【英语中国】中国工业企业“西进”

In a cavernous factory in Rochdale, Lancashire, a group of workers is putting the finishing touches to high-tech machine tools used to make vital parts for giant cannons used by the US military. In a separate plant half an hour’s drive away near Halifax, West Yorkshire, another engineering team is assembling large machines used in the oil, road-building and aerospace industries.

The 180 people in the two operations – formerly part of two of Britain’s most famous machine tool makers – are now part of the business empire of Chongqing Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, one of China’s biggest state-owned holding companies.

This example of the shifting patterns of industrial globalisation has come about through the ￡20m ($31m) acquisition in April of Precision Technologies Group, a UK-based business mainly active in machine tools, by Chongqing Machinery & Electric Company.

The Chinese company is one of 30 controlled by the state-owned Chongqing Commission. While Chinese companies have so far purchased only a handful of industrial businesses in Europe and the US, such deals are likely to become more common, according to Madeleine Sturrock, managing director of Pancathay Consulting, a London-based advisory group.

“While China has become an extremely important industrial country, a lot of Chinese businesses realise they need to learn [technology and management skills] from the west,” says Ms Sturrock.

In the case of PTG, the Chinese plan calls for ￡10m of investment in the next few years, mainly in Rochdale, to boost the UK company’s prowess in machine tool technology.

Chongqing Machinery is among China’s biggest machine tool makers, with sales of this equipment last year of about $300m, but is technologically not as advanced as many rival machinery makers outside China.

“My Chinese colleagues know that – with present levels of technology – they would be unable to make in China machine tools of the same level of sophistication that we are now producing in PTG’s British plants,” says Tony Bannan, PTG’s chief executive.

PTG is not the only UK target of Chinese buyers. Last year, Ningxia Zhong-yin Cashmere Company, a cashmere supplier, bought Todd & Duncan, a specialist maker of finished cashmere yarn.

According to Ian McGrattan, Todd & Duncan’s managing director, the new Chinese owners’ plans involve “emphasising the Scottishness” of the UK company, which last year had sales of about ￡20m and employs 200 people.

“Our business entails selling small quantities of high-value yarn to 900 specialist textiles companies throughout Europe, normally on the basis that they take delivery of the goods in a few days, sometimes a few hours, after they place the order. [The new owners] realise that they would be unable to operate this business if they tried to do it from their existing base in China,” Mr McGrattan says.

A third acquisition which follows a similar pattern took place three years ago when China National Blue-star, a large Chinese, state-owned chemicals business bought a factory in Grimsby that was formerly part of Courtaulds, the chemicals business.

The Chinese company has since then spent ￡20m to upgrade the plant’s production so it is capable of making carbon fibre, a high-tech material used in industries such as aircraft production.

At the same time, Bluestar, in which Blackstone, the New York-based financial group has a 20 per cent stake, has used the know-how of its UK subsidiary to play a part in the construction of a large plant to make carbon fibre in an industrial complex in Lanzhou, northern China.

Carbon fibre production is seen in China as vital for the next 50 years due to its relevance to a range of engineering businesses.

David Service, managing director of Bluestar’s UK subsidiary, says that while the knowledge gained of carbon fibre production was a big part of the rationale behind the deal, the Chinese group is also interested in using its base in Grimsby to build up a presence in western markets.

“The purchase of the plant could be followed up by other moves, such as efforts to acquire other European businesses in carbon fibre technology,” Mr Service says.

“Ten years ago deals of this kind [involving Chinese companies] were purely about acquiring knowledge, but now they are as much about giving Chinese businesses more of a western outlook.”

在英国兰开夏郡(Lancashire)罗奇代尔市(Rochdale)一座巨穴般的工厂里，一群工人正在对一批高科技机床进行最后加工，这些机床用于为美军使用的重炮制造关键部件。半小时车程之外，西约克郡(West Yorkshire)哈利法克斯市(Halifax)的另一家工厂里，另一个工程小组正在组装用于石油、筑路和航天行业的大型机械。

这两家工厂原先分属英国最著名的两家机床制造商，如今，两家工厂的180名工人都在为重庆市国有资产监督管理委员会下属的庞大商业帝国效力。重庆国资委是中国最大的国有控股企业之一。

今年4月，重庆机电股份有限公司(Chongqing Machinery & Electric Company)以2000万英镑 (合3100万美元)收购了总部位于英国的、主要从事机床生产的Precision Technologies Group（简称PTG）。工业全球化模式正在发生变化，这宗交易成为其最新例证。

重庆机电是重庆市国资委下属30家国有重点企业之一。英国磐华咨询(Pancathay Consulting)董事总经理罗曼蒂(Madeleine Sturrock)表示，尽管迄今为止，中国企业仅收购了少量欧美工业企业，但此类交易可能会变得更为常见。

“虽然中国已成为极其重要的工业国家，但许多中国企业意识到，自己必须向西方学习（技术和管理技巧），”罗曼蒂表示。

在PTG的案例中，中方计划在未来数年投入1000万英镑，主要投向罗奇代尔，以增强该公司在机床技术领域的实力。

重庆机电是中国最大的机床制造商之一，去年机床销售额约为3亿美元，但在技术上，该公司没有许多国外机械制造商那么先进。

“我的中国同事们知道，以现有技术水平，他们在中国生产的机床，在精细程度上无法与我们在PTG英国工厂生产的机床相比，”PTG首席执行官托尼?班南(Tony Bannan)表示。

PTG并不是中国买家瞄准的唯一英国企业。去年，羊绒供应商宁夏中银绒业股份有限公司(Ningxia Zhong-yin Cashmere Company)收购了邓肯公司(Todd & Duncan)，后者是一家专门生产成品羊绒纱线的企业。

邓肯公司董事总经理马嘉顺(Ian McGrattan)表示，新中国东家的计划包括“强调（公司的）苏格兰背景”。邓肯公司去年的销售额约为2000万英镑，拥有200名员工。

“我们的业务内容是向欧洲各地共900家专业纺织品企业销售少量的高品质羊绒纱线，这些企业通常要求在下单后几天、有时甚至是几小时内收到货物。（新东家）意识到如果他们试图在中国现有基地进行生产，将无法运营此项业务，”马嘉顺表示。

第三笔类似模式的收购发生在3年前，当时中国大型国有化工企业中国蓝星(China National Blue-star)收购了格里姆斯比的一家工厂，该工厂原本是化工企业Courtaulds旗下的业务。

此后，中国蓝星花费了2000万英镑，对生产设施进行升级，从而具备了生产碳纤维的能力，这是一种用于飞机制造等领域的高科技材料。

与此同时，蓝星还利用其英国子公司的专业技能，在中国兰州工业园区建设了一座大型碳纤维工厂。美国金融集团百仕通(Blackstone)目前持有蓝星20%的股权。

由于碳纤维与一系列工程行业休戚相关，中国方面认为，碳纤维生产对于未来50年非常重要。

蓝星英国子公司董事总经理戴维?瑟韦斯(David Service)表示，尽管获取碳

纤维生产技术是此笔收购交易背后的主要原因之一，但蓝星集团也有意利用格里姆斯比的生产基地，在西方市场拓展业务。

“收购工厂之后公司还可以采取其它举措，例如收购碳纤维技术领域的其它欧洲企业，”瑟韦斯表示。

“十年前，（涉及中国企业）的此类交易纯粹是为了获取技术知识，但如今，另一个同样重要的目的，是为中国企业提供更多西方视角。”

译者/何黎