a tendency to become the world's first high-speed rail.

Foreign guests who go to China to take the high-speed rail will pick up a coin and stand it at the window, curiously observing whether the coin will not fall.

And China's machine tools have long stopped importing CNC machine tools, but are exporting machine tools to compete with other industrial powers for the machine tool market.

Chinese cars and motorcycles have even appeared in continental Europe!

Not to mention, China's Jinlong computers are rampant in Europe. Among major computer brands, they are the best-selling in Europe, occupying more than 50% of the market share.

Frank had to wonder whether the Chinese really conquered the Invar steel technology, produced qualified Invar steel, or even developed materials that are the same as Invar steel, or even surpass Invar steel!

It is not an easy task to produce Invar steel. It needs to go through complicated processes such as arc furnace smelting, vacuum induction melting, LF refining, vacuum oxygen decarburization, vacuum arc remelting, electroslag remelting, continuous casting, hot rolling, cold rolling, etc. Just these production equipment require a large amount of money to purchase.

Invar steel is also a big profit for GT. Because Invar steel accounts for about 10% of the production cost of an LNG ship. Although its usage is not too much, Invar steel is expensive.

In this, GT has at least 50%~100% profit, and sometimes even 150%~200% profit!

Once Huaxia has mastered it, it will be difficult for GT to make these profits again.

The biggest feature of Huaxia manufacturing is cheapness. When they get involved in a certain industry, they will make a certain industry cheap.

Once the Chinese can make Invar steel, GT will not only reduce profits, but even produce Invar steel at a loss.

In recent years, many factories in Europe and the United States have gone bankrupt. In addition to rising energy prices, rising prices, and rising labor costs, these factories have found that even if they do not make money, the products they produce are still more expensive than those made in China, and they are not competitive at all.

At present, European and American products in the category of daily necessities are completely uncompetitive compared to those made in China.

China is now the world's textile center, producing a large number of clothes and pants for export every year.

Many foreign brands look for China to do OEM and OEM production, so as to reduce their own costs and expand profits.

What Frank is most worried about now is that the Chinese have mastered new materials and new key technologies of LNG, bypassing GT, which will be a devastating blow to GT.

GT's good days depend on two things, one is the key technology of LNG ships, and the other is Invar steel.

Without these two things, GT will be finished, and it will not be far from bankruptcy.

"Damn, it seems that I have to go to China and visit this shipyard!" Frank gritted his teeth. Just watching the news, he couldn't see the actual content.

But he knew that this news would definitely have a great impact on GT.

For example, GT has received a customer who does not want to pay 5% of the patent fee and wants to reduce the patent fee.

Others are testing whether the price of Invar steel can be reduced.

If this news is confirmed, Frank can hardly imagine what a terrible blow it will cause to GT.

Only by going and seeing it, Frank can have a clear idea in his heart.

He has decided that if it is not as he thought, he will definitely punish those shipyards.

Let alone 5% of the patent fee, even 7% or even 10% of the patent fee, these shipyards have to bite their teeth and accept it.

As for how the shipyard reduces costs, whether it is squeezing the surplus value of workers or using advanced equipment to speed up efficiency, this is not what GT should care about.

GT is a company, not a charity, why consider so much.