Not long ago, the BYD Yangwang U9 engineering test vehicle set a new global record for the highest speed of an electric vehicle, reaching 472.41 km/h at the German ATP test field. The vehicle is equipped with the world's first high-performance motor capable of 30,000 rpm, which utilizes high-end electrical steel.

This key material is the 0.10 mm thickness non-oriented electrical steel developed by Shougang Zhixin Electromagnetic Materials (Qian'an) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shougang Zhixin").

"Precisely aligned with the future development trends of high-speed motors, this product sells for over ten thousand yuan per ton," said Cheng Lin, chief engineer at Shougang Zhixin, during a recent interview in the company's product exhibition room. Holding a shimmering, ultra-thin steel sheet, he explained that compared to the widely used 0.20 mm thickness electrical steel in the industry, this product reduces iron loss by 39% at a frequency of 1000 Hz.

After years of dedicated effort, Shougang Zhixin now boasts a portfolio of over 160 electrical steel products across ten series, including 16 world-first product launches. In June of this year, Shougang Zhixin was listed on the 2025 Hurun Global Unicorn List. In August, its electrical steel was selected as one of ten "steel fist" products in its province.

Among these, the non-oriented electrical steel for new energy vehicles leads the industry, with one in every three new energy vehicles in China equipped with a "Shougang core." Additionally, Shougang Zhixin has held the top global market share for ultra-thin gauge oriented electrical steel for several consecutive years.

Notably, in August this year, targeting the new energy vehicle and humanoid robot sectors, Shougang Zhixin globally launched two high-performance non-oriented electrical steel products, further driving the iterative upgrade of high-end non-oriented soft magnetic materials.

Electrical steel, hailed as the artwork among steel products, is a key electromagnetic material used in products like new energy vehicle motor cores, high-end home appliances, and UHV transformers. Its process technology barrier is extremely high.

Historically, Shougang was renowned worldwide for products like rebar and wire rod. Entering the 21st century, domestic demand for cold-rolled electrical steel surged, with high-end products, especially oriented electrical steel, long relying on imports. In 2008, targeting this high-value-added sector, Shougang decided to launch an electrical steel project at its Qian'an company.

Facing technological locked, Shougang's first-generation electrical steel R&D team started from scratch.

"Our first production line was introduced from abroad, and we treated the line itself as our textbook," Cheng Lin said. The team interpreted process documents sentence by sentence, conducted repeated experiments, and gradually mastered material properties and production processes.

Adding silicon enhances magnetic properties but also reduces steel toughness. Cheng Lin explained, "Reduced toughness makes the steel brittle and prone to fracture."

During trial production of the electrical steel, the rolled strip frequently broke, requiring countless restarts of the cold-rolling equipment. Through repeated trials and continuous adjustment and optimization of rolling parameters, they finally overcame the breakage issue after more than a year.

The electrical steel production process is complex, involving over 600 process control points. With a daring and trial-and-error spirit, the team broke through technical barriers one by one.

In June 2010, the first coil of non-oriented electrical steel was produced, marking Shougang's breakthrough in electrical steel products. Two years later, the first coil of oriented electrical steel was successfully born.

Initially, non-oriented electrical steel was mainly used in home appliance compressors. At the market peak, one out of every two variable-frequency air conditioners in China used a "Shougang core."

Transforming from a follower to a leader in electrical steel technology is the persistent pursuit of Shougang Zhixin.

In the new energy production area, the rolling production line operates at full capacity, rolling out coil after coil of thin, silvery electrical steel in just over ten minutes.

"This is the world's first six-stand six-high cold tandem silicon steel mill, commissioned in 2022. It's also the world's first specialized production line for electrical steel for new energy vehicles, with production efficiency several times higher than traditional twenty-high mills," said product engineer Chen Mingrui proudly.

As early as 2016, while electrical steel for home appliances was selling well, the R&D team predicted the potential rapid development of the new energy vehicle sector and began making plans.

New energy vehicle motors place extremely stringent demands on electrical steel: thinner, higher strength, and lower iron loss. These indicators are often technically conflicting.

Chen Mingrui recalled that several years ago, a leading new energy automaker requested steel with a thickness as thin as 0.25 mm, along with more stringent standards for strength and iron loss.

Breaking through their own limits, the product development team took on the challenge. They experimented with various combinations of electrical steel materials, conducted countless tests, continuously optimized strength indicators while reducing iron loss and enhancing magnetic induction.

Customer testing of the samples was successful! Using this product, the customer's motor torque efficiency increased by 9%, and its iron loss indicators became industry-leading.

Thus, their world-first product, 25SW1250H electrical steel, was born, becoming a popular choice for leading new energy vehicle companies.

As market demand exploded, the product was in short supply. Shougang Zhixin independently integrated and built the world's first set of six-stand six-high cold tandem mills, further consolidating its global leading position in high-end electrical steel rolling technology.

Shougang Zhixin also achieved breakthroughs in the more technically challenging field of oriented electrical steel.

Recalling the exploration of the full low-temperature process for producing high magnetic induction oriented electrical steel, Chief Technology Expert Si Liangying noted that products initially produced frequently had surface issues, poor insulation performance, very low first-pass qualification rates, and were difficult to mass-produce.

To overcome this technical hurdle, he and the technical team moved their office next to the production line. They worked there for two years, gradually increasing the product's first-pass qualification rate to over 80%.

With this achievement, Shougang Zhixin became the fourth company globally to master the full low-temperature process technology for producing high magnetic induction oriented electrical steel.

In the EVI (Early Vendor Involvement) laboratory at the Shougang Zhixin Silicon Steel Technology Innovation Center, there are several labs, including a UAV motor testing lab, a new energy vehicle drive motor testing lab, and a transformer core testing lab.

"These transformer cores, UAVs, motors, and other products are all made using our newly developed products," Si Liangying said. "We not only produce the 'flour' but also understand how to make the 'bread,' developing corresponding 'flour' for 'bread' with different tastes."

To address the disconnection between R&D and application design, Shougang Zhixin established the EVI lab as early as 2018. This allows them to get involved in downstream customers early, deeply align with their personalized needs, and promote the expansion of electrical steel products from manufacturing to services.

"Through the EVI model, we once turned a customer's requirement into a product in just two months, significantly improving market response speed and share," Si Liangying said.

Boldly innovating and forging paths never taken before.

To date, Shougang Zhixin has overcome more than 450 technical challenges in electrical steel and obtained 341 authorized patents. From 2010 to 2024, the annual output of electrical steel increased 85-fold, and the proportion of high-end products increased by 50%.

In the view of a relevant official from the Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, the key to Shougang Zhixin's rise lies in its focus on fist products, driving technological iteration, implementing integrated production-sales-research-application, and exploring the "Zhixin Path" for traditional steel enterprises transforming into high-end material service providers. This provides a successful model for provincial steel enterprises to deeply cultivate niche sectors and develop high-value-added products.