On April 29, the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association held a press conference on the economic operation of the nonferrous metals industry in the first quarter of 2024. At the meeting, the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, Vice President and spokesman Chen Xuesen briefed the economic operation of the nonferrous metals industry in the first quarter. Wang Jiwei, deputy Secretary-General and Director of the Recycled Metal Department of China Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Association, answered the questions of media reporters and business representatives together with relevant department heads.
Minmetals: On March 7, The State Council issued the Action Plan for promoting large-scale equipment renewal and replacing old consumer goods with new ones. The "action plan" proposes to promote the upgrading of equipment in key industries, and nonferrous metal is also one of the key industries. The Action Plan also proposes to promote a high level of renewable use of resources. Support the construction of a number of intensive processing industrial clusters of waste non-ferrous metal renewable resources. What impact will the "Action Plan" have on the supply and demand of non-ferrous metals in our country?
China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association Deputy Secretary General and Director of the Department of Recycled metals Wang Jiwei answered: Thank you for your question. Recently, The State Council issued the "Promote large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods to replace the old action plan", recently, the relevant supporting policies and the implementation of various provinces and cities are being introduced. The implementation of the "Action Plan" has provided new development opportunities for the renewable non-ferrous metal industry. It will also have a positive and profound impact on the supply and demand relationship of China's non-ferrous metal market, and accelerate our country's non-ferrous metal industry towards the goal of green, low carbon and high quality development. In the first quarter of this year, China's renewable non-ferrous metal industry showed steady growth. According to preliminary statistics, the output of four main varieties of recycled copper, aluminum, lead and zinc reached 4.64 million tons, an increase of nearly 6%. Domestic recycling of scrap copper and aluminum 3.72 million tons, an increase of 3%, imports of recycled copper and aluminum raw materials 1.03 million tons, an increase of 18.4%. The main impacts of the Action Plan on the supply and demand of recycled non-ferrous metals in China are:
First, the scale of recycling and utilization of recycled non-ferrous metal raw materials has accelerated, and the contribution of energy conservation and carbon reduction has become more significant
With the steady implementation of the policy, it is expected that about 3 million tons of recycled non-ferrous metal raw materials will be generated by scrap cars and used household appliances in 2027. Power equipment, construction machinery and other industries equipment renewal and enterprise technological transformation will also produce a large number of recycled non-ferrous metal raw materials. It is expected that by 2027, the domestic waste non-ferrous metal recycling amount will be nearly 20 million tons, which can replace more than 1.1 billion tons of non-ferrous metal mineral resources, reduce standard coal consumption by 55 million tons, reduce carbon emissions by 200 million tons, and make positive contributions to China's resource security and energy conservation and carbon reduction.
Second, the proportion of recycled metal materials in the supply of resources has increased, and the application field has continued to expand
With the vigorous promotion of green and sustainable development in China, the demand for recycled metal raw materials and products in the manufacturing industry is also rising, and the supply of recycled non-ferrous metals industry is ushering in development opportunities. In many important fields such as transportation, power, communications, and building materials, the application of recycled non-ferrous metals is constantly expanding and deepening. In particular, important progress has been made in the research and development and application of integrated die-casting molding heat treat-free recycled aluminum alloy materials for new energy vehicles, aluminum alloy wheels can be produced with 75% recycled aluminum raw materials, and aluminum alloy materials for mobile phones can be 100% recycled aluminum, which will significantly increase the proportion of recycled copper and aluminum products in the future. It is predicted that the production of recycled non-ferrous metals will reach 23.5 million tons by 2027.
Third, the degree of industrial concentration has been further improved, and the degree of standardization has continued to strengthen
"Action Plan" pointed out that to support the construction of a number of waste non-ferrous metal renewable resources of intensive processing industrial clusters, the State Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is carrying out the "waste copper and aluminum processing and utilization industry standard conditions" declaration, guide the industry standard recycling, improve the level of fine sorting and classification utilization, promote the accumulation of recycled non-ferrous metal raw materials to advantageous enterprises and regions. It is preliminarily predicted that by 2027, the production capacity of enterprises that meet the standard conditions will account for more than 50%, and 10 national or regional large recycling enterprises will be cultivated, 50 leading enterprises of recycled non-ferrous metals will form more than 20 waste non-ferrous metals recycling and utilization industrial clusters. The recycling system of recycled non-ferrous metal raw materials will be more standardized, the industrial chain will be more complete, and the overall level and competitiveness of the industry will be further strengthened.
Fourth, the efficiency of resource utilization has been comprehensively improved, and the process of intelligent digitalization has been accelerated
By promoting large-scale equipment renewal and transformation, comprehensively improve energy conservation and environmental protection standards in the renewable non-ferrous metal industry, achieve A breakthrough in environmental performance to reach the A-level, increase the penetration rate of digital R & D and design tools by 11 percentage points, increase the numerical control rate of key processes by 15 percentage points, further promote industrial technological innovation and upgrading, and accelerate the formation of new quality productivity.
