1. Copper production overall tends to be stable

In recent years, copper production has increased year by year until 2017, peaking at 20.96 million tons in 2016. This was followed by an 11.2 per cent decline in 2017 production to 18.62 m tonnes and a 3.4 per cent decline to 17.16 m tonnes in 2018. The reason for the decline is on the one hand demand-led industrial restructuring, on the other hand is affected by environmental protection policies. By 2019, with the completion of industrial restructuring and demand-driven, production again came to more than 20 million tons. In the first quarter of 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the year-on-year increase in production was negative. However, with the end of the epidemic peak period and the large-scale resumption of work by enterprises, the cumulative production of copper by June 2020 was 9.4 million tons, an increase of 6.1% year-on-year. From these years, although the output of copper has a small-scale adjustment, but the overall trend of stability.

2.The output of refined copper keeps increasing

In recent years, refined copper production has been climbing, from 7.96 million tons in 2015 to 9.78 million tons in 2019. Refined copper as a demand-driven industry, refined copper production rose, also means that demand rose, strong demand is the industry's most important driving force for progress, in the domestic epidemic reached its peak in the first quarter of 2020, the production of refined copper is still increasing. The importance and demand of refined copper are self-evident.

3.Analysis of unwrought copper and copper material import

UNWROUGHT COPPER and copper products have maintained growth since 2015, reaching a peak of 5.69 million tons in 2017, with an import value of US $31.26 billion. Affected by weakening demand in 2018, imports began to decrease and domestic production increased in 2019, further reducing the volume of imports. By the first half of 2020, influenced by the strong and weak copper price and the boost of domestic demand, China's imports of unwrought rolled copper and copper products were 2.84 million tons, up 570,000 tons from the same period last year, up 25.2 percent, and the value of imports was US $17.07 billion, that was an increase of 12.3 percent, or $1.83 billion, from the same period a year earlier.

4.Analysis of imports of copper ores and concentrates

Boosted by demand, imports of copper ore and its concentrates have climbed year by year, reaching 21.99 million tons by 2019. In the first half of 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the global economic downturn, copper ore and its concentrate prices fell, affected by the fall in prices and demand, imports of 10.84 million tons of copper ores and concentrates rose by 290,000 tons, or 3 percent, to us $15.85 billion in June from a year earlier, down by US $790 million, or 3.6 percent.

 Source: the Yangtze River is colored