Chapter Five: Buying Upstream with Orders

Shen Yan was selling priority access to capacity. That afternoon, the nine trial customers received a Joint Supply Assurance Plan. Each would deposit twenty percent of its estimated six-month purchases in an independent escrow account. In exchange, it received locked pricing, priority delivery, and full material traceability. The funds never entered Guoliang’s bank account and could not be frozen by its lender. Escrow would release money only after Dongrui completed environmental remediation and delivered qualified alloy each month. For customers, a small deposit secured a component that might transform liquid-cooling costs. For Dongrui, the resulting cash flow could be shown to every creditor.