Recycled Non-ferrous Metal Output Exceeds Primary Ore Output in Jiangxi Province

In recent years, investment in the non-ferrous metal industry by Jiangxi Province accelerated.Not only have large provincial plants been involved, but a number of outer-province plants have made entries. With high starting investment, large scales and advanced levels of technology and equipment, they have played an important role in promoting a transformation from traditional family-like workshops to large-scale enterprises. A number of large scale non-ferrous enterprises with advanced stan-dards of technology and equipment were born in Jiangxi Province, and the output of recycled non-ferrous metals exceeded those for primary ore in 2009.

Given the rapid growth in domestic demand for natural resources in recent years, market supply of primary-ore non-ferrous metals has been insufficient, and recycled non-ferrous metals have become an important addition, creating opportunities for the development of recycled non-ferrous metals and bringing significant economic benefits to plants.Meanwhile, as the primary-ore non-ferrous metal industry reported modest profits or even losses as a result of factors including the soaring prices of imported materials and rising production costs, a number of large non-ferrous metal plants have turned to more profitable materials and investments. In addition, recycled non-ferrous metal investment could become a shortcut for nonferrous metal plants to become larger and more competitive.

A number of large provincial plants including Jiangxi Copper and Jiangxi Tungsten have turned their focus to the promising recycled non-ferrous metal industry. Gradually realizing the importance of this market, these companies have been actively engaged in recycled nonferrous metal projects - for example, Jiangxi Copper’s 100,000-ton recycled copper project at Qingyuan, Guangdong Province, Jiangxi Tungsten’s 400,000-ton recycled smelting and processing project at Ganzhou, and Jiangxi Tungsten’s 60,000-ton IT circuit board sludge and electroplate sludge regenerating project which added 100,000 ton annually in copper regeneration capacity.

A number of new entrant metal plants, such as Jiangxi Jintian Copper Co., Ltd., Jiangxi Honglei Copper Co., Ltd., Shangrao Hefeng Copper Co., Ltd., Jiangxi Zili Resources Regeneration Co., Ltd., and Jiangxi Jinhong Industrial Co.,Ltd., have built annual capacities of over 100,000 tons. The mass copper regeneration,lead-zinc and aluminum industries in Jiangxi Province have developed into remarkable scales, indicating trends of corporate aggregation and favorable industrial development.