BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- At the ongoing Fourth China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in Beijing, an electric vehicle is not merely a finished product on display.
Instead, it offers a window with a view of a longer industrial chain, which begins with iron ore, runs through braking systems and software, and ends with vehicles and energy products moving from China to the rest of the world.
At the joint booth of China Baowu Steel Group (Baowu) and multinational mining corporation Rio Tinto, the display starts at the upstream end of this chain. The two companies, exhibiting together at the expo for the third consecutive year, present cooperation that begins with the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea.
As a basic input for steel, iron ore remains central to vehicle bodies and many other automotive components. The British-Australian mining group said this year's expo marks the first time it has systematically showcased its deepening cooperation with Chinese supply-chain partners. In 2025, Rio Tinto's annual procurement in China had reached 4.2 billion U.S. dollars, a record high.
"Over the past four years, the CISCE has become more international and professional, creating more opportunities for companies in trade promotion, investment cooperation and exchanges," said Frank Xu, Rio Tinto China's chief executive officer, adding that the expo has enabled the company to connect more efficiently with upstream and downstream partners.
The fourth edition of the expo, which ends on Friday, has drawn more than 670 exhibitors from 85 countries, regions and international organizations.
The upstream section of the chain is also being reshaped as electric vehicles (EVs) place new demands on basic materials. In a conventional fuel car, the engine is the heart. In an electric vehicle, that role is taken by the drive motor, of which the stator and rotor depend on ultra-thin, high-performance electrical steel.
Baowu, Rio Tinto's co-exhibitor, is displaying such materials and related technologies at the expo. Using iron ore as a raw material, Baowu produces high-performance automotive steel through smelting, rolling and other processes, and provides material solutions for new energy vehicle (NEV) makers, including high-strength car bodies and high-safety battery pack structures.
A Baowu representative said China's fast-growing intelligent EV industry, at the downstream end of the chain, had given upstream materials companies both market demand and application scenarios.
"Traditionally, steel products usually need five to eight years to mature in downstream applications," Bao Ping, chief engineer of Automotive Plate Technical Services at Baowu Group, told Xinhua. "The sheer size of the Chinese EV market, combined with the number of automakers pursuing different technical routes, has given materials suppliers more chances to test, adjust and improve their products."
One example is electrical steel used in EV drive motors. The material must be thin, clean and precise enough to reduce energy loss and support higher rotational speeds. Improvements in such materials have helped raise the speed of some EV motors from just over 10,000 revolutions per minute (RPM) in earlier applications to around 30,000 RPM, delivering stronger power, lower energy loss and higher efficiency, according to Bao.
These examples point to a two-way dynamic along the EV supply chain: downstream demand gives upstream companies a market and real-world testing ground, while upstream material innovation gives automakers more room to improve power, efficiency, safety and design.
Moving from upstream materials to midstream components, the chain reaches suppliers like Bosch, the German automotive parts maker. At this year's expo, Bosch is showcasing a range of technologies, including vehicle motion control, thermal management solutions for new energy vehicles, and low-voltage batteries.
Some of these products were developed to better meet the needs of Chinese automakers, whose fast-changing demands are pushing suppliers to respond more quickly, noted Liu Xiaofei, director of Corporate Communication at Bosch China.
The role of a traditional Tier-1 supplier is also changing. Automakers may ask for hardware, software or integrated solutions, depending on their own technical routes, said Liu. Such flexibility has become increasingly important in China's competitive EV market.
The growing demand for such flexibility also points to the relevance of supply chain resilience. "As the global automotive industrial chain is undergoing accelerated restructuring, open collaboration and coordinated innovation are key to enhancing supply chain resilience and promoting high quality industrial development," said Xu Daquan, president of Bosch China.
Further downstream, Tesla offers another example of how China's EV ecosystem is redefining localization. The company's Shanghai Gigafactory has achieved a component localization rate of over 95 percent, making China not just a sales market for the company, but a key base spanning manufacturing, R&D, supply chains and energy operations.
The more than 95-percent localization rate is not simply a matter of replacing imported parts with locally sourced ones. More than 60 Chinese suppliers have entered Tesla's global supply chain, while Tesla and its Chinese supply-chain partners have moved into a stage of joint development, efficiency improvement and serving global markets together, according to Grace Tao, vice president of Tesla.
This is also reflected in the six-seat Model Y L, which is produced at the Shanghai Gigafactory and made its debut in the Chinese market in 2025. For Tao, the model's China debut shows the growing importance of Chinese teams, Chinese supply chains and Chinese market demand in Tesla's global system.
Strong global models increasingly need to be tested in real, diverse and demanding markets, and China provides that environment, Tao said.
"For Tesla, the China market has scale, efficiency, a complete industrial chain and high-caliber talent, which form an important basis for our long-term investment in China," Tao added. Enditem
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