In recent years, the rapid development of the global new energy vehicle market has made the demand for thin-gauge silicon steel begin to increase, especially the progress of rapid self-bonding coating technology, which has greatly pulled the demand for thin-gauge and ultra-thin/ultra-thin silicon steel in the high-end motor market such as drive motors, high-speed motors, and micro-motors.

In 2023, China's consumption of silicon steel has exceeded more than 10 million tons in motors and transformers with the largest volume of soft magnetic functional materials, and has now become the world's first silicon steel country. Since the introduction of Nippon Steel's full set of patented technology and equipment in 1974, China's silicon steel products are mainly thick-030mm, 035mm, 050mm. Subsequently, through the introduction, absorption, digestion, independent innovation, since 2000 began mass production thickness 0.27mm,023mm and other specifications of silicon steel products. In recent years, with the drive of national industrial policy, the progress of silicon steel process technology and the rapid development of emerging markets such as new energy vehicles, the structure of silicon steel products in China has undergone great changes, and the market demand for thin specifications and ultra-thin/ultra-thin silicon steel has gradually increased. In the face of this market situation, some mainstream enterprises in the case of thin specifications and ultra-thin/ultra-thin silicon steel production capacity is insufficient, have started to upgrade the old production line or build a new line, expand production capacity, to meet market demand.

Thin specification silicon steel usually refers to oriented silicon steel thickness of 0.15mm, 0.18mm, 020mm, 023m or limit thickness of 0.14mm, non-oriented silicon steel thickness of 0.25mm, 0.20mm, 0.15mm silicon steel products. In terms of performance indicators, thin-gauge oriented silicon steel is usually expressed by the maximum specific total loss at 1.7T magnetic polarization strength at 50 Hz or 60 Hz and the minimum magnetic polarization strength at 800A/m magnetic field strength. Non-oriented silicon steel is usually expressed by the maximum specific total loss value at the frequency of 400Hz, the magnetic polarization strength of 1.0T and the minimum magnetic polarization strength at the magnetic field strength of 5000A/m. At this stage, the high demand for ultra-thin/ultra-thin silicon steel is not very large, and the industry is limited in attention. As of 2023, there are about 4 enterprises producing ultra-thin/ultra-thin silicon steel in China, mainly distributed in 1 Shanghai, 1 Jiangsu and 2 Inner Mongolia.

The oriented silicon steel is used as the master material, the surface coating and the bottom layer of magnesium silicate are removed, and then rolling is carried out. Non-bottom oriented silicon steel is used as master batch. One process is to add trialumina and calcium aluminate as spacers in MgO and annealing at high temperature to form non-bottom oriented silicon steel. Another process is to directly add secret elements to oriented silicon steel in steelmaking to form no-bottom oriented silicon steel.

National policies and standards promote the upgrading of electrical steel products and develop in the direction of thin specifications. In 2024, China will again issue the "Power transformer Energy efficiency Limit Value and energy efficiency grade" (GB 20052-2023), a revised version of the mandatory new energy efficiency standard, which puts forward new requirements for energy conservation and consumption reduction of transformers used in new energy generation terminals.

From the perspective of national policies and energy efficiency standards, silicon steel requires energy saving, environmental protection, low loss, in 2030 carbon peak 2060 carbon neutral under the big goal, silicon steel demand trend to thin specifications and extremely thin/ultra-thin direction, will lead the "fifteen five" high-quality development. The rapid development of high-frequency motors in different fields requires ultra-thin thickness of silicon steel, and high-silicon steel with higher silicon content is needed to improve the resistivity of silicon steel. At present, the domestic key areas of extremely thin/ultra-thin silicon steel still need to be imported. China's cold-rolled silicon steel has experienced 50 years of development, from scratch, from small to large from weak to strong, has become a production and consumption of large countries, but China's silicon steel structural overcapacity still exists, accelerate the elimination of backward products is inevitable. Especially under the requirements of "double carbon" and high efficiency, energy saving and environmental protection, the development of products to thin specifications has become the mainstream, which requires us to improve the level of equipment, accelerate equipment standardization and main control solutions; Optimize the production process, solve the key problems of batch, stable production, comprehensively improve product quality, and reach the international advanced level as soon as possible; Accelerate the promotion of the application of fast self-bonding coated silicon steel in high-speed micromotors.