Rays of recovery - Chinese nonferrous metal industry rallies

Chinamining citing Mr Jia Yinsong an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as saying that China's nonferrous metal industry is showing signs of a pickup. Mr Jia said the output of ten nonferrous metals arrived at 9.48 million tonnes in the first five months of this year down by 5.7%YoY over the same time last year. However, the output in May registered 3.6% increase over April indicating a recovery. Copper and aluminum output increased 7.9% and 4.8% respectively to 3.46 million tonnes and 6.11 million tonnes from January to May. Prices of nonferrous metals fluctuated within a small range over the near term suggesting a stabilized market. The nation posted increasing electrolytic aluminum imports in view of the different prices between Chinese and global markets. Investments in the nonferrous metal industry rose 25.8% to CNY 82.8 billion in the first five months of this year. The investment structure continued to improve with those in mineral mining and rolling higher than that in smelting. Additionally, gold output increased 12% in the first five months of this year. In 2008, China posted 25.2 million tonnes of ten nonferrous metals output and consumed 25.17 million tonnes. China's consumption of copper, aluminum, lead, zinc and nickel accounted for 30% of the globe's total consumption. China's nonferrous metal industry has been suffering from losses since the second half of 2008 due to the global financial crisis. (Sourced from Chinamining)