China Will Control Production of Ten Nonferrous Metals    

Shang Fushan, Vice Chairman of China Nonferrous Metal Industry Association, has recently disclosed some contents of the draft twelfth five-year program for the nonferrous metal industry. According to the draft program, the total annual output of 10 nonferrous metals (copper, aluminum, lead, zinc, nickel, tin, antimony, magnesium, sponge titanium and mercury) in China will be controlled within 41 million tons by 2015.
   According to authoritative sources, specific provisions have been defined in the draft program concerning development goals and orientations of five rare metals including wolfram, molybdenum, tin, antimony and rare earths. Besides, the Code for the Production and Operation of Rare Metals is also being drafted.
   China Nonferrous Metal Industry Association predicted that the apparent consumption of four basic nonferrous metals in China will reach 43.8 million tons in 2015, of that the apparent consumption for copper will be 8.3 million tons, 24 million tons for aluminum, 5 million tons for lead and 6.5 million tons for zinc. According to the draft program, the nonferrous metal sector will mainly meet the domestic market demand, fully make use of domestic and overseas mineral resources, strictly control the blind expansion of the smelting capacity and eliminate outdated capacities in line with energy, resource and environment conditions both at home and abroad. It is planned that in 2015 China's smelting capacity will be controlled within 5 million t/a for crude copper, within 6.5-7.0 million t/a for electrolytic copper, within 41 million t/a for aluminum oxide, within 20 million t/a for electrolytic aluminum, within 5.5 million t/a for lead and within 6.7 million t/a for zinc. The potential for the expansion of the total smelting capacity of nonferrous metals will therefore be very small in future.
   In terms of resources, in the draft program China's self-sufficiency rate of copper, aluminum and zinc minerals is requested to reach 40%, 80% and 50% respectively in 2015 and the output proportion of secondary refined copper, secondary aluminum and secondary lead in the output of refined copper, electrolytic aluminum and refined lead will reach more than 40%, 30% and 30% respectively.
   The output proportion of copper, aluminum, lead and zinc in China's top ten enterprises in the national total will reach 90%, 90%, 70% and 70% respectively in 2015. The development of local large enterprise groups will be further encouraged.