LOCATED in South Yorkshire in north-central England, British Steel, originally founded in 1967, is the U.K.’s only manufacturer of rail. It now produces 3 million tons of crude steel annually and has the distinction of maintaining stable production even during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, with its ironmaking, steelmaking and all rolling mills in full operation.
Andy Trowsdale (left), head of Research & Development at the Jingye British Steel, is at the Second China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE), on November 28, 2024.
The miracle will not be achieved without a Chinese company named Jingye Group, one of China’s leading steelmakers and multinational conglomerates operating from the city of Shijiazhuang in northern China. The multi-industry group, while mainly engaged in steel, runs a wide gamut of other business, from international trade, powder metallurgy and 3D printing, tourism, and even hospitality. It has 10 production bases for fine steel across provincial-level regions like Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning and Guangdong.
In 2020, the Jingye Group acquired British Steel, establishing a more globally competitive brand – Jingye British Steel, manufacturing high-performance rail products, structural steel, and special-shaped steel for global customers.
For Andy Trowsdale, head of Research & Development at the company, it was his first participation in the Second China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) and he told China Today, “We see many potential collaboration (opportunities), from raw material procurement to complete steel transportation in the global market.”
Trowsdale showed their leading products: automobile suspension springs, sleepers, J-shaped forklift poles, and flat T-shaped rails. “These seemingly simple and compact products are crucial for gigantic steel buildings or railways, and their quality guarantees engineering safety,” he said. “Britain invests in new infrastructure and steel plays an important role in major projects. For example, high-speed railways need a large number of high-quality products, which include our rails and construction steel.”
After the Jingye Group acquired the British company, it built an electric arc furnace to replace the existing blast furnace. This is a big step toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions for the goal of bringing all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 set by the British government.
Trowsdale said their high-performance rail meets the requirements of high-speed and mixed transportation and subways. Their structural steel matches the requirements of various high-end and landmark buildings. Their other steels, like those used in crawlers and forklifts, and industrial pure steel, can be customized to satisfy diversified needs of customers services across the globe.
“‘Made-in-China products with global resources’ is our company’s philosophy,” Zhang Yuanyuan, deputy chief of the Jingye Group’s global marketing department, told China Today. Zhang also said the company is extending to the upstream and downstream of steelmaking industry, as well as upgrading its steel products to make them middle- and high-end, so as to build a more competitive steel industry chain that is green and intelligent and enjoys global fame.
“Our steel products have been exported to 127 countries and regions, and used in key projects, such as the Beijing Daxing International Airport, the Crossrail – or the Elizabeth Line in the U.K., and the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline,” Zhang added.
Apple Inc. showcases its products together with four Chinese suppliers in its exhibition booth.
Win-win Partnerships
“More than 80 percent of Apple’s 200 major suppliers are in China.” This was the inscription on Apple Inc.’s highlight board at its booth in the expo. Apple, known for its innovation of computer software, personal computers, mobile tablets, smartphones, and computer peripherals, showcased its products with four Chinese suppliers – LY iTECH, whose specialty is making magnetic materials, precision components and modules, acoustics component maker Goertek, packaging solutions provider YUTO, and optical solution expert Crystal Optech. Over the past 10 years, they have provided manufacturing and packaging services for Apple’s electronic products, with businesses expanding from single to various categories.
This time, these companies showed the public the production process of internal parts of Apple mobile phones, including the manufacturing of fine components, such as volume keys and camera prisms, through physical display and interactive experience, vividly demonstrating cooperation along the supply chain.
Colorful iPhone cases produced by Apple company’s Chinese supplier Goertek.
“Our company’s cooperation with Apple started 15 years ago, and has now expanded to thousands of modules and components of Apple’s main products,” Zeng Fangqin, chair and CEO of LY iTECH, said. “Throughout these years, we have gradually grown from a component processor to an industry leader, with an upgraded position in the value chain.”
In its exhibition area, LY iTECH showcased how to use an intelligent circular knife machine to manufacture stickers specially designed for the expo. This intelligent circular cutter can produce flexible materials for use on 3C products (computer, communication and consumer electronics).
LY iTECH also showcased a variety of intelligent manufacturing production lines. Its intelligent assembly inspection line, equipped with a six-axis mechanical arm, can pick up things automatically as well as refuel. Coupled with binocular vision and six-axis force control technology, it can complete high-precision assembly in the air.
The company is collaborating with Apple to use the built-in camera of the iPhone and IOS system for automatic appearance detection, and closely integrate Apple products with intelligent manufacturing of parts.
YUTO, based in Shenzhen in south China, displayed its packaging products for Apple. Its cooperation with Apple has contributed to its business growth together with quality improvement. The company has developed from a labor-intensive production and assembly plant to a technology-intensive industry giant with a focus on R&D and quality manufacturing. At the end of 2023, it joined the Science Based Targets Initiative, a collaboration among four organizations including the UN Global Compact and the World Wide Fund for Nature, to achieve carbon neutrality alongside its industrial chain partners.
Over the past five years, Apple has reportedly invested as much as $20 billion in intelligent and green manufacturing in China, and trained workers in programming, robotics and automation through vocational education. In addition, it has promised to achieve carbon neutrality in its entire supply chain and product life cycle by 2030, and launched the “Zero Waste” goal with its suppliers.
Shenzhen-based YUTO displays its intelligent production line.
Collaborative Innovation
Siemens made its debut in the new exhibition area established for the advanced manufacturing sector. The Siemens Xcelerator, the company’s lifecycle value chain solution for digital and low-carbon transition, attracted professional visitors, such as Oliver Oehms, the new executive director of the German Chamber of Commerce in China.
Siemens (China) staff Yu Shenghui told China Today Siemens Xcelerator arrived in China in 2022. It has over 120 partners and more than 40 joint solutions applied in many sectors, such as automobiles, food and beverages, electronic semiconductors and green buildings.
“Simply put, it is an open digital business platform that helps enterprises of all sizes to accelerate digital transformation in a more relaxed, fast and extensible way,” Yu said. For example, it can use autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles for ocean mapping, and next-generation space shuttles for space exploration, breaking the boundaries between different engineering fields.
Oliver Oehms (right), executive director of the German Chamber of Commerce in China, listens to the introduction to the Siemens Xcelerator, on November 28, 2024.
SiGREEN, an emission management tool jointly released by Siemens and Amazon Cloud Technology, was another highlight at Siemens’ booth. It can trace and verify the carbon footprints of the products sold on Amazon, helping them obtain the CPF (Climate Pledge Friendly) green label, thus boosting green consumption, and facilitating Chinese products and brands to go abroad.
Siemens signed several memorandums at the expo for strategic cooperation with enterprises in Shanghai and Huzhou in eastern Zhejiang Province to speed up low-carbon transition on its global industrial chain.
“Building a collaborative and innovative supply chain is vital for global manufacturing to move toward high-quality growth,” Xiao Song, Siemens’ global executive vice president and chairman & CEO of its China company, said. “The CISCE, as an open platform, has injected kinetic energy in driving the convergence of the large-, medium- and small- enterprises on the upper-, middle- and lower- stream of the whole industrial chain.”
Siemens’ business covers more than 200 countries and regions around the world, and its Xcelerator solution “drives enterprises of different countries, sizes and types to enter the circle of friends, advancing the development of the global industrial chain in a strong and sustainable direction,” Xiao said
According to the expo’s organizer, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, more than 1,000 exhibitors took part in the five-day fair with over 210 agreements worth more than RMB 152 billion signed. Chinese and foreign exhibitors established cooperative ties with more than 37,000 upstream and downstream suppliers, and nearly 18,000 target customers, establishing the expo as a global platform for partners on the global industrial chain to work together to enhance their international competitiveness.
