Becoming Rich with Daily Scavenging APP-Chapter 650: Bankruptcy Countdown

It was exactly as Chen Yiyang had speculated.

After discovering issues with the battery cells, several major power bank manufacturers actually began to cooperate discreetly, attempting to brush off the situation.

After all, the battery cell issues were only known to a small circle within the industry.

As long as the information didn’t leak out, they could wait for this batch of defective power banks to catch fire and be used up.

Then, they could simply deny the whole affair later on.

Therefore, major manufacturers recently trained their customer service staff.

If a customer complains that their power bank might catch fire, the staff should immediately replace it with a new one and include a coupon.

If a customer posts online about this issue, they contact the platform to have the posts deleted under claims of infringement.

These manufacturers and platforms have advertising deals, so such requests are generally granted.

So, even though the problematic power banks have been on the market for a while now, the news about them catching fire has been suppressed online.

If not for the 21 universities issuing a joint notice banning Romoss power banks over 20,000 mAh from campuses,

the incident wouldn’t have been exposed.

However, more fatal than the statement from the 21 universities was that the boss of Romoss suddenly lost his mind, went crazy, and decided to directly confront the universities, even sending them legal letters.

Wasn’t this purely self-destructive?

Moreover, he dragged several other major power bank manufacturers into self-destruction as well!

Now, these manufacturers are furious with Romoss.

"Improving the situation quickly would have been sufficient." Chen Yiyang couldn’t bear Yang Meng’s approach, thus reminded him.

"The most critical issue now is changing the raw material suppliers. I can introduce Ningde Era to supply battery cells to you.

An Ke’s power banks sell at high prices with high margins, so even if you switch to Ningde Era, the costs wouldn’t increase much."

"There’s no other choice now." Yang Meng replied in resignation.

Ningde Era’s battery technology is well-known domestically.

But why don’t major power bank manufacturers opt for Ningde Era’s materials?

The reason is rather simple, it’s cost-saving.

Not just the material prices, but various hidden costs.

Though Anpu Rui Si might not be famous among the general public, it’s officially a major figure in the battery cell field.

Anpu Rui Si’s global headquarters was founded by a Chinese professor from Stanford.

It’s a US-based company.

The company later expanded into Huaxia, establishing a subsidiary. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

After leveraging the Anpu Rui Si brand, the subsidiary grew; however, apart from the brand name, it has no relation to the parent company, merely paying an annual brand licensing fee.

To secure orders and gain market competitiveness, Anpu Rui Si naturally launched low-price strategies, further reducing its profits.

Compared to other battery cell companies, Anpu Rui Si not only has to pay a brand fee to the parent company but also maintain a low-price competition with other battery cell companies.

As a result, Anpu Rui Si is very accommodating with major power bank manufacturers.

Power bank manufacturers can negotiate lower raw material prices or extend payment deadlines at any time.

To power bank manufacturers, Anpu Rui Si is an ideal raw material supplier.

Under the guise of being an international brand, its raw material prices are extremely low and pliable.

Compared to Ningde Era, which is difficult to negotiate, doesn’t accept payment delays, and isn’t as pliable, Anpu Rui Si is the perfect partner.

But, what’s the cost?

The cost is the suspension or revocation of 74 3C certifications from Anpu Rui Si, which supplies raw materials to all major domestic power bank brands, exceeding a ten billion production value.

The reason for the suspension can be easily found on the National Quality Certification Center’s website, uniformly stating: factory inspections failed, serious non-conformance in factory checks, product inconsistency issues.

In other words, before the power bank incident exploded.

All major industry players were well aware of the issues with Anpu Rui Si’s battery cells.

Yet, even so, several problematic batches were shipped out, reaching 20–30 million units without any 3C certification.

After understanding the truth, Chen Yiyang felt that these power bank manufacturers were truly asking for it.

Especially Romoss.

Unlike other major power bank manufacturers whose safety factor is around 1.2 with sufficient design redundancy,

even if there’s a battery cell issue, the fire risk remains manageable.

Romoss power banks typically have a safety factor of only around 0.8, inherently prone to issues, which worsened when defective battery cells and cheap separators were used.

"By the way." Chen Yiyang thought of something, suddenly curious to ask.

"Although you’ve tacitly accepted the defective battery cells from Anpu Rui Si, there shouldn’t be any written agreement, right?"

"Absolutely." Yang Meng immediately replied, "Who would dare write that kind of thing in a written agreement?"

"Then is it possible to sue them for providing defective raw materials?" Chen Yiyang curiously asked.

"In our line of work, nobody is a fool." Yang Meng said, "Everyone is well aware of where the issues lie.

If they dare to earn that money, they surely have an escape plan. Just wait and see, I reckon in the next few days, Anpu Rui Si will have fled."

Yang Meng was indeed right.

As the power bank incident escalated.

Details of the originating raw material supplier, Anpu Rui Si, were also uncovered.

Contrary to Yang Meng’s prediction, the people involved didn’t have a backup plan for escape but had fled long ago.

Anpu Rui Si’s domestic company registered capital is 80 million US dollars, but actual paid-up capital is only 10 million US dollars.

And the major shareholder of the company is another Anpu Rui Si on Hong Kong Island.

This Hong Kong Island company is the actual parent company of domestic Anpu Rui Si.

That Hong Kong Island company had already announced closure and deregistration two years ago.

But this change wasn’t synced domestically.

Meaning the major shareholder of domestic Anpu Rui Si vanished long ago.

If companies like An Ke opt to collectively sue domestic Anpu Rui Si, they’d have to seek compensation from the Hong Kong Island company that disappeared two years ago.

Feel free to ask for compensation, but you’ll get no response.

They were so prepared to sell defective battery cells they planned for a lifetime of happiness in a grand villa there, never letting you catch them.

With Anpu Rui Si fleeing.

All market fury concentrated on Romoss.

Soon, the state announced actions, issuing statements regarding the power bank issues.

The Romoss boss also became somewhat clear-headed by then.

Realizing he had hit a wall with his actions.