In recent years, with the sustained and rapid economic growth in China, the consumption of non-ferrous metal products in China is also increasing. However, due to the shortage of nonferrous metal mineral resources in China and insufficient domestic supply, it needs to be imported in large quantities. At the same time, the import dependence of non-ferrous metal raw materials has gradually increased, which has become a problem that cannot be ignored.
Judging from the import situation in recent years, the import of raw materials in China's major non-ferrous metal industries has continued to increase. Taking alumina as an example, the import volume in 2003 was 56 1 10,000 tons, an increase of 23% over 2002 and 67% over 2006. The increasing dependence on the import of non-ferrous metal raw materials has had a certain negative impact on China's non-ferrous metal industry and even economic development.
First of all, import consumes a lot of foreign exchange funds in China. According to preliminary statistics, in 2003, the total import value of major non-ferrous metal raw materials reached US$ 7,876.3 billion, an increase of 73% over 2002. With the rising price of non-ferrous metals (the average prices of copper, aluminum, lead, zinc, tin and nickel in 2003 were 1783 USD/ton, 1434 USD/ton, 5 16 USD/ton, 829.2 USD/ton and 4,898.8 USD/ton respectively). Secondly, the import of raw materials has gradually increased the external dependence of China's non-ferrous metal industry. Once foreign investors raise the selling price or hoard raw materials, it will definitely affect the normal operation or underemployment of enterprises, and even lead to the closure of some enterprises, thus further affecting the stability of China's non-ferrous metal industry and sometimes the futures industry. According to statistics, due to the limitation of bauxite resources, China's alumina production can only meet 60% of the raw material demand of electrolytic aluminum industry, while domestic copper concentrate and lead concentrate can only meet about 20% and 80% of the production demand of the industry respectively. In March last year, Swiss Glencore Copper Concentrate Trading Company hoarded copper concentrate at Wei Xinsheng Wharf of Nanjing Port. By the beginning of September, the amount of copper concentrate hoarded exceeded 30,000 tons, which made major copper concentrate traders in the United States, the Netherlands and other countries pay attention to the reaction of China market to decide their sales strategies. Affected by this, Hubei Daye Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd., the fourth largest copper enterprise in China, has announced that the copper output will be reduced by 26%, and the Huludao Smelter in Liaoning and the Yunnan Copper Smelter have also announced a reduction in production. Finally, the massive import of some important raw materials may also cause the country to be at a political disadvantage.
Experts pointed out that the main reasons for the shortage of raw materials and high dependence on imports in China's non-ferrous metals industry are: on the one hand, since 2000, due to the low price of non-ferrous metals in the international and domestic markets, some mining enterprises have cut production in succession, and the investment in mineral exploration and development has also dropped significantly. At the same time, the rectification of small mining enterprises in China in the past few years has also reduced the supply of some non-ferrous metal concentrates. Therefore, under the background of world economic recovery and China's strong economic growth since last year, the increasing demand for non-ferrous metals makes the domestic supply of non-ferrous metal raw materials tight. On the other hand, the most important reason is the lack of mineral resources in China's non-ferrous metal industry, and the mineral resources available for exploitation are very limited. According to statistics, in 200 1 year, China's copper reserves are about19.4 million tons, bauxite reserves are about 500 million tons and lead reserves are about 37 million tons. These limited reserves can not meet a large number of development needs in the later period. Even if some resources can continue to be developed, compared with similar foreign resources, the development cost is too high and there is no comparative advantage.