Chapter 2465 - Demonstration Textile Factory

Zou Biao felt that the current predicament of the cotton textile industry stemmed from two reasons:

The first aspect was the planning issue during the First Five-Year Plan period. From the beginning, the Planning Academy didn't intend to spend much effort on cotton textiles, and various imported cotton cloths, whether domestic or imported, could already fully satisfy basic demands. If not to satisfy some special demands, this demonstration textile factory probably wouldn't even have been built.

Of course, from Zou Biao's perspective, it was hard to say the Planning Academy's decision was wrong. Putting aside the abundant supply of cotton cloth, just looking at the objective conditions of Hainan itself, it was indeed not quite suitable for developing the cotton textile industry.

Although Hainan was the birthplace of cotton textile technology, compared to Songjiang, production efficiency had already been left several streets behind by Songjiang. Jiangnan not only had cotton spinning on a scale but also an equally huge silk weaving industry. There were far more skilled artisans for manufacturing looms than in Hainan, and improvements in both technology and craftsmanship were much faster. Hainan, in reality, did not have a scaled textile industry. It basically remained at the stage of family sideline business.

The second aspect was the business model issue. During the First Five-Year Plan, due to demand for "special use" products like canvas, the Planning Academy believed a textile industry of limited scale could be established. To compress investment, they proposed the rather pitfall-laden model of the "putting-out system" for spinning. The result was obvious: collected yarn couldn't be hung on mechanical looms.

Human hand-spun yarn was uneven and unstable. Once hung on a loom, it was very prone to breakage, and the quality of the cloth was also relatively poor. Especially the warp yarn bearing tension; it broke easily when force was great, causing difficulties for production. The strength of yarn threads prevented machine production speed from going up. Even distributing carded cotton slivers to processing households couldn't solve this problem. Spinning could only produce uniform and tough yarn using mechanical power, or at least hydraulic power; human power was difficult to spin yarn of better quality. And these machines often required a certain footprint, which ordinary peasant families couldn't afford; only workshop owners with certain capital could afford them.

These two problems added together naturally formed the current embarrassing situation of the textile industry. Zou Biao had to force himself to continue being his person in charge.

With the unfolding of the Senate's "Capacity Expansion Plan," reorganizing the textile industry with the help of private capital was put on the agenda of the Ministry of Light Industry. Originally disheartened, Zou Biao unexpectedly got an assistant: a scapegoat named Li Shan ran out willing to take over the textile promotion cause, responsible for soliciting investment and sales for light textile industry.

So Li Shan came to partner with him.

Li Shan also came from a mechanical background, but after working in mechanics for a few years after graduating from university, he was dissuaded by the low-wage, high-intensity career and jumped ship to become an agent in a real estate company. He had considerable experience in persuading people to invest.

This time, the Guangzhou bidding was completed smoothly, and both felt very excited. Firstly, the textile industry could have greater development, and their own discourse power would increase accordingly; secondly, various old equipment in the factory could be eliminated incidentally. Doing an industrial upgrade—Zou Biao had been planning to install new looms all these years.

To welcome the arrival of the financial backers, starting from three days ago, the Demonstration Textile Factory stopped work in turns by area and production line for cleaning, wiping, and repairing equipment. From top to bottom, everyone was busy turning upside down. The two patrolled back and forth several times, roughly marking out a visiting route, allowing financial backers to fully understand the whole process of cotton textile production.

After the last inspection ended, the two dragged their sore legs back to the office.

The office was originally enjoyed by Zou Biao alone. After Li Shan came, they squeezed together, making it easier to discuss matters.

A sharp steam whistle sounded outside. Zou Biao subconsciously looked at the wall clock: 7 PM.

In another hour, the day shift workers would get off work. Hearing this steam whistle, the night shift workers living in the factory dormitory area would have to prepare for work.

He glanced at the latest monthly report on factory industrial accidents and sighed secretly. Although the safety of the textile factory was better compared to other industrial enterprises, by the standards of the old timeline, the injury rate and occupational disease incidence rate of the demonstration factory were still too high. The reason was self-evident: working twelve hours in a workshop filled with noise and moisture, labor intensity was too great, leading to excessive mental and physical fatigue.

Now the schedule of the demonstration factory was that each team worked 12 hours under a two-shift rotation system. Within this, there was 30 minutes for mealtime and a 15-minute rest every 4 hours, so the actual working time reached 11 hours.

Initially, the Demonstration Textile Factory didn't arrange shift work. Production stopped before dark. The reason was that there was a lot of cotton dust in the textile factory; once a fire started, it could cause a large-scale fire disaster. Using gas lamps for night lighting was too dangerous. Later, after the electric power department could produce electric lamps, the Planning Academy changed the textile factory to a two-shift rotation enterprise, conducting 24-hour production.

Zou Biao always complained about the Planning Academy: Since most current cotton cloth production was for "special use" and belonged to price-insensitive products, why adopt such radical cost-cutting means? It didn't belong to products that must be produced continuously. Moreover, the cotton textile industry had never been a main development industry, so there was no need to reserve workers through a multi-shift system.

But complaint was complaint. Under the state where the Senate's industrial enterprises generally adopted the two-shift production mode, he couldn't be an exception.

"Old Zou, look at how this arrangement is?" Li Shan handed him the reception schedule. Zou Biao was already over fifty, properly an 'Old Zou'.

"We've studied these things many times. Still need to comb through?" Zou Biao pushed the document away, "We'd better study how to sell those backward capacities tomorrow..."

"Can the price of your Model 25 Ring Spinning really not come down?" Li Shan asked. Ring spinning had great advantages; first, the footprint was much smaller, and the key was that efficiency improved a lot.

"Really can't. Model 25 Ring Spinning is mechanically powered. The spindle body is okay to say; in the past, it was made of Cyclobalanopsis (Qinggang Li, a type of oak), and substitute materials can be found without Cyclobalanopsis. But the spindle shaft, roller, and yarn guide hook parts must be iron; otherwise, wear is too severe, and the textile factory mechanics will curse. It's fine for us to use it ourselves, but if changed to old moneybags using it, their own machine repair ability is poor. If machines break down every few days, won't they go crazy?"

"Current steel quota has gone up, but the price, honestly speaking, is still too high." Li Shan frowned, "I'm afraid old moneybags can't accept it."

"If you insist on using wood, it's not impossible, but this loss rate will go up." Zou Biao said, "I have also considered similar problems. How about adopting post-period maintenance of replacing only, not repairing? This can significantly reduce maintenance pressure and reduce downtime. But doing so involves changes in machine design and rising maintenance costs."

"I see, let's hoodwink the big households on board first. As long as their invested cost is large enough, when they find they're on a pirate ship, they can't get off—sunk costs are too big for them to bear. And as long as they can mass produce, they can kill Songjiang cloth immediately; they won't worry about not making money. When they make money, we'll hoodwink them to upgrade." Li Shan gestured like a treacherous merchant.

"Hope it's as you said. I feel those big households aren't easy to hoodwink; otherwise, Hainan has been here for so many years, yet private factory mechanization is still just those few." Zou Biao said helplessly. Initially, machine promotion was half-hearted, equivalent to a certificate of allegiance for Hainan local big households, but after pushing for a long time, the scale was like a snail crawling. Up to now, most private enterprises were still handicraft industries, using machines sparingly.

"Wanting the horse to run yet not giving grass to eat, would people be willing? Machines are expensive, and they can't get the core; strange if they were willing!" Li Shan was really convinced: initially coming over to look, a mule spinner spindle actually sold for 2 Australian dollars a spindle; only a ghost would buy! This was like building a gas stove with rocket engine technology; the market couldn't accept it at all. Didn't know who proposed manufacturing this kind of machine. And this time, after researching with Zou Biao, through various technical downgrades and wood-ization of components, the cost of a set of machines was compressed to one-third of the original. As for the price, it was simply selling at a loss. Thinking of ways to hoodwink big households to buy machines first was the key. As long as they bought machines, follow-up maintenance consumables were one sum, and various training could scoop another wave.

"Our complete set of hydraulic spinning equipment is losing money even selling at cost." Zou Biao felt somewhat heartbroken.

"Losing money is also the Planning Academy's business. We just sell the machines and let the factories run."

Early the next morning, Wu Yijun and his party prepared to set off to visit the factory. The place they were going to was the Lingao Textile Industrial Park.

The park was located in the southern mountainous area of Lingao, a very remote place. One had to take the city rail to Nanbao Town first, then transfer to horse carriages.

The reason for choosing the south of the county initially was mainly considering the proximity to the Li area here. Large amounts of kapok, grass cotton, and hemp resources from the mountains could be obtained nearby. It could also radiate to the Li area and absorb Li people for employment. The south of the county also had abundant water resources and poor-quality coal that could be used to burn boilers—these were all essential for textile enterprises.

Led by Chen Xiaobing, the group boarded the city rail at Bopu, went all the way south, and arrived at Nanbao at noon. They had lunch in Nanbao. At this time, someone came to report: the carriage of the Demonstration Textile Factory was already waiting in the town.

Without delay, they boarded the carriage and set off immediately. The textile factory sent a Dongfeng official model carriage, elegant and solemn in appearance, comfortable inside. These few people rode this kind of carriage, which they had only seen in pictures before, for the first time and found it very fresh. Chen Lin still had some boyish nature, looking east and west. Said: "Uncle! Why don't you buy one in Guangzhou too? Both imposing and comfortable. Wouldn't it be beautiful to use it to shuttle guests? Much more lavish than the sedan chair used at home!"

Wu Yijun laughed loudly: "How can I afford this carriage? Just these two fine horses, the annual expense equals that of a dozen people! Not to mention this carriage can't run in Guangzhou either; just with so many bridges on the road, how can this vehicle go?"

(End of Chapter)