Page 29 from: December 2012

29December 2012

M e t a l s i n c h i n a

Epic scrap volumes
China is a developing country and thus it doesn’t

come close to matching the per-capita scrap

generation rates of Europe, Japan and the USA.

Still, the growth in some consumer product mar-

kets (appliances and vehicles, in particular) is

already providing China with new secondary

resources that it didn’t have 10 years ago – espe-

cially vehicle-related scrap. Those consumer

products are already generating volumes of scrap

that would be epic in any other country.

According to Mr Wang, China collected in

excess of 33 million tonnes of its own non-

ferrous scrap between 2002 and 2011, recycling

it into 27.53 million tonnes of new metal prod-

ucts. The specific numbers are equally impres-

sive: over the same period, China grew its col-

lections of copper scrap by 313% from 290 000

tonnes to 1.4 million tonnes; annual alumini-

um collections leapt 244% from 640 000 tonnes

to 2.2 million tonnes; yearly lead collections

soared 694% from 170 000 tonnes to 1.35 mil-

lion tonnes (with vehicle battery collections

driving much of this growth); and annual zinc

collections jumped 253% from 490 000 tonnes

to 1.73 million tonnes.

Profound effect
Legislation mandating systems for e-scrap and

appliance collections have had a real and pro-

found effect on China’s collection rates, as well

as municipal programmes to better harvest

what’s being collected by China’s army of scrap

peddlers. According to Mr Wang, the nation-

wide renewable resource recycling system (actu-

ally, many systems built and maintained by local

governments) has established 33 075 recycling

stations where peddlers and home-owners can

drop off and/or sell their recyclables, 181 recy-

cling sorting centres and 36 regional distribu-

tion markets where consumers can buy domes-

tically-generated recyclables for processing.

More impressive yet, China has so far estab-

lished 28 ‘urban mining’ demonstration

projects in 20 provinces where pilot collection

and processing methods for appliances and

e-scrap are implemented.

Finally, China’s designated imported recycling

processing parks have reached 14 and, according

to Mr Wang and other speakers, they will mul-

tiply in coming years. The parks will remain

critical pieces of China’s recycling infrastructure

for many years to come. Mr Wang emphasised

throughout his speech that imported resources

are critical stop-gaps for the development of

China’s secondary non-ferrous industry.

Reducing import dependence
During the last decade, China became the

world’s undisputed king of non-ferrous scrap

metal imports, purchasing 62.74 million tonnes

of resources from ‘80 countries and regions’,

according to Mr Wang. This included 44.17

million tonnes of copper-bearing scrap that,

when recovered, accounted for a stirring 76.6%

of China’s total copper scrap supply. Similarly,

the 18.15 million tonnes of aluminium scrap

imported over the last decade accounted for

59% of China’s aluminium scrap supply. In a

curious statement, Mr Wang was blunt that the

growth and role of these imports was part of a

grand design: ‘The goal to expand the non-

ferrous metals industry in China by quickly

taking advantage of the international non-

ferrous scrap resources has been achieved.’

Nevertheless, the scale of the Chinese industry’s

dependence on scrap metal imports has become

a matter of significant concern in China, and

several conference speakers, including Mr Wang,

indicated that reducing this dependence was

both a short-term and long-term goal of policy-

makers and businesses alike.

Among the CMRA’s top goals over the last decade

was to eliminate small, polluting recyclers from

the Chinese recycling industry. At the same time,

the organisation encouraged the development of

concentrated, large-scale businesses with the

capital to innovate technologically while uphold-

ing environmental dictates. ‘Industrial concen-

tration was significantly improved for the pur-

pose of laying a solid foundation for rapid,

sustainable development during the twelfth Five-

Year Plan,’ Mr Wang noted.

The proof of this success, as documented by Mr

Wang, is non-ferrous scrap businesses on a

scale that simply don’t exist anywhere else in

the world. Currently, he said, China has 10

companies with the capacity to produce

300 000 tonnes of recycled aluminium per year;

10 companies capable of producing 200 000

tonnes of copper per year; 10 companies with

the capacity to produce more than 100 000

tonnes of recycled lead; and five companies

capable of producing more than 50 000 tonnes

of recycled zinc.

Stagnation rather than downturn
Much of China’s new secondary non-ferrous

metals capacity was built in the wake of the

global financial crisis, often with the help of

government subsidies. But Chen Quanxun, the

President of the China Non-Ferrous Industry

Association, directly blamed overcapacity for

current difficulties in the non-ferrous industry.

According to him, China’s total non-ferrous

output from January to September 2012

increased 2% year on year to 7.2 million tonnes.

However, the all-important (to Chinese

According to Wang Jiwei,
CMRA’s Secretary General and
Vice-President, imported resour-
ces are critical stop-gaps for the
development of China’s secon-
dary non-ferrous industry.

Chen Quanxun, President of the
China Non-Ferrous Industry
Association, blamed overcapacity
for the current difficulties in the
non-ferrous industry.

The CMRA General Assembly commemorated the tenth anniversary of
the founding of the organisation.

The cheap labour era was temporary and the real driver of demand is
demand itself.

RI_10-CMRA.indd 29 03-12-12 09:09