Analysis of supply and demand status and trend of copper resources in China under development background of new energy industry

In 2020,China has taken a solid step in addressing global climate issues,and clearly put forward the “30 and 60 goal” of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.In 2022,the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology,the National Development and Reform Commission,and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the Implementation Plan for Carbon Peaking in the Industrial Sector and the Implementation Plan for Carbon Peaking in the Nonferrous Metals Industry,which promoted the steady progress of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in China.The dual carbon goal has brought profound adjustments to China's energy structure,and the rapid development of new infrastructure fields such as new energy vehicles,power batteries and energy storage,which have driven changes in the copper consumption structure,and also delayed the peak time of China's copper consumption.China is the largest consumer of copper in the world.Driven by the rapid development of the new energy industry,copper consumption will continue to grow in the future.Currently,China is facing many problems such as poor copper resource endowment,severe shortage of raw material supply,and increasingly fierce international competition.The development and supply of global copper resources and the current status of downstream copper smelting industry is analyzed,the future trend of copper consumption in China as evaluated,and suggestions to solve the problems in the supply chain of China's copper industry are put forward.Firstly,a new round of mineral exploration strategy should be promoted,including strengthening the investigation and exploration of copper resources in key domestic mineralization zones,actively carrying out deep and edge mineral exploration in existing mines,and increasing the construction of copper resource bases and national planned mining areas,and enhancing the domestic copper resource guarantee capacity.Secondly,the layout of overseas investment should be optimized,including taking the “Belt and Road Initiative” as the guide,while consolidating and improving the copper rights and interests output of Congo(DRC),Zambia and other countries,promoting the development of copper resources in surrounding countries,and improving the resilience and security level of the industrial supply chain.Thirdly,supply-side structural reform should be continued to promote,such as guiding the continuous optimization of the layout of copper smelting and related industries,in order to ensure the safety of the industrial chain and supply chain,as well as the reasonable control of smelting capacity to achieve high-quality development of the industry.