China Relax Processing of Non-ferrous Metals such as Copper and Aluminum

The Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs have adjusted the catalogue of restrictions on processing trade, among which 31 of the original 56 restrictions on non-ferrous metals have been removed. Industry insiders pointed out that under the financial tsunami, China's export business has declined sharply. Government departments not only give preferential tax treatment, but also reopen the original prohibited non-ferrous metal processing trade door in order to alleviate the sharp decline in corporate profits.

Recently, according to a statement on the website of the Ministry of Commerce, China will resume its duty-free import policy of copper concentrate, nickel and cobalt from February 1, as well as its export policy of refined copper, nickel and semi-finished aluminium products.

Shihua Caixun sent this message to the Department of Political Research and the Department of Article Law of the Ministry of Electronic Commerce. Relevant people said that the content of the website was the basis. It is reported that on December 31, 2008, the website of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China issued Announcement No. 120 of 2008, which readjusted the list of processing trade restrictions. The original list of plastic raw materials, plastic products, wood products, textiles and other 10 commodities in the list of restrictions on export of Announcement No. 44 of 2007 issued by the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China totaled 1,730. Code elimination. Analysts found that among the restrictions on processing trade in non-ferrous metals, the number of restrictions decreased from 56 to 21, with 35 items mainly related to refining copper, nickel and some semi-finished aluminium.

Wang Lixin, manager of the United Metal Network Nonferrous Metals Channel, pointed out to China Finance News that as early as 2006, in order to promote industrial transformation and reduce exports of "two high and one capital" (high pollution, high energy consumption, resource-based) products and low added value, the Chinese government had successively issued a series of policies, including imported copper concentrate processing and export of unwrought rolled copper (cathode copper) in the prohibited category of processing trade. No more processing trade contracts for the above-mentioned products will be examined and approved. Prior to this, the processing of incoming copper concentrates, nickel and cobalt products was exempted from import value-added tax, while export value-added tax was not refunded. At present, abolishing the processing trade of these products, that is, returning to the processing trade to enjoy the "import duty-free and export policy", will reduce the cost pressure for non-ferrous metal enterprises whose profitability has been greatly reduced in the near future.

An analyst in the domestic non-ferrous metal industry said that for simple copper concentrate processing and trade enterprises, the original import link of import processing business had to pay 17% value-added tax, and there were 10% tariffs on exports. The profits of enterprises were quite small. Under the severe impact of the financial tsunami on China's exports, the government departments reduced taxes on some export businesses and reopened these non-ferrous metals. The door of processing trade, although the policy has retrogressed to a certain extent, can still ease the sharp decline in corporate profits.