Promoting the use of aluminum to save copper would be conducive to maintaining the security of China’s copper resource, the head of the country’s base metals smelting industry group said on Wednesday.
China depends on overseas imports for 60% of its aluminum resources as opposed to 70% of its copper resources and finding ways to use more aluminum would save money and provide more security for the smelting industry, said Ge Honglin, chairman of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA), at the Asia Copper Week conference.
“In terms of resources, copper is more precious and scarce compared to aluminum,” Ge said.
“The price of copper is 77,000 yuan ($10,666) a ton and the price of aluminum is 21,000 yuan, so using aluminum instead of copper already presents economic advantages,” Ge said.
In his speech, Ge emphasized the need for mergers and the reorganization of copper refining capacity in China, the world’s biggest consumer of the red metal used in electronics.
($1 = 7.2189 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(By Joe Cash, Amy Lv and Christian Schmollinger; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Lincoln Feast)
