The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and eight other departments issued the "Non-ferrous Metals Industry Stabilization Growth Work Plan (2025-2026)"

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, on September 28, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and eight other departments issued the "Work Plan for Stable Growth in the Non-ferrous Metal Industry (2025-2026)." It mentioned that from 2025 to 2026, the added value of the non-ferrous metal industry is expected to grow by about 5% annually, with economic benefits maintaining a positive trend. The production of ten types of non-ferrous metals is projected to grow by about 1.5% annually, with positive progress in the domestic resource development of copper, aluminum, lithium, and others. The output of recycled metals is expected to exceed 20 million tons, the supply capacity of high-end products will continue to strengthen, and the level of green low-carbon and digital development will continue to improve.

It mentioned strengthening resource exploration and utilization. A new round of strategic actions for mineral exploration breakthroughs will be implemented, focusing on the investigation and exploration of resources such as copper, aluminum, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and tin, resulting in a batch of new exploration achievements. The competitive transfer method for mining rights will be improved, and mining rights will be allocated in a scientific and orderly manner. Support will be provided for green and efficient mining and smelting technologies and equipment for low-grade, associated, and difficult-to-select resources, improving resource recovery rates, mineral recovery rates, and comprehensive utilization rates. Regions with conditions will be supported to establish recycling bases for renewable resources, strengthening the comprehensive utilization of waste non-ferrous metals such as waste copper and waste aluminum, as well as the comprehensive utilization of emerging solid waste such as waste power batteries and waste photovoltaic components. A public service platform for basic data on strategic mineral resources will be established to provide precise and efficient services for mineral resource utilization.

Focusing on emerging industries such as integrated circuits, industrial mother machines, low-altitude economy, humanoid robots, and artificial intelligence, the application verification of high-end products such as high-purity gallium, tungsten hard alloys, and all-solid-state battery materials will be accelerated, promoting the innovative application of frontier materials such as superconducting materials, liquid metals, and high-entropy alloys. Downstream user enterprises, research institutions, and other units will be encouraged to open application scenarios, create typical case studies of application scenarios, and cultivate emerging markets.

In application fields such as new energy vehicles, next-generation electronic information, and aerospace, efforts will be made to actively expand the application of high-strength, high-toughness, and corrosion-resistant aluminum materials, accelerate the promotion of high-strength, high-conductivity copper cables, copper heat sinks for 5G base stations, ultra-low roughness copper foils, and high-precision copper gears, and continuously expand the application of magnesium alloys in components such as forged wheels for new energy vehicles, integrated large castings, and motor housings. Support will be provided for upstream and downstream enterprises to establish long-term stable cooperative relationships through long-term procurement agreements, jointly bearing the risks of raw material price fluctuations and working together to maintain a smooth and stable supply chain.

The full text is as follows

Work Plan for Stable Growth in the Non-ferrous Metal Industry (2025-2026)

The non-ferrous metal industry is an important basic industry with a wide variety of resources, high industrial relevance, and prominent strategic value. Currently, insufficient resource security capabilities, high-end supply levels, and effective demand exploration, along with increased external shocks, are the main contradictions restricting the quality and efficiency improvement of the non-ferrous metal industry. To implement the spirit of the Central Economic Work Conference and promote the stable operation and transformation and upgrading of the non-ferrous metal industry, this work plan has been formulated.

I. Overall Requirements

Guided by Xi Jinping's Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deeply implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the second and third plenary sessions of the 20th Central Committee, adhere to the general principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, focus on quality and efficiency, strengthen the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation, and maintain coordinated efforts on both the supply and demand sides, achieving dynamic balance, ensuring some while suppressing others, promoting a better combination of an effective market and a proactive government, effectively serving the construction of a unified national market, and coordinating the optimization of incremental and stock resources, with the goal of efficient resource utilization, improving the quality of deep processing materials, and promoting green development Digital transformation promotes transformation, driving the upgrade of bulk consumption, cultivating emerging consumer markets to expand demand, facilitating the transition of new and old development momentum, developing new quality productivity according to local conditions, unifying qualitative effective improvement and reasonable quantitative growth throughout the process of high-quality development, further enhancing the resilience and safety level of the industrial chain and supply chain, and responding to the uncertainty of drastic changes in the external environment with the certainty of high-quality development.

II. Main Goals

From 2025 to 2026, the added value of the non-ferrous metal industry is expected to grow by about 5% annually, with economic benefits maintaining a positive trend. The output of ten non-ferrous metals is expected to grow by about 1.5% annually, with positive progress in the domestic resource development of copper, aluminum, lithium, etc. The output of recycled metals is expected to exceed 20 million tons, the supply capacity of high-end products will continue to strengthen, and the level of green low-carbon and digital development will continue to improve.

III. Work Measures

(I) Promote Efficient Resource Utilization and Improve Resource Security Levels

1. Strengthen Resource Exploration and Utilization. Implement a new round of strategic actions for mineral exploration breakthroughs, strengthen the investigation and exploration of resources such as copper, aluminum, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and tin, and achieve a number of new exploration results. Improve the competitive transfer methods of mining rights and scientifically and orderly allocate mining rights. Support the research and development of green and efficient mining and metallurgical technologies and equipment for low-grade, associated, and difficult-to-select resources, improving resource recovery rates, mineral recovery rates, and comprehensive utilization rates. Support qualified regions to establish recycling bases for renewable resources, strengthen the comprehensive utilization of waste non-ferrous metals such as waste copper and waste aluminum, as well as the comprehensive utilization of emerging solid waste such as waste power batteries and waste photovoltaic components. Establish a public service platform for basic data on strategic mineral resources to provide precise and efficient services for mineral resource utilization.

(II) Strengthen Industrial Technological Innovation and Enhance Effective Supply Capacity

2. Promote Innovative Development of High-End Products. Focus on the demand of key industrial chains such as new generation information technology and new energy vehicles, promote breakthroughs in high-quality raw materials such as ultra-pure metals, copper alloy structural functional integrated materials, precious metal functional materials, and high-end rare earth new materials, and enhance the comprehensive performance of products such as aluminum alloy and magnesium alloy structural materials, hard alloys, and products. Deeply implement the excellent quality project of the manufacturing industry, guide enterprises to improve product quality, and lead the creation of new demand with high-quality supply. Implement the "Guidelines for the Construction of New Material Pilot Test Platforms (2024-2027)" to support the construction of pilot test platforms for new materials in the non-ferrous metal sector and low-carbon smelting processes. Leverage the role of key new material platforms to support enterprises in carrying out "one-stop" application plans for processes, accelerating material application verification and iterative upgrades.

(III) Expand Effective Investment and Promote Industry Transformation and Upgrading

3. Orderly Promote Project Construction. Accelerate the approval, filing, energy-saving review, environmental assessment, and safety facility design review processes for mineral resource development projects in accordance with laws and regulations through the establishment of green channels and other means, improve the guarantee of production factors, strengthen the scheduling of construction situations for mineral resource development and utilization projects, and promote the commissioning of ongoing projects, capacity expansion of existing projects, and construction of new projects. Scientifically and reasonably layout projects such as alumina, copper smelting, and lithium carbonate to avoid repeated low-level construction and improve the precision and effectiveness of investments 4. Promote Green Upgrading. Focus on energy efficiency benchmarks and environmental performance at the A-level, advance energy-saving, pollution reduction, and carbon reduction transformations in industries such as alumina, electrolytic aluminum, copper smelting, lead smelting, and zinc smelting. Accelerate the update of green and efficient energy-saving equipment such as new stable-flow insulated aluminum electrolytic cells and continuous blowing equipment for copper smelting, and gradually eliminate inefficient and outdated processes and technologies. Standardize the safe disposal and resource utilization of bulk solid waste such as red mud, lithium slag, and high-alumina fly ash. Establish a green low-carbon public service platform for the non-ferrous metal industry, promote the construction of a number of digital energy and carbon management centers, advance the construction of carbon footprint management systems, conduct evaluations of low-carbon products such as green electricity aluminum, and support enterprises in actively participating in the carbon emission trading market.

5. Promote Digital Transformation. Implement the "Digital Transformation Implementation Guidelines for the Non-Ferrous Metal Industry," leverage the role of the digital transformation promotion center for the non-ferrous metal industry, conduct industry digital transformation maturity diagnosis and assessment, and technical transformation. Sort out the digital transformation scenario map and transformation element list, cultivate typical scenarios, benchmark factories, and benchmark enterprises for digital transformation, and promote key technologies and key products for digital transformation. Promote the deployment and application of "5G + Industrial Internet," and build industry-specific industrial internet platforms. Carry out the "Artificial Intelligence + Non-Ferrous Metals" initiative, accelerate the construction of high-quality data sets in the industry, support enterprises in the intelligent adaptation and transformation of key equipment, deploy a number of scenario models for exploration and resource assessment, precise sorting of ore, optimization of electrolytic processes, product testing, and quality control, build a large model for the non-ferrous metal industry, and select and publish a number of impactful typical cases.

6. Play a Leading Role in Standards. Accelerate the development of standards for new materials such as lightweight materials for high-end equipment, high-purity metals, and high-performance copper alloys, as well as quality management standards for quality traceability, quality grading, and quality control capabilities of key products such as copper and aluminum. Revise mandatory national standards for unit product energy consumption limits for rare earth smelting and processing enterprises. Formulate carbon emission accounting standards for key products, implement digital transformation maturity assessment standards for the non-ferrous metal industry, and improve the data management standard system. Carry out normative announcement management for industries such as copper, aluminum, lead-zinc, and magnesium, guiding resource elements to concentrate in advantageous enterprises. Actively participate in the formulation of international standards for industries such as lithium, rare earths, and magnesium.

(IV) Expand Consumption Demand and Stimulate Market Consumption Potential

7. Promote Upgrading of Bulk Metal Consumption. Focus on application fields such as new energy vehicles, next-generation electronic information, and aerospace, actively expand the application of high-strength, high-toughness, and corrosion-resistant aluminum materials, accelerate the promotion of high-strength and high-conductivity copper cables, copper radiators for 5G base stations, ultra-low roughness copper foil, and high-precision copper gears, and continuously expand the application of magnesium alloys in components such as forged wheels for new energy vehicles, integrated large castings, and motor housings. Support upstream and downstream enterprises in establishing long-term stable cooperative relationships through long-term procurement agreements, sharing the risks of raw material price fluctuations, and jointly maintaining a smooth and stable supply chain.

8. Enhance the Application Level of Rare Metals. Focus on emerging industries such as integrated circuits, industrial mother machines, low-altitude economy, humanoid robots, and artificial intelligence, accelerate the application verification of high-end products such as high-purity gallium, tungsten hard alloys, and all-solid-state battery materials, and promote the innovative application of frontier materials such as superconducting materials, liquid metals, and high-entropy alloys. Encourage downstream user enterprises, research institutions, and other units to open application scenarios, create typical cases of application scenarios, and cultivate emerging markets (5) Deepen Open Cooperation and Improve International Development Level

9. Stabilize the Foreign Trade Base. Guide and assist enterprises in actively responding to unreasonable foreign trade restrictions, promote the compliant export of high-end new materials and deep-processed products, enhance product quality and technical level, increase product added value, and strengthen brand international competitiveness. Optimize the international cooperation model for minerals such as copper, lead, and zinc, support non-ferrous metal enterprises in signing long-term procurement agreements with foreign mining and transportation companies, and increase imports of primary products such as anode copper and alumina. Support enterprises that meet industry standards to engage in processing trade of copper concentrate and other products. Accelerate the formulation of import standards for recycled metals such as tungsten. Support the import of recycled resources that meet requirements, including recycled copper, recycled aluminum, sputtering target materials, and battery black powder.

10. Enhance the Level of International Cooperation. Support enterprises in steadily advancing overseas non-ferrous metal project construction based on market-oriented, mutually beneficial, and legal compliance principles. Encourage foreign high-end processing enterprises to invest and establish factories in China, deepening international cooperation in low-carbon transformation and new materials. Strengthen industrial collaboration with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, support cooperation with neighboring countries to build overseas economic and trade cooperation zones for non-ferrous metals, and guide products, complete sets of equipment, technology, standards, and services to go global in a coordinated manner.

IV. Guarantee Measures

(1) Strengthen Organizational Support. Localities should combine their actual conditions to refine and implement stable growth targets and tasks, develop and improve policy support measures, organize various forms of policy promotion, timely summarize and promote typical experiences and practices, expand the implementation effects of policies, and ensure stable growth in the non-ferrous metal industry in their regions. Key enterprises should place stable growth and transformation promotion in a more prominent position, strengthen their leading and exemplary role in the industrial and supply chains, and promote coordinated development of upstream and downstream industries. Industry associations should play a bridging role, strengthen industry self-discipline, and timely reflect new situations and problems while proposing countermeasures and suggestions.

(2) Strengthen Policy Support. Make comprehensive use of existing funding channels such as ultra-long-term special government bonds to support non-ferrous metal resource development, high-end material breakthroughs, energy conservation, pollution reduction, carbon reduction, and digital transformation. Utilize policies such as the first batch insurance compensation for new materials to support initial market cultivation. Leverage the People's Bank of China's credit market service platform and the national industry-finance cooperation platform to guide banks and other financial institutions to accurately and effectively support project construction and upgrades that meet industry standards and self-discipline agreements based on market-oriented and legal principles. Fully utilize existing tax reduction and fee reduction policies. Timely enrich important non-ferrous metal futures trading varieties and financial derivatives. Ensure national reserves of important varieties. Strengthen the assessment and guidance of relevant state-owned enterprises, encouraging more resource development, technological innovation, and achievement transformation. Implement a talent support plan for the manufacturing industry, establish and utilize national excellent engineer practice bases, and cultivate a group of high-level technical, skill, and management talents.

(3) Strengthen Monitoring and Scheduling. Make good use of big data, artificial intelligence, and other technological means to enhance the analysis and judgment of basic information in segmented industries and global policies, resources, industries, and technologies. Strengthen the monitoring of key regions, leading enterprises, and major project operations, regularly organize industry operation analysis meetings, publish industry prosperity indices and operation reports, guide industry expectations, timely identify and coordinate the resolution of emerging, potential, and trending issues in operations, and conduct timely assessments of the effects of stable growth Improve the early warning mechanism for key product capacity, strengthen the tracking and monitoring of changes in product supply and demand, price fluctuations, social inventory, capacity utilization rate, and under-construction capacity, and guide enterprises to invest rationally.

This article is selected from the "Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official website," edited by Zhitong Finance: Zhang Jinliang