Confidence and strength in the semi-annual report of the non-ferrous industry

In the first half of this year, China's manufacturing sector grew faster than expected, export demand strengthened,

 the tourism industry rebounded strongly, and macro data improved steadily....... Against the backdrop of multiple 

uncertainties in the global economy, a number of international organisations have intensively upgraded China's economic

 growth expectations, casting a ’ The international community's confidence is a ‘vote of confidence’. While the confidence

 of the international community is the ‘table’, the steady performance of China's economy is the ‘inside’, which consistently

 shows that China's economy is picking up and improving.

As the pillar and basic industry of China's national economy, the non-ferrous metal industry deeply grasp the scientific connotation, 

distinctive features and cultivation path of the new quality of productive forces, on the basis of ‘stable’ to the high-quality development

 of the firm ‘into’, to achieve a reasonable increase in quantity and quality of the effective promotion of the first half of the results are 

very bright. To achieve reasonable growth in quantity and effective quality enhancement, the first half of the results are very eye-catching.

Highlights of the industry's smooth operation

Under the guidance and support of relevant policies, the non-ferrous metals industry has continued to promote technological innovation,

 develop towards high-end, green and intelligent development, and enhance the added value of products and market competitiveness, 

with a steady and reasonable momentum of production growth. In the first half of the year, the industrial added value of non-ferrous

 metal enterprises increased by 10.8% over the same period last year, 4.8 percentage points higher than the industrial sector. Among them,

 the industrial added value of mining and processing enterprises increased by 9.1%, an increase of 2.3 percentage points over the first quarter; 

smelting and processing enterprises industrial added value increased by 11.1%. Since 2023, the output of ten non-ferrous metal products 

for the first time exceeded 70 million tonnes mark, in the first half of this year, the output of ten non-ferrous metals 39.002 million tonnes, 

an increase of 7.1%. Among them, refined copper output was 6.672 million tonnes, up 7.1% year-on-year; electrolytic aluminium 

output was 21.552 million tonnes, up 6.9% year-on-year. The content of the six concentrates was 3.00 million tonnes, an increase of 0.1%; 

alumina production was 41.327 million tonnes, an increase of 1.8%; copper production was 10.610 million tonnes, an increase of 0.2%; 

and aluminium production was 33.255 million tonnes, an increase of 9.5%.

Looking at the potential, China's non-ferrous metal market is huge and promising. In recent years, China's expansion of aluminium application

 work has achieved extraordinary results, has covered automotive, construction, electric power, packaging, furniture, machinery and many other fields, 

and has had a positive impact on a global scale, becoming the growth pole and wind vane of the development of aluminium application,

 with a cumulative total of more than 20 million tons of new aluminium consumption. Among them, new energy vehicles, photovoltaic, 

energy storage batteries, ‘the new three’ cumulative new aluminium consumption of more than 10 million tons. With the continuous 

development of scientific and technological innovation, aluminium alloy material performance will be further developed, especially 

in the case of high copper prices, to promote the ‘aluminium to save copper’ not only has obvious economic benefits, but also the effect 

of green and low-carbon, and is conducive to saving the shortage of copper resources. It is understood that the copper-aluminium

 composite conductor has been included in the national power grid procurement catalogue, for the national shortage of resources 

to provide more solutions for strategic supply.

Compared with nickel, cobalt, lithium and other non-ferrous metal varieties with a higher degree of relevance to the ‘new three’, 

lead and zinc consumption growth is relatively slow. However, lead-acid batteries still have strong market resilience and growth 

potential, zinc in the steel structure construction, 5G base stations, photovoltaic brackets, ultra-high voltage pylons and wind power equipment

 and other areas of demand has also been significantly improved. In addition, the application of high-purity lead-based and zinc-based materials

 in new energy storage batteries, photovoltaics, semiconductors and medical applications is promising, and is expected to become a new growth 

point for lead and zinc products.

Prospects for the cultivation and growth of new kinetic energy are promising

See vitality, China's non-ferrous metal industry development momentum is abundant and strong. Under the favourable factors of a series

 of national policies and measures, new energy, electric vehicles, power and energy storage batteries and other green industries are still 

a strong driving force for the growth of non-ferrous metal consumption. In the first half of the year, the main commonly used non-ferrous

 metal varieties of copper, aluminium, lead, zinc domestic market price trend is strong. The average price of copper in the domestic spot 

market was RMB 74,490 per tonne, up 9.6% year-on-year; the average price of aluminium in the domestic spot market was RMB 19,798 per tonne, 

up 6.9% year-on-year; the average price of lead in the domestic spot market was RMB 17,043 per tonne, up 11.7% year-on-year; the average 

price of zinc in the domestic spot market was RMB 22,112 per tonne, flat year-on-year. Industrial silicon, battery-grade lithium carbonate prices

 continue to fall, but still at the bottom of the oscillation to build a reasonable price range stage. China's non-ferrous metal industry chain is complete,

 products in the international market has a strong competitive ability, exports are expected to maintain steady growth. Domestic non-ferrous metal 

enterprises through technological innovation, scientific management, improve the efficiency of resource use and other initiatives to achieve cost

 reduction and efficiency; international cooperation has achieved significant results, effectively improve the domestic shortage of non-ferrous metal 

resources supply.

China is in a critical period of transforming its mode of development, optimising its economic structure and transforming its power of growth, 

and all industries are vigorously cultivating and developing new productive forces; non-ferrous metals are the basis for the production of key 

materials and an important safeguard, and their fields of application are expanding continuously. Although the demand for non-ferrous metals

 in the real estate and other traditional industries in the field of consumption is reduced, but the ‘new three kinds’ of high-speed development 

has led to a new round of non-ferrous metal consumption. Especially nickel, cobalt, lithium, silicon and other new energy metal industry, 

the development speed is faster, in recent years, the output increase in more than 30%, basically meet the domestic photovoltaic, electric vehicles, 

energy storage and other new energy metal demand. At the same time, the country has introduced a series of policies to support the expansion

 of domestic demand, such as the ‘three major security projects’, large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods replacement, such 

as high-speed rail, aerospace and other high-end manufacturing as well as a new generation of electronic information focused on artificial

 intelligence and other emerging industries are also developing faster, are driven by the consumption of non-ferrous metals. It can be seen 

that China's non-ferrous metal market demand in the second half of the year is expected to maintain steady growth.

Development of quality and efficiency of the joint progress of confidence doubled

See toughness, China's non-ferrous metal industry economic chassis solid, fearless wind and waves. In the first half of the year, non-ferrous 

metal industry profit growth significantly better than other raw materials industry, non-ferrous metal industrial enterprises above designated 

size total profit grew significantly, achieving operating income of 425.322 billion yuan, an increase of 14.0%; achieve total profit of 188.49 billion yuan, 

an increase of 56.9% year-on-year, compared with the first quarter of the growth rate expanded by 26.5 percentage points. Among them, 

independent mining enterprises achieved profits of 43.03 billion yuan, up 11.7% year-on-year; smelting and rolling processing enterprises achieved

 profits of 145.46 billion yuan, up 78.2%. China Aluminium Group, China Minmetals Corporation, China Nonferrous Metals Group and other 

non-ferrous metal enterprises focused on their main responsibilities and main business, and made every effort to promote high-quality development,

 achieving steady improvement in resource security capacity and optimization and upgrading of the industrial system; scientific and technological 

innovation capacity continued to increase, and the production and operation demonstrated a smooth and orderly, steady progress, quality and efficiency,

 with a good trend, and all the main economic indicators achieved a ‘more than half of the time, more than half of the task’. The main economic 

indicators have achieved ‘more than half of the time, more than half of the task’, laying a solid foundation for the completion of the annual goals and tasks.

Why is the non-ferrous metal industry ‘this side of the scenery is unique’? There are five main reasons: First, new energy, electric vehicles, power 

and energy storage batteries and other emerging industries, rapid development of non-ferrous metal demand growth, a series of policies to

 expand domestic demand and promote consumption to help non-ferrous metal consumption continued to improve; Second, the deepening 

of the supply-side structural reform of electrolytic aluminium, capacity utilisation rate, the industry efficiency has improved significantly; Third, 

to strengthen international co-operation, non-ferrous metal enterprises in the domestic and international equity resources Thirdly, the strengthening

 of international cooperation, non-ferrous metal enterprises in the domestic and foreign rights and resources and production have increased significantly,

 the domestic resource supply improved; Fourthly, the effective control of production costs, the stability of raw and auxiliary material prices and

 the decline in financing costs; Fifthly, the financial attributes of non-ferrous metals is strong, the price of the interest rate changes and geopolitical 

impact to maintain a high level, to improve the benefits of the industry to provide support.

Meanwhile, China's non-ferrous metal industry has solved the long-standing unsolved problem of blind development of electrolytic aluminium, 

provided a successful example of rule of law and market-based supply-side structural reform, and significantly improved the industry's efficiency. Under

 the care of Xi Jinping and other party and state leaders, the Notice on the Special Action Work Plan for Cleaning Up and Rectifying Illegal and Illegal 

Projects in the Electrolytic Aluminium Industry (Document No. 656 of the Development and Reform Office of Industry [2017]) was released in April 2017,

 thus opening the curtain of deepening the supply-side structural reform of the domestic electrolytic aluminium industry. For a long time, the country 

has been trying to solve the major problems of blind development of electrolytic aluminium production capacity can be completed, closed nearly 9 million

 tons of illegal and irregular production capacity, to determine the 45 million tons of compliant production capacity ‘ceiling’, technologically backward and

 lack of competitiveness of 13 million tons of electrolytic aluminium production capacity has been transferred to green energy-rich western region,

 the utilization rate of electrolytic aluminium production capacity has increased significantly. The utilisation rate of electrolytic aluminium production 

capacity has been substantially increased, the debt ratio of enterprises has been substantially reduced, the economic benefits of the aluminium industry 

have been substantially improved, and great contributions have been made to improving the operating quality of the non-ferrous industry.

The much-anticipated rare earth industry is in a different situation. From the data disclosed by listed rare earth enterprises in the first half of the year, 

the industry's profitability level declined, and some listed companies even suffered losses, mainly due to the supply and demand phase imbalance, 

the price level fell. As of the end of June, the domestic praseodymium-neodymium oxide, dysprosium oxide, terbium oxide prices fell

 by 19.2%, 19.2%, 37.9% compared with the same period last year. Although the decline in rare earth prices, etc. has affected the short-term

 profitability and level of rare earth enterprises, it is more conducive to expanding the application of rare earths, and better play the role of the rare 

earth industry in promoting energy saving and carbon reduction of the entire industrial sector, especially in the field of new energy automobiles and

 intelligent manufacturing, the scope of application of rare earths will be further expanded. With the implementation of the national large-scale equipment

 renewal and consumer goods trade-in action brought about by the new consumption of rare earth products, increased investment in scientific

 and technological innovation, as well as new products and new applications continue to emerge, the supply and demand structure has been adjusted, 

the industry's economic efficiency will be further improved.

It should be noted that, in the second half of the year, whether the profit of non-ferrous metal industry can maintain a large increase, need to consider

 some uncertainties, such as the fluctuation of global economic growth rate, geopolitical conflicts, the direction of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, 

the significant fluctuation of non-ferrous metal prices as well as a high base in the same period last year. Overall, the benefit of non-ferrous metal industry

 is expected to maintain a historically high level in 2024.

In the next stage, China's non-ferrous metal industry will implement the reform and deployment of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central 

Committee on economic work, and while grasping the favourable opportunities of the country's expansion of domestic demand, support for equipment 

renewal and upgrading and the cultivation of new quality productive forces, we will strive to promote the industry to move towards the deep transformation

 and upgrading, and integrate new quality productive forces into a new pattern of high-quality development of the non-ferrous metal industry, 

so as to add impetus for the non-ferrous metal industry of China to become bigger and stronger. The new quality productivity will be deeply integrated

 into the new pattern of high-quality development of the non-ferrous metal industry, adding momentum to make China's non-ferrous metal industry stronger.