New Catalogue for Guiding Industry Restructuring and impacts on nonferrous metals industries in China

On 29 December 2023, the NDRC of China announced Catalogue for Guiding Industry Restructuring (2024 Version), which will be implemented on 01 February 2024 and replace the Catalogue for Guiding Industry Restructuring (2019 Version).

The Catalogue for Guiding Industry Restructuring is a governmental document that provides guidance and direction for the restructuring of industries. It serves as an important reference for directing social investments, managing government investment projects, and formulating policies related to finance, taxation, credit, land, imports, and exports. There are total three categories in the catalogue: Encouraged, Restricted, and Eliminated.

Compared to 2019 version, the environmental protection upgrade of copper smelting PS converter, the resource utilization of Zinc Hydrometallurgical Slag, the resource utilization of aluminium ash and slag and the new recycled nonferrous metals materials from the nonferrous metals industry have been added into the encouraged category in the 2024 version, which indicates the Chinese government would like to encourage the nonferrous metals industries to improve their ESG performance and recycling ability.

The greenfield/brownfield alumina projects that adopt diaspore as raw material and the copper smelting PS converter project have been identify as restricted projects. As Chinese bauxite reserve mainly is diaspore rather than trihydrate bauxite, It means all of new alumina refining capacity need use imported bauxite as raw materials or coal ash. The new copper smelting projects will be not allowed to use PS converters after Feb 2024. The restricted projects cannot get approvals from the authorities and funds from banks.

In the Catalogue for Guiding Industry Restructuring (2024 Version), the Chinese authorities add smelting furnaces for recycled aluminium below 15 tons and zinc vertical retorting process and furnaces into the eliminated category. These equipment are expected to be eliminated in China next few years.

The new catalogue pays more attention on green economy in China, which is in line with 2030 carbon emission peak policy. For traditional nonferrous metals industries, emission reduction, energy efficiency, environmental protection and circular utilisation will become key development.