China hub of global supply chain innovation
Q2 In 2025, China's exports rose 6.1 percent, newly established foreign-invested enterprises increased by 19.1 percent, and R&D intensity reached 2.8 percent of GDP. Against the backdrop of global supply chain reconfiguration, is China's role in your global strategy expanding? How do you evaluate China's integrated advantages — manufacturing depth, innovation capacity, infrastructure, and market scale — in supporting your production networks and supply resilience? Does China function primarily as a market, a production base, an innovation hub, or increasingly all three within your corporate architecture?
Machado: China's role within Suzano's global portfolio continues to expand. The vast and competitive manufacturing base of China makes it very compelling as a major supplier of a wide array of categories to Suzano, not only in China, but globally. Ranging from heavy and sophisticated equipment and production lines, to raw materials and inputs, China now accounts for an important share of our procurement portfolio. A second key dimension is new technologies, R&D and innovation. A third dimension derives from the increasingly international and sophisticated financial ecosystem of China, offering great conditions for fundraising opportunities to multinationals like Suzano, in a very competitive fashion.
Xie: China plays an increasingly strategic role for Vale, not only as our largest market in the world, but also a vital sourcing and innovation hub. The country's comprehensive manufacturing system, advanced R&D, strong infrastructure, and vast market scale have significantly bolstered our supply chain resilience. Our collaboration extends to technological innovation, exemplified by the Vale-CSU joint laboratory for low carbon and hydrogen metallurgy launched in 2024. It allows us to leverage China's expertise to advance critical technologies and support green transformation in the steel industry. These partnerships play a vital role in meeting Vale's sustainability targets and enhancing our global competitiveness.
Cheng: In 2025, more than one-third of Payoneer's revenue came from the Chinese market. China remains one of our most important markets, as it is a major source of the SME businesses powering modern cross-border commerce. We support these businesses with a one-stop financial stack that enables them to operate "locally" across multiple markets, without the need to build a physical footprint everywhere. Increasingly, we see China as all three — a market, a production base and an innovation hub — within a corporate architecture that is becoming more distributed and increasingly driven by compliance. Our local-to-local approach — building local capabilities and teams that connect China with destination markets — helps sellers reduce trial and error costs and navigate diverse local requirements more efficiently.
Wu: We believe the three key data points from 2025 clearly demonstrate China's unique position amid the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains. The country is accelerating its transition from the "world's factory" to a global supply chain innovation hub. For DHL's global strategy, China's strategic importance is rising steadily. First, the unmatched breadth and depth of China's manufacturing sector provide a solid foundation for our shipment volumes, ensuring sustained trade flows. Second, as China increases its research and development intensity, we are seeing a significant rise in high-value, time-sensitive goods moving across borders — an area where DHL Express excels with specialized expertise and reliability.
