China Daily reported that China nonferrous metals industry is unlikely to grow in the second half of the year as the economy continues to struggle after officials reported a significant drop in output growth during the first five months.

Mr Shang Fushan vice chairman of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association said the industry has experienced a huge decline, as figures showed total output of the 10 major nonferrous metals in the first five months was 14.26 million tonnes a 5.1% increase YoY but still well down on the growth of 8.8% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

He said that "The development of the nonferrous metals industry largely depends on the country macro economy in the following months, and that's not very good currently, so it is hard to predict what's ahead."

However he did say the central government is expected to carry out policies to boost the economy, suggesting he didn't expect the situation to worsen.

He added that the output of lead and zinc in the country is reducing and the growth of output of copper, alumina is falling. Mr Shang said "The domestic demand in the industry is weak. The import and export performance is not good either and some companies did not make any profits in the first quarter."

According to recent estimates by Wistrategy Consulting a domestic business consultancy focusing on listed companies, the total annual revenue of 24 listed nonferrous metals companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges will grow by 14.24% this year compared to 35% last year.

Wistrategy said that a market oversupply of nonferrous metals still exists and the situation is getting worse with fierce competition.

Source - China Daily

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