Chapter 872 Prepare for a Rainy Day

After completing the task assignment, the specific finalization and appraisal work quickly started step by step.

Obviously, it is not only the project team headed by Chang Haonan who is paying attention to the situation of China's aerospace development industry...

Haojing City, Weiyang District.

Inside the headquarters of Ciro Company.

Adam Whittle held an envelope in his hand, hurriedly walked into the company door, and then quickly walked up the stairs.

Compared to more than two years ago, the layout of this building has not changed much, but the decoration inside has become much more gorgeous.

Whittle and George Breen, who took the lead in negotiating with the Hokyung Engine Group and finally used an M250 engine introduction project to retain Ciro Company, are still jointly responsible for the daily business here——

Not that the two have been standing still over the past few years.

In fact, their treatment at Rolls-Royce has been improved to the level of a department deputy manager.

The pace of progress is not unsatisfactory.

However, the importance of Ciro as a platform within Rolls-Royce has increased faster.

According to general rules, it is even necessary to assign a department manager half a grade higher to serve as the British supervisor.

However, the headquarters considered that the two of them were familiar with the situation in China and had accumulated a certain network of contacts. If they rashly parachuted a leader over, they would most likely be sidelined and would not be conducive to business development.

That's why there is a situation where "two deputy positions are in charge of the same department at the same time."

Fortunately, the two of them have completely different expertise and have shared hardships along the way, so they haven't caused any major troubles in the past two years.

Whittle strode all the way and soon arrived outside Brin's office.

The door is open.

The former reached out and knocked twice casually, and then walked in.

George Brin was sorting out this quarter's business reports. He raised his head after hearing a knock on the door and saw Whittle sitting in front of him.

However, before the latter could explain his purpose, Brin spoke first:

"Adam, you came just in time, I was just about to go find you."

As he spoke, he turned the stack of forms 180° and pushed them to the other end of the desk.

Before Whittle could take out the contents of the envelope, he was interrupted from casting the spell. He picked up the report and took a look:

“Isn’t this growth momentum very good?”

He pointed to the results above that sales increased by 35% year-on-year and profits increased by 17% year-on-year and said——

The status of Ciro Company can soar like a rocket. It is definitely not enough to rely solely on an M250 engine that can only power small helicopters and drones.

At most, it can only be regarded as a life extension, allowing the company to barely survive until the next critical time point.

In fact, what really changed the lives of the two of them and Xiro Company was the rapid development of China's air transport industry and the construction of the Luzhou Aviation Industrial Park.

This has directly led to the explosive growth of China's investment in the aviation industry in the past two years.

In the past two years, major Chinese airlines have purchased almost more passenger and cargo aircraft than in the previous ten years combined.

As one of the world's three largest aerospace suppliers, Rolls-Royce benefits from its location in Europe and has also reaped considerable dividends.

Silo Company, which was not originally born for this purpose, has naturally transformed into a large joint venture responsible for aviation engine maintenance, spare parts storage and turnover, and ground staff training.

It is not an exaggeration to even say that Luo Luo Hua Xia is divided into Luo.

This, in turn, further increases Rolls-Royce engine's market share in China.

Among the Airbus A330, A340, Boeing 737 and Boeing 767 newly purchased by China in recent years, more than 70% have chosen RB or Trent series engines as power.

All in all, everything seems to be in a stable and improving situation.

The report in front of Whittle seemed to illustrate this point.

But Brin shook his head:

"On the surface, this is indeed the case, but the hidden dangers are actually still huge."

He said, turning the form to the third page, and then pointed to a form on it:

"Our business growth this year mainly comes from the additional batches of Boeing 767s and Airbus A340s purchased by China the year before last and last year."

"That's right."

Whittle nodded.

"But according to my judgment, the subsequent development of these two models is not optimistic, especially the A340. The economics of a four-engine passenger aircraft of this size are really poor, and Airbus is relatively weak compared to Boeing in the field of cargo aircraft."

Brin replied:

"As for the Boeing 767, although the order volume and delivery volume in the next few years are okay, the order quantity is too stable and there is no fluctuation at all, so I think this may be due to the impact China has reached with the United States in its WTO accession negotiations. The impact of the agreement is not entirely market behavior.”

"When the deadline stipulated in this agreement is reached, Boeing, at least the sales of Boeing 757 and 767 in China may usher in a round of Waterloo."

"In other words, although we don't have anything to worry about right now, the sales situation in the next five years or longer is actually not optimistic."

Although Whittle is not good at business, the other party has already spoken for this reason, and he will not be unable to understand:

"There's nothing we can do about it."

After thinking for a moment, Whittle replied in a helpless tone:

"We don't get a share of the pie in the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, which account for the majority of sales. Although the remaining larger engines have higher profit margins, their sales are much smaller after all, especially the 767 This is also a two-engine aircraft.”

"In addition, China has to set aside enough shares for the passenger aircraft they produce, so the number of pieces of cake will be even smaller."

Brin was silent for a while, then leaned forward with his upper body, slightly closer to Whittle:

"We have to do something, Adam."

"The headquarters won't be anxious about this matter, but it is very important to the two of us."

For a moment, the office fell into silence——

In order to provide users with more choices and share possible supply chain risks, some passenger aircraft models will use multiple engines or engine-wing combinations.

For example, the Airbus A320 uses a choice of either General Electric's CFM56 series or International Aero Engines' (IAE) V2500 series.

But in fact, IAE is a joint venture established by four companies: Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, Nippon Aerospace Engineering and MTU.

Therefore, for Rolls-Royce in the UK, they can still make money by selling V2500.

But it is different for Ciro Company in China, especially Brin and Whittle.

The maintenance and technical training of the V2500 will not be left to them.

A proper competitive relationship.

Whittle frowned:

"But even so, we can't change the procurement strategy of the Chinese people."

Brin also wore a mask of pain.

Persuading others to give up A and choose B between two competing products is still within the scope of public relations.

But to persuade you not to give up the A320 and choose the 767 or the A340, that is probably something that can only be done by mind control.

Not on the same level at all.

Airlines have a set of decision-making processes when purchasing aircraft. They are not 4S shops. You can budget 200,000 yuan and then add money to the down payment of 200,000 yuan.

"If I have to say it, we can only focus on new models."

After a while, Whittle came up with a new idea.

"new model?"

Brin quickly went through all the mainstream passenger aircraft models currently under development in his mind:

"The new generation of 737max and 757 have been delivered, but the new engine model has not yet been selected. The only one left is probably the Airbus A3XX."

"But it is a 550-seat, three-cabin super large passenger aircraft...can it really have enough sales?"

A3XX, Airbus’ super large passenger aircraft project to compete with Boeing 737.

That is the future A380.

However, this meeting has not yet been officially named.

The sales of its competing product, the Boeing 747, in China are actually not optimistic.

So Brin showed some concerns.

But Whittle is not too worried about this:

"China has 1.2 billion people, which is about four times the number of all EU countries combined."

"Imagine if one-fifth or even one-tenth of these people will use airplanes as their main mode of travel in the future, what a terrifying scale it will be."

"By that time, their domestic routes may even require such super-large passenger aircraft."

At the turn of the century, the industry's predictions for future air transportation were still based on a center-to-center approach.

That is, passengers in a region are transferred to the regional center airport through regional aviation, and then transported to another regional center through super large passenger aircraft.

Under this thinking, the demand for passenger aircraft such as 737 and A380 will be extremely huge.

China's polycentric human geography is undoubtedly the second market that fits this model after the United States (population is concentrated on the east and west coasts).

In fact, even if calculated using a point-to-point passenger model, this conclusion will not deviate much.

But at this moment, no one could predict that China would build a unique high-speed railway network in the future, taking away most of the passenger flow that originally belonged to the civil aviation industry...

Therefore, Whittle's rhetoric of "fighting the future" sounds very reasonable.

So much so that Brin was convinced without much struggle.

"This matter can be included in the report to the headquarters at the end of the year..."

He took out a pen, pulled off a piece of note paper from the side, and wrote down what Whittle had just thought:

[The engine selection of the Airbus A3XX project is crucial to expanding the Chinese market...]