Leap-Forward Development of China's Copper Processing Industry

Leap-Forward Development of China's Copper Processing Industry

In 2011,China's copper processing industry bid farewell to the 11th Five-Year Plan Period and came to the 12th Five-Year Plan Period.The past 5 years was a short period for development of an industry,however,it was in this period that China's copper processing industry made significant progress and grew by leaps and bounds.

Review of China's Copper Processing Industry during the 11th Five-Year Plan Period.

Previously,China's copper processing industry was big but not strong,the technological and economic indexes were not advanced enough,enterprises were of small scale,advanced and backward technologies and equipments coexisted.During the 11th Five-Year Plan Period,the above phenomena were remarkably changed,which made China's copper processing industry develop into a new stage and laid a solid foundation for structural adjustment and industrial upgrade in the 12th Five-Year Plan Period.

During the past 5 years,China's output of copper processing materials nearly doubled by increasing from 5,230,000 tons in 2006 to approximately 10,000,000 tons in 2010,and China grew into one of the most important countries for production,consumption and international trade of copper material,with its output of copper processing materials ranking No.1 in the world for consecutive 8 years and international trade being more active.

Market-oriented copper processing bases began to take shape.Coastal areas in southeast China,Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta were China's major copper processing bases,of which the output accounting for one third of that of the whole country.And copper processing bases in Bohai Sea Rim area and along the Yangtze River grew rapidly during the period.

Copper processing materials increased gradually in both variety and quality.During the 11th Five-Year Plan Period,China's output of all key varieties of copper processing materials,such as tube,bar,wire,sheet and strip,exceeded one million tons; air conditioner pipe kept a leading position in both quality and variety; traditional copper processing product series were basically eliminated and modern copper materials were adopted; materials with high strength and high electric conductivity,copper materials for high-speed train,copper materials for modern automobile,copper materials for modern power grids,electric power and electronics,copper materials for new energy,copper materials for environmental protection,copper materials for superior heat dissipation,copper materials for electric connection,precise functional materials and compound materials were highlighted; and the following products were industrialized,such as high-speed train contact wire,lead frame,transformer strip,cable tie,photovoltaic copper strip,electric connecting strip,rolled copper foil,internal thread pipe,external thread pipe,high finned tube,heating pipe for seawater desalination,silicon-phosphorus brass rod for bathroom accessories,special super-thin enameled wire,copper-clad aluminum wire,copper-clad aluminum tube,aluminum-clad copper tube andcopper-clad aluminum compound conducting bar,etc.

High-end copper processing materials were gradually developed.In order to satisfy the market demand and technological development,traditional copper processing materials were gradually edged out by modern copper processing materials with key features of high precision,high performance,environmentfriendliness and energy saving.Many China products enjoyed great popularity both at home and abroad; product quality was steadily improved,product standards remained at a leading position in the world,the key manufacturers were not only able to produce copper products according to the national standard,but also supply products with standards of main developed countries,indicating that China’s production of copper processing materials were further globalized; in order to meet various demands of the national economy and science and technologies for copper materials,all copper processing enterprises formulated a number of technical standards for domestic copper supply.Copper processing materials were mainly applied to electric power,electronics and mechanical manufacturing.In the past few years,demand for copper products (especially long contact wire) in communications and transportation grew rapidly.China’s copper consumption has approached that of developed countries,for example,its copper consumption in the fields of electric power and electronics exceeded 50% (See figure).

During the 11th Five-Year Plan Period,China has made great contribution to energy saving,environment protection,short process and continuous production by means of the following major technical breakthroughs:

Underflow continuous casting technology,which eliminated the transfer process of copper melt in flow trough and resolved the technical problem of excessive oxygen in the production process of oxygen-free copper materials; pullup continuous casting and horizontal continuous casting method,which was applicable to production of copper rod,strip,pipe and bar;multi-face multi-flow underflow continuous casting bar-shaped piping technology,which opened a new chapter in direct use of recycled copper.

Major breakthroughs of continuous extrusion technology and the advent of the 630 continuous extrusion machine played a decisive role in eliminating the hot processing process used in copper processing for hundreds of years and opened a new era of copper processing with copper wire (rod) as stock.

Breakthrough and development of cold spinning-rolling technologies (planetary rolling,internal/external thread forming,external finned spinning-rolling and copper ball spinningrolling,etc.) laid a firm foundation for shortening of technical process and producing special products.

Industrial technologies improved and technological innovation flourished.Traditional 3-tiered copper and alloy production style is being changed and production process will be further shortened,so as to provide great opportunities for energy saving and efficiency improvement.Traditional and classic copper processing consists of alloy smelting and founding,hot processing and cold processing.At present,hot processing is being gradually reduced and replaced; horizontal continuous coiling (precise drawing) and pull-up continuous casting of wire stock (precise drawing)have been widely applied and become main methods for producing popular products such as air conditioner pipe,internal thread pipe,alloy wire and tin bronze strip,which is very important to help China’s copper processing industry save energy,and reduce cost and project investment.

The installed capacity of the copper processing industry has been constantly improved,and homemade technologies and equipment are playing an important role.Homemade copper processing technologies and equipment are being widely adopted by copper processing enter-prises due to their excellent price/performance ratio and cost efficiency which can significantly reduce project investment and avoid over high investment.The situation of relying entirely on foreign technologies and equipments is being changed; after more than ten years of hard work,research,design and manufacturing of copper processing equipment have changed from auxiliary machine to main machine,from a single equipment to the whole production line and from imitation to innovation,which not only enhanced China’s copper processing industry,but also gained great popularity among copper processing enterprises in the world;

Modern copper processing system has been established.China’s copper processing industry,including material research,trial production,plant design,plant construction and equipment manufacturing,etc.has been localized; more and more copper processing projects have been outsourced,the days in which we relied on foreign countries for copper processing projects have gone.

Forecast of China’s Copper Processing Industry in the 12th Five-Year Plan Period

Looking into the future,we shall clearly realize that China’s overall copper processing industry still lags behind developed countries for the following reasons: it is big but not-strong;technological and economic indexes are backward; enterprises are of small scale; product quality is not stable; backward and advanced technologies and equipment coexist.The above disadvantages have not been fundamentally changed; China’s manufacturing cost of copper material will rise driven by shortage of copper resources and the increasing copper price and labor cost; competition in copper material market at home and abroad will further intensify;as the Chinese economy is developing in the direction of low carbon,energy-saving and environment friendliness; precise,leading-edge and environment-friendly copper processing products as well as energy-saving,environment-friendly and low-carbon technical processes are required; in order to ensure a continuous and steady development of China’s copper processing industry,technological innovations are needed to develop short-flow,energysaving,low-carbon,automatic and continuous production technique as well as the technology by means of which recycled copper can be used directly to produce copper processing materials.During the 12th Five-Year Plan Period,China’s copper processing industry shall develop in the following directions.

Firstly,increase output of copper processing materials steadily to further boost international trade; improve product quality; shorten production process; further localize equipment; dramatically improve technological and economic indexes and significantly enhance the overall strength of the industry; therefore,structural adjustment and industrial upgrading of the industry will run through the 12th Five-Year Plan Period.

Secondly,take full advantage of the abundant capital and historic opportunities provided by China’s rapid development of market economy and build copper processing bases on the basis of coastal areas in southeast China,Yangtze River Delta,Pearl River Delta,Bohai Sea Rim area,SOE transition and sources of raw materials.

Thirdly,the existing copper processing enterprises shall strengthen modern lean management with the aim of improving and increasing technological and economic indexes and increasing product quality,so as to avoid extensive operation.

Fourthly,advanced technologies and equipment shall be used in all projects under construction to lower project cost,meet the deadline and satisfy the demand for capacity as soon as possible,so as to avoid repeated introduction and construction.

Fifthly,attach great importance to technological innovation; develop production technologies with features of short technological process,energy saving,environment protection andhigh efficiency; construct continuous,automatic and specialized production line.Important innovative technologies of the industry include underflow casting,continuous extrusion,planetary rolling of pipes,etc.

Sixthly,focus on: direct-use technology of recycled copper,technology of drawing alloy pipes and coil tubes,production technologies of high-efficient copper tube,development of environment-friendly copper alloy,development of technologies and varieties of lead frame strips; development of high price/performance copper processing equipment and complete production line.