SunSirs: Non-ferrous Metals Industry's Two-Year Goal of China

Experts analyze that under the guidance of a series of measures such as strengthening the comprehensive utilization of waste non-ferrous metals, and supporting the establishment of a recycling base for renewable resources in regions that meet the conditions, the characteristics of the scale and agglomeration of China's renewable non-ferrous metal industry will continue to be enhanced, and the level of industry recycling is expected to be improved.

Beijing, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The "Work Program for Stabilizing Growth in the Non-ferrous Metals Industry (2025-2026)" jointly issued by eight departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Commerce was officially released on Monday, setting goals such as a 5 percent average annual growth in industry added value and a breakthrough of 20 million tons in the production of secondary metals. Industry insiders analyze that under the guidance of a series of measures such as strengthening the comprehensive utilization of waste non-ferrous metals and supporting the establishment of a recycling base in regions where conditions permit, the scaled and agglomeration characteristics of China's secondary non-ferrous metal industry will continue to be enhanced, and the level of industry recycling is expected to be improved.

The target for the average annual growth of the added value of the industry is set at around 5%.

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of non-ferrous metals. According to the China Non-ferrous Metals Industry Association, in the first half of this year, the added value of the national non-ferrous metal industry with annualized scale increased by 7.6% year-on-year, which is 1.2 percentage points higher than the growth rate of the national industrial added value with annualized scale; the output of ten common non-ferrous metals was 40.319 million tons, an increase of 2.9% year-on-year.

The rapid development of the non-ferrous metal industry has provided a strong support for the growth of China's industrial economy, but it is also necessary to see that the industry is currently facing issues such as resource security capability, high-end supply level, and insufficient effective demand mining. Industry insiders who accepted the interview stated that the problem of "internal involution" competition in the industry has not been alleviated, and the situation of excessive investment not only exists in traditional industries such as copper smelting, alumina, and ordinary copper, aluminum, and titanium processing to varying degrees, but has also spread to new energy fields such as lithium and silicon in recent years, as well as to high-end fields such as electronic copper foil. Moreover, due to the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the 301 investigation, and the "trade war", the industry is facing a more complex and severe trade situation.

In response to new situations, the work plan has set the main goal of stabilizing growth, which is to achieve an average annual growth rate of 5% in the added value of the non-ferrous metal industry from 2025 to 2026, maintain an improving trend in economic benefits, achieve an average annual growth rate of 1.5% in the production of the ten non-ferrous metals, make positive progress in the development of domestic resources such as copper, aluminum, and lithium, break through 20 million tons in the production of recycled metals, and continuously improve the supply capacity of high-end products, as well as the level of green and low-carbon and digital development.

"This is both a continuation of the previous round of measures to stabilize growth and a new requirement for the industry's high-quality development," Ge Honglin, Party Secretary and President of the China Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Association, told reporters. The work plan focuses on stabilizing growth and promoting transformation, unifying the effective improvement of industry quality and the reasonable growth of quantity throughout the process of high-quality development, "which means that we need to use the determinacy of high-quality development to respond to the uncertainty brought by the rapid changes in the external environment."

Duan Xiangdong, Party Secretary and Chairman of China Aluminum Group, told reporters that the work plan has important guiding significance for enhancing the core competitiveness of China's non-ferrous metal industry and better serving the national economy and people's livelihood. China Aluminum Group will enhance the comprehensive manufacturing capability of key materials such as aluminum, copper, lead, zinc, gallium, and germanium, and increase the supply of higher-quality non-ferrous metal materials.

The level of comprehensive utilization and circular utilization in the industry will be improved

In terms of specific measures, the work plan deploys 10 key tasks around five aspects.

In terms of promoting resource efficiency, the work plan proposes to strengthen the survey and exploration of copper, aluminum, lithium, nickel, cobalt, tin and other resources, and to form a batch of new mineral exploration achievements. Support the establishment of secondary resource recycling bases in regions with conditions, and strengthen the comprehensive utilization of waste copper, waste aluminum and other waste non-ferrous metals, as well as the comprehensive utilization of waste lithium batteries and waste photovoltaic components.

"Turn waste into treasure and recycle is a sunrise industry, and expanding the 'recycled instead of original' has become the trend," said Ge Honglin. As the accumulated amount of waste non-ferrous metals in society continues to increase in China, the comprehensive utilization and recycling level and efficiency of the industry will continue to improve with the continuous improvement of recycled utilization technology and equipment level, and the implementation of policy support such as "two new".

According to the data of the institution, the output of China's main recycled non-ferrous metals in the first 7 months of this year is about 11.5 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 4.55%, and it is expected that the output of the main non-ferrous metals will exceed 20 million tons this year. At the same time, the scale and agglomeration of the recycled non-ferrous metal industry have increased, and enterprises in the fields of primary metal, processing, automobiles, steel, coal, environmental protection and others are competing to layout this track. At present, more than 100 listed companies are involved in the business of recycled non-ferrous metals.

In terms of expanding effective investment, the work plan clearly defines the scientific and rational layout of alumina, copper smelting, lithium carbonate and other projects. The scientific and rational layout of alumina, copper smelting, lithium carbonate and other projects should avoid duplicate low-level construction.

Ge Honglin said that recently, the prices of lithium, silicon, cobalt and other new energy metals have fluctuated greatly, and even touched the cost bottom line, which has hurt the healthy development of the real economy. "The financial attributes of non-ferrous metals are strong, and they are easily affected by capital speculation. The industry must take the initiative to take measures to strengthen the construction of self-discipline, and at the same time, avoid various irrational behaviors in the new energy mineral track, and promote the adaptability and balance of supply and demand."

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