Suzano praises speed of China's innovation cycle

China has the "perfect recipe for success" and is well prepared to face challenges amid global uncertainties, continuing to bring stability and confidence in business expansion, investment and technological innovation, said a senior executive.

Pablo Machado, global executive vice-president of China business and strategy at Suzano and president of business management at Suzano Asia, made the above remarks during a recent interview with China Daily, saying that the company is confident in China's economic resilience and long-term growth potential and is committed to supporting the nation's green transition through innovative, sustainable solutions.

Machado said he sees China's "recipe for success" as consisting of various aspects including a vast and growing middle-income group, an education system reaching every single child with a continuously improving quality, a broad and ample innovation ecosystem as well as solid policies and incentives from the government to boost entrepreneurship in science and technology and consumption.

He said the company is set to increase investments in the country, aiming at further boosting demand for its bio-based products and supporting the acceleration to a greener and lower carbon economy. It will also increase efforts to develop Chinese suppliers and further integrate them into supply chains, making the nation's robust and competitive equipment manufacturing a key support and benefit for the company's global operations.

As a major pulp supplier and major paper and packaging producer, Brazil-based Suzano started business in China in the 1980s. Over the past four decades, the company has seen "exponential" growth in export volumes to the Chinese market, making China Suzano's largest pulp export destination. In 2023, the company inaugurated the Innovability Hub in Shanghai with a total investment of 70 million yuan ($9.7 million), its first technology and innovation center in Asia.

"We realized that China has probably the most vivid innovation ecosystem in the world. It's not only a powerhouse for research and development, but we also see that the entrepreneurship of our customers here has provoked us to innovate more and bring higher quality products. All these factors combined took us to the conclusion that we should have our own research development and innovation center here," Machado recalled, adding that they have seen remarkable achievements by launching the center and collaborating with other Chinese stakeholders.

A few months ago, the center, together with a Chinese leading rubber company, successfully launched the innovative application of Suzano's lignin powder in the rubber industry to replace fossil-based antioxidants, during which Machado was particularly impressed by the "speed".

"Our cycle from lab to industrial scale production normally takes four years, but this (collaboration) took us only six months. The speed is mainly thanks to the speed of the entrepreneur in the rubber industry who was brave enough to initiate industrial trials very rapidly. We are very happy to see that the innovation cycle in China is much faster than anywhere else," he added.

Describing Suzano's growth in China as a "reflection of the speed of growth of the country", Machado said the company is actively adjusting its development strategy and fostering new quality productive forces, aligning with the nation's economic focus, shifting from speed to quality, as well as Chinese consumers' growing demand for high quality, eco-friendly and innovative products.

"China's pursuit of high-quality development presents significant opportunities for Suzano ... We are particularly excited about the growing demand for sustainable and renewable products in sectors like packaging, textiles, hygiene, construction and paper." he said.