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Export Rebate for 11 Copper Products Are Adjusted Upward, Which May Lead to Improvement in Industry Product Structure

On December 31, 2014, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation published the “Notice on Adjusting Some Products’ Export Rebate Rate”. Among products related to non ferrous metals, beginning from January 1, 2015, rebate rates of 11 copper products would be increased (see attached table). Wherein, 5 are copper bar and rod profiles, 5 are copper wires, and 1 is copper foil, which reflect the highlight of policy support. On the other hand, judging from the export/import structure of copper products at the Customs, one can catch a glimpse of the advantages and weaknesses of China’s copper product industry.

In fact, after rapid development in recent years, currently both production capacity and production output of the domestic copper product industry remain at high level, but the increase in homogenized products brings saturation in the domestic market, yet the industry lacks export advantages (products’ performance advantage, price advantage).

According to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to November 2014, total production of domestic copper products was 15,835,100 tonnes, up by 11.6% on Y-o-Y basis. According to data of the Customs, from January to November 2014 China’s total export of copper products was 467,000 tonnes, up by 4.5% on Y-o-Y basis; import of copper products during the same period was 549,800 tonnes, down by 7.3% on Y-o-Y basis. Although Y-o-Y data of import and export data have narrowed the inverse difference with one increase and one decrease, the absolute volume is still net import, which reflects the fact that China’s high-end copper product market continues its dependence on export.

Judging from the structure of China’s copper product export, from January to November 2014 export of copper tube products was 250,100 tonnes, accounting for more than half of total export volume, whereas the total of copper bar and rod profiles and copper wires was less than 40,000 tonnes, only accounting for 8.3% of total export volume.

Judging from the structure of copper product import, from January to November 2014 import of copper foil was 212,000 tonnes, import of copper wire was 136,300 tonnes, import of copper plate, sheet and strip was 116,000 tonnes, the total of these three accounted for 84.45% of total import volume.

Furthermore, compared with “cancelling export rebate for boron-containing steel” which was emphasized in the Notice, the new rebate policy obviously intended to, through adjustment and guidance of tax rate, optimize export product structure, and enable the policy to be more favorable for export of products with high added value and low pollution, so as to gradually guide improvement in product structure in the industry.