According to news from Beijing on October 10,the Recycling Metal Branch of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association said that in the first three quarters of 2014, China’s total output of secondary nonferrous metals(copper, aluminum, lead, zinc) was 7.37 million tonnes, recording a slight increase of 2% compared with 7.22 million tonnes in the same period last year.

Wang Jiwei, Vice President of the Recycling Metal Branch, pointed out at the press conference of the Secondary Metals International Forum that in the first three quarters of this year, the output of secondary copper was about 1.70 million tonnes,down by 5.6% compared with the same period last year;the output of secondary aluminum was about 3.60 million tonnes,up by 2.9%compared with the same period last year.

He mentioned that since the beginning of this year, prices of secondary nonferrous metals were kept at low level; their raw material import volume and amount both declined,copper-containing scrap recorded considerable decrease. However, the industry policy environment improved and the industry size increased, which promoted industry transition,upgrading and environmental protection standards.

“In the first half of the year,secondary copper and secondary lead manufacturers experienced difficulty in production and operation, plus excessively large drop in output ... In the third quarter the situation improved to certain degree, and large secondary copper and secondary lead manufacturers basically were able to maintain full-workload production.Secondary aluminum and secondary zinc manufacturers maintained relatively stable production.”Wang Jiwei pointed out.

Since the beginning of this year, due to continual depression of nonferrous metal prices, prices of import metal scrap falling below domestic prices, sluggish downstream demand, and difficulty in obtaining financing by most manufacturers, all these factors resulted in thin profit margin for enterprises,and stagnant project investment activity, and the whole industry faced considerable difficulty.In the first three quarters of 2014, compared with the production of primary metal in equivalent quantity, China’s secondary nonferrous metal industry saved 16.50 million tonnes of standard coal, over 1.1 billion cubic meters of water and 51 billion kWh of electricity; it also reduced 57 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission.

According to previous data, in the first three quarters of 2013, the total output of China’s secondary nonferrous metal (copper,aluminum, lead, zinc) was 7.22 million tonnes,down by 5.1%, in which the output of secondary copper was about 1.80 million tonnes; the output of secondary aluminum was about 3.50 million tonnes.

Furthermore, in 2013 the total output of key varieties (copper, aluminum, lead, zinc) of China’s secondary nonferrous metal industry was about 10.73 million tonnes,up by 3.3%on Y-o-Y basis.