Supply and demand situation of China’s copper industry in 2023

In 2023, the international situation is becoming increasingly complex, with global economic changes, geopolitical crises, and anti-globalization thinking all having a significant impact on the development pattern of the global copper industry. In this context, driven by the rapid development of emerging industries such as new energy and new technologies, the global copper industry has maintained stable operation, and refined copper production and consumption have maintained a good growth trend. Faced with complex and severe international situations and arduous domestic reform and development tasks, China’s copper industry has also maintained a stable and upward trend. In 2023, China’s copper industry maintained stable growth in production, with refined copper production growth exceeding double digits. The economic benefits of enterprises have also shifted from descending to ascending, with both revenue and profit of large-scale enterprises increasing throughout the year. The production technology indicators such as copper smelting recovery rate and comprehensive energy consumption are continuously improving. The industrial structure is further optimized, and the layout of copper smelting capacity is becoming more scattered driven by geographical advantages, while the layout of copper processing capacity is highly concentrated in leading regions. Fixed assets investment maintained rapid growth, but mainly concentrated in downstream areas. In terms of downstream consumption, the growth rate of refined copper consumption is better than expected, showing significant differentiation in the consumption sector. The investment progress in power supply and power grid engineering has accelerated, and the production and sales of passenger cars in the transportation sector have maintained a rapid growth. However, the real estate and electronic information industries have shown weak performance. In terms of trade, both the import of copper raw materials and the export of downstream products have maintained a growth trend, especially in the import of copper raw materials, with a total import volume of copper metal far exceeding previous years. After 20 years of rapid development, China’s copper industry has become the world’s largest producer and consumer of copper, with a complete industrial chain and advanced production technology. However, there are still prominent problems in the industrial structure of China’s copper industry. The situation where raw material supply is mainly imported is difficult to change in the short term, and the dependence on foreign raw materials continues to rise. There are the continuous expansion of copper smelting capacity, tight supply of raw materials, and increased risk of downward processing costs. There is a lack of large international mining companies, resulting in weaker profitability and discourse power. Focusing on the existing problems and risks, how China’s copper industry can adapt to the current international and domestic situation, ensure the safety of raw material supply, and build a strong copper industry is the most important issue in the current copper industry. The suggestion is to continue to deepen the supply side structural reform of the copper industry, to consolidate the resource foundation in various ways and improve the degree of resource guarantee, to strengthen inter industry collaboration, green and circular development, to strengthen the research and promotion of new technologies and promote the high-quality development of the copper industry.