China's copper consumption has achieved a compound annual growth rate of 7.4% over the past decade, making it one of the most important markets in the global copper industry. China's copper usage has risen for 10 consecutive years. In the future, guiding orderly 'green competition' through scientific evaluation and standardized management is the general trend.
Like the Chinese economy, China's copper industry is one of the most dynamic components of the global copper industry. With growing uncertainty in the external environment and the continuous advancement of domestic supply-side structural reform, the copper industry is also facing new challenges such as transformation and upgrading. China's copper consumption has achieved a compound annual growth rate of 7.4% over the past decade, making it one of the most important markets in the global copper industry. China's copper usage has risen for 10 consecutive years. In the future, guiding orderly 'green competition' through scientific evaluation and standardized management is the general trend.
Green development is a weak link. 'At present, insufficient attention is paid to the environmental impact of the production, use, recycling, and disposal of copper products,' said Shang Fushan, president of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association. Experts at the meeting believed that competition among raw materials and products should not only remain at the economic and technological level, but also consider the impact on resources and the environment. It is an inevitable trend to guide orderly 'green competition' through scientific evaluation and standardized management.
Some enterprises continue to follow an extensive model of growth, which is detrimental to the sustainable development of the copper industry. Xu Hong, President of the International Copper Association Asia, believes that due to economic structural adjustment and supply-side structural reform policies, the role of scale in driving copper consumption will not be prominent for some time to come, but copper usage per unit may bring new opportunities for the growth of copper demand. Taking the automotive industry as an example, most internal combustion engine vehicles currently use no more than 23 kg of copper, while hybrid electric cars use about 40 kg and pure electric cars use 83 kg.
On the other hand, some copper products will also face pressure from material substitution. Emerging industries such as nuclear power, new energy, high-speed rail, marine, and aerospace are continuously putting forward requirements for new materials, new varieties, high quality, and green energy saving, which means that the transformation and upgrading of copper products is urgent.
The copper industry has promising prospects. According to research data from the International Copper Association, China's copper consumption in 2017 was 13.4 million tons, accounting for nearly 50% of the global total. China's copper consumption has achieved a compound annual growth rate of 7.4% over the past decade, making it one of the most important markets in the global copper industry.
China's copper usage has risen for 10 consecutive years. Experts said that this result is not only driven by industrialization, urbanization, and other end-use drivers, but also because the development of upstream enterprises such as copper smelting and processing has provided strong support for downstream demand.
Since the beginning of this year, China's economy has gotten off to a steady start, with increasing positive factors driving economic growth. With the deepening of green development, copper's unique energy-saving and consumption-reducing attributes and its 100% recyclable green nature are in line with the trend of economic development.
These signals indicate that the copper industry still has great potential. In 2018, the main business revenue of Jiangxi's nonferrous metals industry exceeded 600 billion yuan. This year, Jiangxi proposed to strive to cultivate world-class industrial clusters in fields such as copper over about five years, and the copper industry is expected to contribute more to Jiangxi's economy.
Calling for more companies to join the copper life cycle assessment. In 2018, Jiangxi Copper, together with the International Copper Association, China Copper, Tongling Nonferrous Metals, and China Gold, launched the 'China Cathode Copper Life Cycle Assessment Research and Application' project. The five institutions called for continuing to promote energy conservation, emission reduction, and resource recycling while gradually integrating the concepts and methods of life cycle assessment to make the entire copper industry chain greener.
The life cycle assessment study of copper includes the production stages of mining, beneficiation, smelting, and processing; the circulation, use, and maintenance process of products; the end-of-life stage of disposal or recycling; and the overall compilation and assessment of the potential environmental impacts throughout the entire process.
At present, the project team has started the preparation of the 'Technical Specifications for Green Design Product Evaluation' series of standards. The modeling and data verification work based on the first round of data surveys is being accelerated. The final result will form the latest life cycle inventory and model for the cathode copper production process and complete deliverables such as 'Technical Specifications for Green Design Product Evaluation: Copper Concentrate and Cathode Copper.'
While using 'green' as the development foundation, how can enterprises help promote the development of the nonferrous metals industry? As a leader in the copper industry, Jiangxi Copper Group has built a full ecological industry chain, achieving resonance between products and consumer demand and continuously improving the quality of supply. Taking copper foil products as an example, Jiangxi Copper has developed multiple high-frequency high-speed copper foil and adhesive-free copper foil products as well as corresponding technical solutions, and is the first among domestic peers to successfully adapt to 5G applications.
'How to use green manufacturing to drive high-quality development is worth the whole industry's consideration,' said Zheng Gaoqing, deputy secretary of the Party Committee and general manager of Jiangxi Copper. 'At present, only five institutions are participating in the copper life cycle assessment research. We hope more companies will join to promote the high-quality development of China's copper industry.'