Copper prices have soared, how much do smelters earn? -- he Jinbi, deputy to the National people's Congress and chairman of the board of directors of Maike Group, talked about copper.

The copper market feast opened since last year has doubled the price of "Dr. Copper" and has risen prominently. However, this is a different thought in the mind of he Jinbi, a deputy to the National people's Congress and chairman of the board of directors of Maike Group, who has been following the copper market for a long time. "behind the sharp rise in copper prices, we should also see the existing problems." In the face of the reporter's question, he Jinbi called a spade a spade.

Looking at the ups and downs of copper prices, in the eyes of he Jinbi, the copper market is currently in a long period of restorative rise, and the overissuance of money under the influence of the epidemic and the expectation of global economic recovery have made copper a favored object of capital. in addition, the market demand is good, supporting the high operation of copper prices. "despite the booming market, as most copper smelters rely on imports of raw materials, it is difficult for smelters that earn processing fees to enjoy the dividends brought by high copper prices."

He Jinbi told reporters that in the past, some smelting enterprises unilaterally pursued GDP growth, which to a certain extent brought about excessive consumption of resources and degradation of the ecological environment, which ran counter to the goal of reaching a peak in carbon emissions and carbon neutralization proposed in the government work report. In he Jinbi's view, for industries that are short of mineral resources, instead of following the old path of large-scale investment in smelting projects, they will transfer smelting capacity to areas rich in overseas mineral resources, and at the same time take advantage of the depreciation of the US dollar to increase the import of strategic materials and expand non-ferrous metal reserves.

He Jinbi said that as far as copper is concerned, China's copper reserves accounted for only 2.99% of the world's copper resources, or about 26 million tons, by the end of 2019. The annual copper output of copper concentrate is basically maintained at about 1.6 million tons. Even if there are new production contributions from large mines such as Qulong Copper Mine and Yulong Copper Mine in the future, it is still far from enough to keep up with the expansion of smelting scale, resulting in an expanding supply gap.

Statistics show that China's dependence on imported copper concentrate is increasing, and the import volume has increased significantly. The degree of external dependence has increased year by year from 70% 10 years ago, and has approached 80% in 2020. The top advantage of the value chain has been in the oligopoly of mining enterprises in western countries for a long time, which leads to the lack of market say in purchasing metal raw materials in China, the processing fee is in the downward channel, and the profits of the industry are squeezed seriously. Although in recent years, some Chinese enterprises have "gone out" to control a number of mine resources, such as Simandou Iron Mine, Tromok Copper Mine and Dujiahe Zinc Mine, and continuously improve the ability of global resource allocation, it is still unable to effectively change the situation of low concentrate self-sufficiency in the short term.

In order to promote the high-quality development of China's metal industry, control the disorderly expansion of production capacity, realize the transformation and upgrading of new and old kinetic energy, and improve the comprehensive utilization of resources and the level of energy conservation and environmental protection, strive to reach a peak in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, achieve carbon neutralization by 2060, and improve national independent contribution, he Jinbi suggested:

First, through the regulation of environmental protection taxes, we will further guide pollutant discharge enterprises to reduce pollutant emissions, further enhance the awareness of environmental protection in the whole society, promote the construction of ecological civilization and green development, and at the same time abolish the stamp duty on the circulation of bulk metal commodities to reduce transaction costs. let domestic and international investors follow the same trading rules in the capital market and boost confidence in the commodity market. To achieve the ultimate goal of using the trading market to promote the capital market and the capital market to promote the development of enterprises and promote the overall economic prosperity.

The second is to further optimize the industrial layout and speed up industrial upgrading. First, encourage the landing of environmental protection technologies, intensive processing and direct use of recycled metals. It is suggested that the state should introduce incentive measures to support the production of high-value metal processing products using scrap metals as raw materials, establish and improve the utilization system of metal renewable resources, and build a number of large-scale demonstration projects for the utilization of recycled metals. At the same time, leading enterprises that have entered the field of metallurgical environmental protection are encouraged to continue to maintain strong competitiveness in the industry. support some emerging technology enterprises that are highly professional in subdivision fields, such as sintering flue gas circulation, blast furnace gas pressure equalization and air release, gas fine desulfurization, metallurgical solid waste resource utilization, and so on, and make efforts to promote energy saving and emission reduction technologies such as sintering flue gas circulation and blast furnace gas top pressure equalization, rest air release, etc. The conscious action of transforming the construction of a beautiful China into a metal industry. Second, speed up the intelligent and green transformation of the industry. It is suggested that the relevant departments formulate guiding measures to speed up the deep integration of the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and the metal industry, build a number of intelligent mines and factories, promote the development and application of new metal materials, and fully explore the application of metal products in high-speed railways, power equipment, photovoltaic industry, new energy vehicles and other fields. To meet the needs of high-precision metal products in key areas such as strategic emerging industries and national defense science and technology industry, and strive to make innovation truly a powerful engine for the high-quality development of the industry. Third, we should further expand opening up to the outside world and international cooperation. At present, a new round of more in-depth and expanded opening up and international cooperation in China has been launched. It is suggested that the Ministry of Commerce should take the lead and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and various industry associations should cooperate to actively guide more enterprises with strong strength, advanced technology and excellent products to go overseas with the "Belt and Road Initiative" initiative, to participate more deeply in the process of changing the pattern of the world metal industry, and to export Chinese technology, Chinese wisdom and Chinese plans. To achieve high-quality development under the great changes in the global economy.

At the same time, he Jinbi believes that as one of the main basic raw materials and strategic resources, the reserve of non-ferrous metal resources is of great significance to the sustained and healthy development of our national economy. In a proposal on perfecting the strategic material reserve system of non-ferrous metal resources brought by him, it is proposed that, from the national level, consider improving the strategic material reserve system of non-ferrous metal resources as an important link to enhance the effectiveness of the country's overall strategic material reserve system, so as to better protect national economic security and major strategic interests.

The first is to establish a scientific mechanism and system for the conversion from foreign exchange reserves to strategic material reserves so as to realize the appropriate materialization of foreign exchange reserves. With the continuous enhancement of foreign exchange earning capacity and the increasing accumulation of foreign exchange assets, China has become the largest foreign exchange reserve country in the world. The huge scale of foreign exchange reserves represents the country's economic strength to a certain extent, constantly improving the level of operation and management of foreign exchange reserves on the basis of ensuring security and liquidity, which is of great significance to promote the stable development of domestic and international financial markets. In recent years, a large number of additional currencies have been issued in Europe, the United States and other developed countries, and the quantitative easing policy in the United States has occurred frequently, which means the increase of imported inflationary pressure and the risk of shrinking foreign exchange reserves in China. It is suggested that the relevant foreign exchange management agencies should use foreign exchange reserves in a scientific and effective way to purchase non-ferrous metal strategic materials needed for China's economic and social development and national defense construction in the international market, and bring these materials into the national strategic material reserve system, so as to realize the appropriate conversion of China's foreign exchange reserves in the form of currency to strategic material reserves in kind. Weaken the adverse effects of supply and demand in the international market and market fluctuations, strive for international pricing power, improve the strategic material reserve strength of China's non-ferrous metal resources countries, and ensure the safeguard role of foreign exchange reserves in risk prevention.

The second is to improve the command and coordination mechanism of strategic materials reserves of non-ferrous metal resources under unified command and cooperation of ministries and commissions. The reserve and utilization of non-ferrous metal resources often involve many departments, many links, many kinds of reserve materials and a variety of resources for reserve operation and management. It is suggested that we should study and establish a unified command command and coordination mechanism for strategic material reserves of non-ferrous metal resources, and dynamically supervise, manage and inspect the reserves of non-ferrous metal mineral resources. in order to enhance the systematicness, integrity and cooperation of strategic materials reserves of non-ferrous metal resources.

The third is to build a multi-party reserve mechanism based on national reserves and the combination of national reserves and private reserves. For a long time, due to the lack of a set of scientific and clear planning, China does not have a strong sense of reserve in resource reserves, especially non-ferrous metal resources, and the strategic reserve established from the perspective of national security, because it is not profitable and requires a large amount of capital, it is entirely due to the high cost and maintenance costs of the government reserve, so the private commercial reserve can be used as an important supplement to the national reserve. Actively encourage relevant production, circulation and consumer enterprises to make necessary reserves. It is suggested to study and build a strategic material reserve system based on national reserves, a reasonable division of labor between the government and enterprises, and a combination of national reserves and private reserves, so as to hedge against market price fluctuations and risks, and improve the ability of enterprises to cope with skyrocketing resource prices. Enhance the government's ability to deal with emergencies and resist international market risks.

The fourth is to rationally distribute the reserve network and solve the problem of "where to locate" the strategic material reserve of non-ferrous metal resources. It is suggested that the first step is to establish a strategic material reserve warehouse at different levels. Take the national strategic material reserve as the leader, and the local and non-governmental commercial strategic material reserve as the auxiliary, to form a three-dimensional reserve grid with point area, up-and-down linkage, mutual connection and echo from beginning to end; the second is to establish a reasonable national strategic resource reserve. Set up a number of national strategic resource repositories throughout the country, fully considering various factors such as location resources, industrial development, transportation and logistics, so as to ensure the broadest range of radiation, the fastest transportation speed and the maximum guarantee capacity, define the jurisdiction of the strategic resource reserve, and the local and non-governmental commercial strategic resource reserve within the jurisdiction shall be guided and supervised by its business. Third, through the regular release of reserve inventory information and other means, reasonably guide market expectations, prevent sharp fluctuations in supply and demand in the process of economic operation, and promote the integration of non-ferrous metal strategic materials reserves into the financial risk prevention system.