OREANDA-NEWS  From January to September 2024, China sharply increased purchases of copper concentrate in Russia. This is reported by the Vedomosti newspaper with reference to the data of the Main Customs Department of the KNR.

Since the beginning of the year, the supply of raw materials has increased by 36 percent year-on-year and amounted to 310 thousand tons. At the same time, exports of finished copper and products made from it (wire, profiles, sheets, tubes, rods and others) decreased by 18 percent, to 226.7 thousand tons.

Copper and its alloys are used as a cathode material for traction batteries in automobiles. The production of electric cars and hybrids in China in 2024 increased by 32 percent year-on-year to 8.31 million units, according to the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

According to Boris Krasnozhenov, head of the Securities Markets Analytics Department at Alfa Bank, China consumes about 60 percent of global copper production, and at the same time is the world's fourth producer of copper ore, so two thirds of the metal consumed is imported from abroad. Imports of copper concentrate increased by almost four percent year-on-year in nine months and amounted to 21.06 million tons.