It is said from Kang Yi (chairman of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association) at the National Nonferrous Metals Industrial Development Forum on Monday that China’s nonferrous metals industry is recovering and major large-scale nonferrous enterprises have mostly escaped from their previously difficult positions.

China’s nonferrous metals industry began heating back up in March. By May, the industry’s major large-scale enterprises had climbed out of the red and become profitable. In the third quarter, most large enterprises managed to shake off their difficulties and return to normal operation.

From January to September, the industrial added value of the nonferrous industry increased by 9.3 percent on a year ago, 0.6 percentage points higher than the national average. Output of the ten major nonferrous metals totaled 18.6 million tons, down 1.87 percent on year. The association expects this year’s output to surpass last year’s by a small margin. Meanwhile, the first three quarters saw a fixed assets investment of 187 billion yuan in the industry, up 15 percent from a year ago, and investment for newly started projects of 195.6 billion yuan, up 18.5 percent on year.

“Although nonferrous metals firms have mostly come out of troublesome situations, the whole industry’s future remains uncertain,” said Kang.

From January to August, large-scale nonferrous companies earned a combined profit of 30.8 billion yuan, down 61.9 percent on year, and their total import and export value dropped 27.4 percent on year to 48.7 billion US dollars.

Kang expects that 2009 will generally see increased imports and decreased exports of nonferrous metals. “The global financial crisis still carries many uncertain impacts,” Kang noted.

China’s nonferrous industry was among the earliest to be impacted by this round of global financial crisis, with product prices dropping significantly and exports shrinking sharply. In response to the financial crisis, China’s State Council unveiled the Restructuring and Reinvigorating Plan for Nonferrous Industry early this year.

Further, related government departments purchased aluminum, copper, zinc, titanium ingot and indium for state reserves, improved export rebate rates of 78 tariff items, scratched 30 nonferrous metals and chemical compounds from the barred-from-export list, lowered export duties of 17 nonferrous metals and approved 15 electrolytic aluminum producers with cheaper power prices via direct power supply.