Shanghai (ZXZC)- Schaeffler Group and CITIC Pacific Special Steel Group Co., Ltd. ("CITIC Steel"), a leading Chinese special steel producer, recently inked an agreement to form in-depth strategic cooperation in such areas as sustainable development of supply chain, R&D of new products and technologies, as well as digital connectivity, according to a post on the German auto supplier's WeChat account.

Under the agreement, Schaeffler will purchase green steel from CITIC Steel, in a bid to speed up the pace of achieving its climate neutrality goal.

Photo credit: Schaeffler

Schaeffler aims to be operating as a climate-neutral company from 2040. The objective covers the entire supply chain of the group. In addition, it expects its production facilities to already be climate neutral from 2030, and the emissions from intermediates and raw materials occurring in the supply chain to be reduced by 25% by the same year. The base year for all calculations is 2019.

Moreover, both parties will team up on developing all-new bearing steels to better meet the demands for lightweight performance, high strength, high stability and long service life.

Based on Schaeffler's profound insights in industrial manufacturing and advantages in Industrie 4.0-based products and services, the two companies will conduct more cooperative projects in the digitalization and intelligentization of dynamic facility monitoring.

Schaeffler said it formed cooperation with CITIC Steel as far back as 2003. The latest agreement signing will allow the duo to cement collaboration on supply chain, joint R&D, and technical exchanges.