Per reporter: Li Xing Per editor: Sun Lei
The industrial park outside the Shangrao factory of Great Wall Motor (formerly the second phase of Hanteng Automobile) is empty and silent, and it is rare to see workers. "The factory is still in the stage of system construction and preliminary preparation, and has not yet been officially put into production." Wu Na (pseudonym), an employee of Great Wall Motor's Shangrao plant, said in an interview with the Daily Economic News reporter a few days ago that the plant will not start SOPs (that is, small batch production) until August this year.
Wu Na (pseudonym) is a former worker in The Hanteng Automobile Workshop and has now become a production line worker at the Shangrao factory of Great Wall Motors. "Our batch of recruited ordinary workers all asked to go to other factories of Great Wall Motor for a three-month practical study." Wu Na said she was sent to Great Wall Motor's Jingmen production base.
According to the reporter's understanding, since taking over the second phase of Hanteng Automobile's factory, Great Wall Motors' Shangrao factory has more than 300 people. "Except for more than 80 veteran employees stationed by Great Wall Motors, the other personnel were recruited locally in Shangrao." The relevant person in charge of the Shangrao factory of Great Wall Motor revealed to reporters that by July this year, the scale of employees in the factory will be expanded to 1,000 to 1,500 people.
2021 is a year of rapid expansion for Great Wall Motors. In addition to the already acquired Hanteng Automobile Phase II plant, Great Wall Motors has also taken over the Hanlong Automobile plant in Daye, Hubei Province. "The company has planned many new models and set a goal of 4 million vehicles a year worldwide by 2025, and the existing plant capacity cannot meet future development goals." The relevant person in charge of Great Wall Motor Group said that taking over the idle production capacity of car companies that are difficult to operate is a further expansion of the company's existing production capacity.
"The above move of Great Wall Motors is a win-win situation for both Great Wall Motors and local governments. Great Wall Motors can quickly meet its production capacity expansion needs by obtaining production bases, factories and plant production equipment at much lower than market prices; local governments can use this to revitalize idle resources and increase local employment rates. Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, believes that the above measures of Great Wall Motors are a win-win for both itself and the local government.
Although the second phase of Hanteng Automobile's factory has been replaced by the signboard of Great Wall Motors, the name plate of Hanteng Automobile is still faintly visible on the gate
The Shangrao factory has been recruited first
In June 2021, Great Wall Motor announced that Great Wall Motor's vehicle and parts production base project was officially settled in Shangrao Economic and Technological Development Zone, Jiangxi Province, which was originally the location of The Second Phase Factory of Hanteng Automobile. Due to the poor operating conditions, Hanteng Automobile began to lay off employees on a large scale from 2020, and its first and second phases of factories were also suspended. In June 2021, Great Wall Motors and Shangrao Municipal People's Government officially signed a contract to take over the second phase of Hanteng Automobile's plant.
Thanks to the reception of Hanteng Automobile's plant and existing production equipment, Great Wall Motors only needed one year from the takeover to the completion of the project reconstruction. "At present, the factory is still undergoing project transformation, and the production line will start production until July." The relevant person in charge of the Shangrao plant of Great Wall Motor told reporters.
It is worth mentioning that less than half a month after taking over the second phase of Hanteng Automobile's factory, Great Wall Motors launched a large-scale recruitment work. In July 2021, a number of departing employees of Hanteng Automobile broke the news to reporters that Great Wall Motors asked whether they were willing to work in the Shangrao factory of Great Wall Motors, and their wages could rise by up to 30% on the existing wage base.
The reporter learned from a roll-up treasure recruitment information erected at the entrance of the Shangrao factory of Great Wall Motor that the comprehensive salary of the factory's recruitment of manufacturing employees is 4,000 to 8,000 yuan / month. "Eight-hour work, the salary after regularization is 3600 yuan / month." The relevant person in charge of the Shangrao factory of the great wall motor introduced to reporters that if you work overtime for one to two hours a day, the salary can basically reach more than 4,000 yuan.
It is reported that because the factory is still in the project reconstruction stage, the early recruitment of employees needs to go to other factories of Great Wall Motor for three months of practice. "This year's recruitment work will start after the Spring Festival, and new ordinary workers will also need to go to the field for three months to practice, and then come back to work." The relevant person in charge of the Shangrao factory of Great Wall Motor said that the factory will start trial production from May to June, and employees who go to practice after the year can directly enter the factory to work.
The Great Wall has a "low-cost" layout in many places
According to the reporter's understanding, in addition to the Shangrao factory, the transformation of Great Wall Motor's production base in Jingmen, Hubei Province, has been basically completed. "The Jingmen production base strives to carry out corresponding production before the Spring Festival and raise the production speed as much as possible." The relevant person in charge of Great Wall Motor revealed to reporters that the first model produced by the factory was the tank 500.
According to public information, in October 2020, Great Wall Motors announced the formal acquisition of the Jingmen vehicle production base, and the Jingmen Municipal Government transferred the production base to Great Wall Motors in the form of equity transfer, which previously belonged to Cheetah Motors.
According to the agreement, Great Wall Motor upgraded the original Cheetah Automobile Factory and transformed the original SUV production line into a flexible production line for both SUVs and pickup trucks. In addition, Great Wall Motors also plans to build four parts supporting projects at the base, including car seats, interior and exterior trims, chassis, and rubber parts. "The Jingmen vehicle production base project will be built into a comprehensive base project with vehicle manufacturing as the core, key components as the supporting components, and related industries as the service." Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors, has said publicly.
Public information shows that in addition to the production of tank 500, Great Wall Motor's Jingmen factory also plans to produce P04 and P05 pickups, as well as two MPV and the tank 700 and tank 800 that have not yet been launched. It is worth noting that after successively taking over the factories of Cheetah Automobile and Hanteng Automobile, the pace of Great Wall Motors' expansion of production capacity has not stopped. At the end of 2021, Great Wall Motors was once again transferred to the Hanlong Automobile Plant in Daye City, Hubei Province.
According to public information, as early as October 2021, Great Wall Motor signed the "Framework Agreement on Cooperation in Vehicle and Parts Projects" with the Daye Municipal Government. According to the agreement, Great Wall Motors will integrate existing resources and revitalize existing assets based on the former Hanlong Automobile Plant, and is expected to be reloaded and put into production in January 2022, and the first vehicle will officially roll off the production line in May.
In this regard, the relevant person in charge of the above-mentioned Great Wall Motor Group only told reporters, "At present, our official channels have not released relevant information to the outside world. The Company will respond in a unified manner to the matter in the near future. ”
In accordance with the schedule requirements of the Great Wall Motor project, great wall motor recruitment work was launched in November 2021. At the same time, the renovation project of Great Wall Motor Daye Plant, Factory 1 and Factory 2 is also being tendered.
Take over the factory but do not take on the debt
"The reason why the company quickly purchased some weak factories from local governments to be sold is to achieve the company's strategic target for 2025." Relevant sources said.
In June 2021, Great Wall Motor released the "2025 Strategy" to clarify that in 2025, Great Wall Motor will achieve global annual sales of 4 million vehicles, operating income of more than 600 billion yuan, of which 80% will be new energy vehicles, the next five years research and development investment will reach 100 billion yuan.
After taking over hanlong Automobile Daye Plant, Great Wall Motors has formed eleven major production bases in China, which are located in Baoding, Hebei, Xushui, Tianjin, Shandong Rizhao, Jiangsu Taizhou, Jiangsu Zhangjiagang, Zhejiang Pinghu, Chongqing Yongchuan, Hubei Jingmen, Hubei Daye, and Jiangxi Shangrao.
According to available data, great wall motor has a total production capacity of more than 2.5 million units nationwide. Official data shows that in 2021, Great Wall Motor sold about 1.281 million new vehicles, an increase of 15.2% year-on-year, a record high, and sold more than one million units for six consecutive years. Although the existing capacity is sufficient to cover the current capacity demand, it is still far from the global production capacity target of 4 million vehicles.
Cui Dongshu said that In order to expand production capacity, Great Wall Motors has taken the acquisition of factories with production capacity such as Hanteng Automobile and Cheetah Automobile, which can not only greatly shorten the construction period and speed up the production speed, but also spend less money to maximize the benefits.
The relevant person in charge of the above-mentioned Great Wall Motor Group also said that the factories acquired by Great Wall Motors are all poorly managed production capacity idle resources, and the completion of the acquisition can promote the development of the local real economy and increase employment opportunities.
The reporter learned from many sources that these second-hand factories purchased by Great Wall Motors from local governments only purchased plants and production equipment, and did not bear the debt liability of enterprises facing bankruptcy. "Great Wall Motors only invested in the purchase of the second phase of Hanteng Automobile's factory and equipment in the factory, and will not participate in the restructuring of Hanteng Automobile." Hanteng Auto executives have said frankly.
The relevant person in charge of the above-mentioned Great Wall Motor said that the acquisition of such a second-hand factory will save a lot of costs compared with the new factory, and the production time will be greatly shortened. Great Wall Motors is based on the principle of "resource conservation, cost priority" to control costs as much as possible.
However, many people in the industry are worried that the capacity expansion model of Great Wall Motors will put pressure on the long-term turnover of its internal funds. "We are based on our own actual product planning, the corresponding layout. The company also did sufficient research work in the early stage, and since it was decided to do it, it was certain that it would definitely make money. The relevant person in charge of the above-mentioned Great Wall Motor explained, "The company will not invest too much in one go, and will make corresponding preparations in advance according to the product launch plan and sales promotion plan in the later stage." ”
From the perspective of cash flow statement, Great Wall Motor's operating cash flow in the past three years has continued to be positive. "In order to ensure the sufficient liquidity of this kind of funds, many of the company's monetary funds are about 10 billion yuan." The relevant person in charge of the above-mentioned Great Wall Motors revealed to reporters that the acquisition of a factory like Hanteng Automobile does not cost much.
"In recent years, it is a rare window period for China's independent brands to quickly seize the market, and there may be no opportunity to miss it." That's why we're proposing a 3-year strategic plan instead of a 5-year or 10-year strategic plan. The relevant person in charge of the above-mentioned Great Wall Motor Group told reporters.
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