SMM News: in the first half of 2020, the non-ferrous metals industry actively responded to the adverse effects of the epidemic and made great efforts to promote the resumption of work and production. Since the second quarter, production and operation have gradually resumed, the decline in efficiency has narrowed, and industry confidence has been boosted.

First, production has grown steadily and industry confidence has been restored. From January to June, the output of ten non-ferrous metals was 29.28 million tons, an increase of 2.9 percent over the same period last year, which was 1.4 percentage points lower than the same period last year. Industrial added value increased by 0.6 percent over the same period last year, which was 1.9 percentage points higher than the industrial average. According to the statistics of the Nonferrous Association, the business confidence index in the second quarter was 49.1, up 4.3 points from the first quarter, of which the sub-indices of new orders, production and raw material purchases all exceeded the critical point of 50, which was a great improvement compared with the first quarter.

Second, the decline in investment narrowed and the total volume of import and export trade decreased compared with the same period last year. From January to June, investment in the non-ferrous industry fell 8.5% from the same period last year, 2.9 percentage points lower than in the first quarter, including 2.5% and 9.6% in mining, smelting and Calendering processing, respectively, 8.3% and 2% lower than in the first quarter. From January to May, trade in non-ferrous metals totaled US $58 billion, down 24.5% from the same period last year, including imports of US $45.97 billion, down 28.7% from the same period last year and exports of US $12.03 billion, down 3% from the same period last year.

Third, prices have rebounded in stages, and the decline in efficiency has narrowed somewhat. From January to June, the average spot prices of copper, aluminum, lead and zinc were 44673 yuan / ton, 13237 yuan / ton, 14385 yuan / ton and 16925 yuan / ton, respectively, down 7.4%, 4.2%, 14.8% and 22.6% from the same period last year. Prices have continued to pick up since April, and the average spot prices of copper and aluminum in early July basically returned to their pre-epidemic levels. From January to June, the profit of the non-ferrous industry reached 50.08 billion yuan, down 25.4 percent from the same period last year. In particular, the profit in June was 16.65 billion yuan, an increase of 18.3 percent over the same period last year. The benefit decline in the first half of the year was 11.6 percentage points lower than that in January-May, of which the profits of the mining, smelting and processing industries from January to June were 13 billion yuan, 17.64 billion yuan and 19.44 billion yuan, respectively, down 13.4%, 37.1% and 19.2% respectively from the same period last year. The rate of decrease was 1.8%, 16.2% and 13.7% lower than that from January to May.

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