When referring to Harbin Bearing Group Corporation (hereinafter referred to as “Harbin Bearing Group”), some experienced people will think of “Harbin, Wafangdian, Luoyang Bearing”, namely, Harbin Bearing Group, Harbin Bearing Group and Luoyang Bearing Group, which are the three flags of China’s bearing industry.
Harbin Bearing Group has a long history, and its products cover automobile, machine tool electromechanical, metallurgy and mining, petrochemical, aerospace, national defense and military industry and other industries. Its supporting development of various aerospace bearings has reached more than 2000 specifications, especially dozens of supporting bearings for Shenzhou V manned spacecraft, Shenzhou VI manned spacecraft and Long March 2F carrier rocket.
However, due to the impact of successive years of losses, structural contradictions, institutional problems and historical burdens, as well as the fact that the total amount of assets is too large, the sales scale is too small, the product structure is aging, the production equipment is outdated, the human resources are scarce, and the cost is extremely high, the problems are becoming more and more serious, and the operating indicators continue to decline for many years. In 2019, Harbin Bearing Group fell into the “darkest moment” in its development history.
After more than half a century of ups and downs, the old factory, which was founded in 1950, has ushered in a critical moment of survival.
It takes one year to moult
“After many rounds of research and discussion by the Harbin Municipal Party Committee and the Harbin Municipal Government, it is believed that only through bankruptcy and reorganization can the historical problems be fundamentally solved.” Liu Mingshan, secretary of the Party Committee and chairman of the Harbin Industrial Investment Group Co., Ltd., recalled that on June 25, 2019, the Standing Committee of the Harbin Municipal Government studied and passed the resolution on the implementation of the bankruptcy and reorganization of Harbin Bearing Group; The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Harbin City issued the Reply on the Approval of Harbin Bearing Group Corporation to Carry out Bankruptcy Reorganization, which agreed in principle that Harbin Bearing Group Corporation and other three companies should carry out bankruptcy reorganization.
On July 8, 2019, the National Enterprise Bankruptcy and Reorganization Case Information Network disclosed the announcement information of the bankruptcy and reorganization of Harbin Bearing.
On July 26, 2019, the Harbin Intermediate People’s Court issued a civil ruling in accordance with the law, approving the bankruptcy reorganization of Harbin Bearing Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and Harbin Bearing Group Co., Ltd. The prelude to the bankruptcy and reorganization of Harbin Bearing Group was officially opened.
On July 29, 2019, Harbin Industrial Investment Group set up a working group for the bankruptcy and reorganization of Harbin Bearing Group, officially stationed in Harbin Bearing Group to carry out the bankruptcy and reorganization work, and fully cooperated with the administrator to promote the bankruptcy and reorganization.
On August 15, 2019, Harbin Bearing Group established a leading group for the bankruptcy and reorganization of Harbin Bearing Group, which consists of four working groups: production and relocation, asset management and debt liquidation, policy implementation and employee placement, safety, stability and comprehensive coordination, to carry out the bankruptcy and reorganization work in accordance with the law and regulations.
On October 10, 2019, two investors of Beijing JianLong Heavy Industry Group Co., Ltd. and Xiwang Group Co., Ltd. were identified.
On October 28, 2019, Harbin Intermediate People’s Court issued a civil ruling approving the bankruptcy and reorganization of Harbin Bearing Co., Ltd. On the same day, the first creditors’ meeting of Harbin Bearing Group was held, and the meeting approved the merger and bankruptcy of Harbin Bearing Group, Harbin Bearing Manufacturing and Harbin Bearing Co., Ltd.
On July 30, 2020, Harbin Intermediate People’s Court approved the substantial merger and reorganization plan of Harbin Bearing Group Co., Ltd., Harbin Bearing Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and Harbin Bearing Co., Ltd., terminated the reorganization procedure, and announced that Harbin Bearing Group completed the bankruptcy reorganization.
Since then, this 70 year old bearing manufacturer has turned a new page.
Break through all difficulties and nirvana
From state-owned enterprises to private enterprises, there are many problems to be solved.
On August 1, 2020, Harbin Bearing Bankruptcy and Reorganization Leftover Issues Processing Service Center officially started its work under the leadership of the administrator and the Industrial Investment Group.
Liu Mingshan said that while implementing the benefits of employees and ensuring the basic life of employees, he also actively carried out the work of socialized management of retired employees, and completed the work of sorting out the personnel files of 10335 retired employees and transferring them to the community, as well as the work of connecting the party organization relationship of nearly 1700 retired party members with the community. We have carried out the internal equity acquisition of nearly 20000 employees. Up to now, 60% of the workload has been completed. Since the work of the service center was started, it has received nearly 6000 staff visits, calls and inquiries, and received more than 3000 employees’ various appeals. It has basically achieved item-by-item answering and classified implementation.
Recalling those days, Liu Mingshan said: “We fully understand the ideas and demands of employees. In order to better solve your problems, especially some personalized problems, I published my mobile phone number and talked directly with you. At most, I received 169 calls a day.”
At this time, JianLong Group also did its best.
“Heilongjiang’s old manufacturing brand can’t be lost!” Following this original intention, Zhang Zhixiang, chairman and president of Beijing JianLong Heavy Industry Group, immediately dispatched a team to submit an application, contacted and inspected the bankruptcy and reorganization administrator of Harbin Bearing Group, and repeatedly discussed the reorganization plan when he saw the announcement of strategic investor recruitment issued by Harbin Bearing Group
With the smooth progress of work one by one, JianLong Group’s plan has been recognized by the administrator, creditors, government and other aspects, and the hands of the two enterprises have finally come together.
According to the Restructuring Plan (Draft), JianLong Group is expected to invest 1.04 billion yuan for the infrastructure construction, equipment upgrading, technical transformation, etc. of the new Harbin Bearing Group, as well as matching corresponding sufficient funds. In the future, the New Harbin Bearing Group will focus on building “specialized and special new” bearing enterprises, forming a bearing industrial base with Jiangbei production zone as the core, and driving the formation of industrial clusters around.
Breaking the wall to strengthen the rebirth
In July 2021, as hot as that summer, there was a big relocation from the south to the north of the Yangtze River. The newly born Jianlong HRB, with its family wealth accumulated for more than 70 years, moved to the new plant area in a mighty way.
Recalling the whole relocation process, Xue Kunpeng, general manager of Jianlong HRB, said that we have moved nearly 800 sets of equipment, more than 2 million pieces of materials and more than 30000 people. In order not to affect the production task, the relocation and production are carried out in parallel, and the equipment is fully utilized to move in batches during the gap period. The normal production and operation are resumed in only 60 days, and the orderly connection between relocation and production is realized.
Yu Jiawei experienced this massive relocation. As a lathe worker of JianLong HRB Forging and Rolling Stock Hot Branch, he has worked in HRB for 21 years. “The relocation of HRB has brought us a new home, and also saw my ideal factory. The company has introduced 40 T5 Shenyang CNC lathes for our lathe workers. These lathes have large cutting force, high machining accuracy, short travel time, and work fast and well. I believe that in the near future, you will see the scene of automatic production line of lathe workers, and then the lathe workers will become a modern industrial team.” Yu Jiawei said.
Since the readjustment, Jianlong HRB has achieved profit in only 8 months by March 2021, ending the loss of more than 20 years in a row, by carrying out comprehensive budget work, introducing the review mechanism of production, supply and sales, and optimizing the product structure. At present, the average monthly sales volume of Harbin Bearing has reached 6.19 million sets, and the average monthly sales revenue growth rate has reached 188.11%.
Today’s Jianlong HRB has pressed the “fast forward key” of high-quality development. As Zhang Zhixiang said, after rainstorm, there is sunshine. The new JianLong HRB is further playing the leading role of industry enterprises in Heilongjiang Province by virtue of its own product structure upgrading and business mode adjustment, striving to become the “new business card” of domestic bearing industry enterprises facing the world, and restoring the reputation of Harbin as “the capital of bearings in China”.