The 2026 semi-annual report disclosure season has concluded, and publicly listed firms across China's copper foil industry chain delivered impressive interim results. Driven by the combined demand resonance of continued growth in ESS installations, rising NEV penetration rates, and accelerating AI computing infrastructure construction, the industry has emerged from a two-year trough and entered an upward cycle of "rising volumes and prices." According to SMM statistics, net profit YoY growth rates for leading publicly listed copper foil firms in China generally reached several hundred times, while non-GAAP net profit showed explosive recovery. The industry currently exhibits a high-prosperity landscape marked by continuously rising processing fees, capacity utilization rates exceeding 90%, and undersupply of high-end copper foil products, fully confirming the industry's cyclical recovery.
I. Demand Side: ESS and NEVs Drive Growth, AI Computing Opens High-End Space
This round of copper foil industry prosperity is led by structural demand upgrades. ESS and NEVs solidify the base demand for lithium battery copper foil, while AI computing construction continues to expand high-end PCB copper foil demand, forming a dual-engine growth pattern.
Downstream power battery demand remains stable with modest growth, while ESS batteries maintain rapid growth, directly boosting lithium battery copper foil rigid demand significantly. Both Nuode and Jiayuan Technology noted in their semi-annual reports that end-use demand for renewable energy storage continued to recover, driving notable YoY growth in their copper foil shipments. According to SMM estimates, global copper consumption in the ESS sector will reach 540,000 mt in 2026, with a YoY growth rate as high as 80%, providing strong growth support for the lithium battery copper foil industry.
AI computing infrastructure construction is reshaping the supply-demand structure of high-end copper foil, becoming the core variable in industry upgrading. SMM data shows that global new data center installations will grow 65% YoY to 54 GW in 2026, with a CAGR of 28% from 2026 to 2030; correspondingly, annual incremental copper consumption from new data centers will grow 55% YoY to 770,000 mt, with a five-year CAGR of 21%. The large-scale iteration of AI servers has significantly boosted demand for high-end PCB copper foil such as HVLP, with industry capacity continuously tilting toward high-end products, indirectly causing supply contraction in ordinary electronic circuit copper foil and ultimately tightening supply and demand across the entire copper foil product range.
II. Tight supply-demand pattern, processing fees continue to rise
The optimization of the industry's supply-demand pattern provides core support for rising processing fees. After the previous phase of low-efficiency capacity rationalization, the industry's disorderly expansion has come to an end, the pace of new capacity release has slowed, and supply-side growth has tightened. Since H2 2025, copper foil processing fees have officially entered an upward channel, with the upward trend continuing and accelerating in H1 2026, showing a month-by-month rise.
For lithium batteries, based on SMM's monthly supply-demand balance data for lithium battery copper foil, downstream energy storage and NEV demand remains rigid, resulting in a slight supply shortage across the industry, providing a solid foundation for the continued recovery of lithium battery copper foil processing fees. For electronic circuits, as industry capacity shifts toward the high-end segment, overall effective market supply has contracted, and processing fees across all product categories have upside room. According to an SMM survey, HVLP1 copper foil processing fees are currently in a high range of 52,000–70,000 yuan/mt, with the premium pricing power of high-end products continuing to stand out.
III. Copper foil enterprises see across-the-board revenue and profit expansion, with both business segments growing rapidly
In H1 2026, five core specialized copper foil enterprises in China achieved overall revenue expansion, with revenue growth rates all staying high and industry growth momentum fully released. Among them, Nuode led the industry with a 113.33% YoY revenue growth rate, followed by Jiayuan Technology and Defu Technology, with YoY revenue growth of 89.57% and 73.54%, respectively. By business structure, all companies achieved high growth in both lithium battery copper foil and electronic circuit copper foil segments.
On the profit side, there was an explosive recovery, mainly driven by the low base effect from industry losses or marginal profits in the same period last year, coupled with substantive profitability improvement from supply-demand improvement and product price increases in 2026. Copper foil enterprises all turned losses into profits. Among them, Jiayuan Technology posted net profit attributable to shareholders of 382 million yuan, up 940% YoY, ranking among the top in the industry in terms of profit scale; Zhongyi Technology led the five core enterprises in growth rate, with net profit attributable to shareholders of 167 million yuan, up 987.97% YoY; Nuode successfully turned a profit, achieving net profit attributable to shareholders of 103 million yuan, reversing the loss of 72.43 million yuan in the same period last year, fully confirming the substantive recovery of industry prosperity. Deducted non-net profit is the core indicator for observing the true profitability of an enterprise's main business, and the profit quality of each company has shown clear differentiation. Tongguan Copper Foil leads the industry in profit quality, with a deducted non-net profit to net profit attributable to the parent company ratio as high as 96.5%. The company's profit is almost entirely derived from its copper foil main business, demonstrating extremely strong stability in its core operations.
IV. Capacity expansion remains steady, with high-end capacity running at full utilization
Defu Technology has an existing capacity of 195,000 mt/year, ranking first in China and among the industry leaders globally. Jiayuan Technology has an existing capacity exceeding 155,000 mt/year and has set a clear expansion target of surpassing 190,000 mt in total capacity by 2026, with a well-defined capacity rollout pace. Nuode is expected to reach a total capacity of 170,000 mt in 2026, with R&D focused on ultra-thin lithium battery copper foil, supporting materials for solid-state batteries, and high-end PCB copper foil for AI servers, continuously strengthening its capability to iterate high-end products.
Tongguan Copper Foil has an existing capacity of 80,000 mt/year, of which 55,000 mt is suitable for high-end copper foil production. Its high-end capacity has long maintained full production and full sales, with outstanding product pricing power. Zhongyi Technology is expected to reach a total capacity of 75,000 mt in 2026, currently in a steady ramp-up stage with production and sales volumes continuing to rise. Overall, in H1 2026, production and sales data across enterprises improved significantly, with the industry-wide capacity utilization rate exceeding 90%, and operational efficiency reaching a phased high.
V. Diversified enterprises recover in tandem, with segment improvement at varying paces
Beyond pure-play copper foil enterprises, multiple publicly listed firms with copper foil business segments also saw improved performance. The sector-wide recovery is broad-based, with only a few enterprises still in the late stages of recovery.
Zhongtian Technology delivered outstanding overall results, with H1 group net profit attributable to shareholders of 2.387 billion yuan, up 52.29% YoY. All four core businesses grew, with electronic copper foil revenue up 63% YoY. Far East Smarter Energy reported group net profit attributable to shareholders of 205 million yuan, up 43.13% YoY, while revenue from new copper foil products surged 680.09% YoY, as new-type high-end copper foil products entered a phase of rapid volume ramp-up.
Hangzhou Cable achieved explosive overall growth, with H1 group net profit attributable to shareholders of 393 million yuan, up 938.67% YoY. The core driver came from volume and price increases in the optical communications segment. Although its copper foil segment has yet to turn profitable, losses have narrowed significantly, with a clear recovery trend. The state-backed JCC Copper Foil did not separately disclose revenue figures, but its existing capacity of 100,000 mt (65,000 mt of lithium battery copper foil + 35,000 mt of electronic circuit copper foil) places it in the industry's first tier by capacity scale, with notable resource and scale advantages.
VI. Industry Summary and H2 Outlook
Overall, the semi-annual reports for 2026 comprehensively validated the reversal logic of the copper foil industry's prosperity, achieving full-dimensional recovery in revenue, net profit, non-GAAP net profit, and capacity utilization rate. With the exit of low-end capacity and the surge in high-end demand, the industry's competitive landscape has been fundamentally restructured, shifting from homogeneous cost competition to structural value competition driven by technology, quality, and high-end capacity.
Looking ahead to H2, the three demand engines supporting this round of copper foil prosperity show no clear signs of weakening: ESS installations are approaching their peak season, NEV sales are entering their peak season, and AI computing infrastructure investment continues to accelerate. The supply-demand balance for high-end HVLP copper foil remains tight in the short term, and the processing fee midpoint is expected to continue rising; lithium battery copper foil is expected to sustain its earnings recovery under tight supply-demand balance.
Overall, the industry-wide prosperity uptrend is clear. Going forward, three key dimensions—sustainability of profit realization, strength of cash flow recovery, and progress in high-end capacity deployment—will serve as the critical benchmarks for distinguishing the core competitiveness and growth potential of copper foil enterprises.
