China: China's recycled copper industry forges high-end path.

Storyline China's recycled copper industry forges high-end path China's recycled copper industry is accelerating its growth, converting industrial scrap into high-end materials at a fast rate to meet surging demand from the electric vehicle and artificial intelligence sectors. In east China's Jiangsu Province, a recycled copper processor is running at full tilt, with inventories hovering near zero and downstream demand showing no sign of cooling. A company official says a few years ago, 80 percent of their recycled copper went into ordinary cables and low-end profiles. Today, after electrolytic refining, the product can achieve 99.99 percent purity, which is comparable to primary electrolytic copper, making the recycled material suitable for lithium-battery copper foil, precision components for servers and ultra-high-voltage accessories. With the rapid growth of AI applications, consumer electronics and new energy vehicles, downstream demand for copper products is surging. Wang Qinglun, Deputy production manager, Zhangjiagang United Copper., LTD.: "The level of incoming raw material reaches about 1,000 to 1,200 tons per day. We basically achieve zero inventory, which indirectly shows that overall downstream consumption remains relatively strong." The recycled copper production lines at another copper company in east China's Zhejiang province are also running at full capacity. The company has built a closed-loop industrial chain for its recycled copper segment, which includes recovery, sorting, refining and high-end deep processing. Xiang Yanlong, Director, Production Technology Center, Ningbo Jintian Copper (Group) Co., Ltd.: "These copper strips are primarily used in consumer electronics, for example, vapour-chamber heat-spreading strips for mobile phones. Year-on-year growth in this segment is 1,000 percent. We’re swamped with orders with some production scheduled five months out." Industry forecasts predict that China's NEV sector will consume more than 1.8 million tons of copper this year and more than 2 million tons next year. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]