The Government Work Report this year repeatedly highlighted keywords such as "real economy," "new quality productive forces," and "green and low-carbon development," outlining a clear development blueprint for the nonferrous metals industry. At this critical juncture marking the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the industry is strengthening its resource security foundation, leveraging technological innovation as an engine, and embracing green transformation as a fundamental theme. It is focusing on substance, seeking efficiency through innovation, and advancing towards green development, striving to write a new chapter of high-quality growth.
Focusing on Substance: Strengthening the Resource Foundation and Securing Industrial Safety The real economy is the foundation for national strength and development. As a vital basic industry for the national economy, the nonferrous metals sector bears the important mission of ensuring national resource security and supporting the stability of industrial and supply chains. The Government Work Report explicitly stated, "We will continue to focus on the real economy in driving economic development, develop new quality productive forces tailored to local conditions, and build a modern industrial system," providing crucial guidance for the transformation and development of the nonferrous metals industry. As a key component of the real economy, the nonferrous metals industry not only provides essential material support for strategic emerging industries like new energy, aerospace, and integrated circuits but also serves as a crucial field for cultivating and developing new quality productive forces. The report proposed allocating 200 billion yuan in ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to support large-scale equipment renewal, which will directly benefit equipment upgrades and energy-saving and pollution-reduction renovations in sectors like electrolytic aluminum and copper smelting, injecting financial momentum for industrial quality enhancement and upgrading. Ensuring resource security remains a critical challenge for the development of the nonferrous metals industry. This year's Government Work Report emphasized "enhancing the capacity for ensuring the supply of energy and resources," which aligns closely with the industry's development needs. Data shows that in 2024, China imported 230 million metric tons of nonferrous metal mineral products, with external dependency rates for strategic minerals like copper, aluminum, nickel, cobalt, and lithium remaining high. Ding Shiqi, a National People's Congress deputy and Party Secretary and Chairman of Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co., Ltd., suggested increasing gold recycling rates, expanding resource reserves, and optimizing international resource allocation to allow gold to play a greater role in the national resource security system. He also emphasized the need to expand reserve scales for base metals like copper and nickel to stabilize markets and ensure industrial development, and called for orderly, planned large-scale national reserves of rare and scattered metals to meet future industrial resource demands.
Seeking Efficiency through Innovation: Activating the Innovation Engine and Cultivating New Growth Drivers The deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation is the core driving force for promoting high-quality development in the industry. Currently, as a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation deepens, the nonferrous metals industry is accelerating its shift towards high-end and intelligent development. The Government Work Report proposed to "deepen and expand 'AI+'" and "promote the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation," opening new development spaces for the nonferrous metals industry. Policy supports the large-scale application of artificial intelligence in scenarios such as resource exploration, ore sorting, and process optimization, while also encouraging state-owned enterprises to open application scenarios, providing opportunities for large-scale application verification of products like high-purity gallium and high-end rare earth new materials. Zhang Tianren, a National People's Congress deputy and Chairman of Tianneng Holding Group, stated, "The Government Work Report's emphasis on promoting the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation is highly encouraging. Enterprises will collaborate on breakthroughs in key core technologies such as solid-state batteries and sodium-ion batteries, as well as digital transformation, advancing the deep integration of 'AI+' with manufacturing, and providing practical support for cultivating new growth drivers in the industry." Yuan Silang, a National People's Congress deputy and Party Secretary and Chairman of China 22Metallurgy Group Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Minmetals Corporation, stated that the Government Work Report set clear requirements for deepening the reform of state-owned enterprises and promoting the structural adjustment and industrial layout optimization of the state-owned economy. As a central enterprise, it is essential to closely follow the report's部署, continuously deepen reforms, focus on enhancing core competitiveness and strengthening core functions, and better serve national strategies and the broader industrial development landscape. Data indicates that in 2025, China's output of ten major nonferrous metals reached 81.75 million tons, with operating revenue of major enterprises exceeding 10.2 trillion yuan and total profits reaching 528.45 billion yuan, setting new historical highs in multiple indicators and demonstrating the strong resilience of the industry's innovative development. Facing the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the nonferrous metals industry must plan ahead and proactively integrate into the new development格局 to seize new growth avenues, cultivate new drivers, and achieve higher-quality development.
Advancing Towards Green Development: Promoting Low-Carbon Transition and Enhancing the Industry's Eco-Friendly Base Green and low-carbon development has become a key direction in global industrial competition. As one of the sectors with relatively concentrated energy consumption and carbon emissions, accelerating the green transition is both a requirement of the times and a development opportunity for the nonferrous metals industry. The Government Work Report explicitly set a target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by around 3.8% in 2026. This provides a clear direction for energy conservation, carbon reduction, and green development in the nonferrous metals industry. In recent years, energy-saving and carbon-reduction renovations have continued to advance within the industry, with a batch of green, low-carbon technologies and processes being continuously promoted and applied. The aluminum industry's achievement of peak carbon emissions ahead of schedule stands as a landmark success in the sector's green development. Meanwhile, initiatives such as clean energy substitution, green power application, and production process optimization are also accelerating. Zhang Tianren believes that green and low-carbon development has become a crucial dimension of global industrial chain competition. Enterprises should upgrade green development from a "compliance requirement" to a "strategic advantage," transforming the "dual carbon" opportunity into new market competitiveness by strengthening carbon footprint management throughout the product lifecycle, building a circular economy, and exporting green energy solutions. The Government Work Report's部署 on strengthening the recycling of renewable resources will further promote the resource utilization of industrial solid wastes like red mud and lithium slag, contribute to the continuous improvement of the resource recycling system, and assist the industry in achieving its green and low-carbon transformation. Standing at the historical starting point of the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the nonferrous metals industry is embracing multiple opportunities fueled by policy support, innovation-driven growth, and green transformation. From the continuous strengthening of the "ballast stone" of resource security, to the accelerated cultivation of the "new engine" of new quality productive forces, and the ongoing enhancement of the "fundamental color" of green development, the nonferrous metals industry is poised to move forward with determination, using practical action as its pen and innovation as its ink. By coordinating domestic and international markets and resources, it will advance courageously in the process of achieving high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology and building a modern industrial system, providing solid support for the modernization drive.
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