China is the largest producer of sulfuric acid, with 40% of its production coming from copper smelters

As early as 2003, China's total sulfuric acid output reached 33.
707 million tons, surpassing the United States to rank first in the world, and China's sulfuric acid production has increased to 109 million tons
in 2021.
Sulfuric acid is an important chemical raw material, and about 40% is used to make phosphate fertilizers
necessary for agriculture.
In recent years, the domestic industrial demand for sulfuric acid has also grown
steadily.
Economic upgrading and green transformation have promoted the rapid development of new energy vehicles and energy storage battery industries, increasing the demand for lithium and cobalt, both of which use sulfuric acid
in the production process.
Therefore, sulfuric acid is not only very important for food security, but also related to the development of emerging industries, the security of industrial chain and supply chain, and is of great significance
to the long-term healthy development of the economy.

Sulfuric acid is mainly produced by three ways: sulfur, smelting flue gas and pyrite
.
Among them, smelting flue gas to acid mainly refers to copper smelting enterprises through the technology of smelting flue gas to make acid to obtain sulfuric acid
.
In nature, copper and sulfur are symbiotic, so in the copper smelting process, the copper smelting process can produce refined copper and sulfuric acid
at the same time.
Moreover, sulfur can release a lot of heat in the copper metallurgical process, help melt copper concentrate, extract metal copper, and greatly reduce the energy
required for heating.
Other metals, such as the production of electrolytic aluminum, consume about 10 times
more energy per ton than electrolytic copper.

In the process of considering China's resource strategy, some opinions believe that China's copper resources rely on imports and should implement alternative strategies
.
However, if we can comprehensively assess the role of imported copper concentrate, we will better understand the impact of copper concentrate imports on China's society and economy, and draw more scientific conclusions
.

In 2020, the market share of smelting flue gas acid accounted for 39.
1%, the annual output reached 38.
59 million tons, and the value of goods exceeded 800 million yuan, which is irreplaceable
in the domestic sulfuric acid market.
First of all, in terms of production capacity, although the production capacity of sulfuric acid and pyrite acid has not been fully utilized, the remaining production capacity of the two methods in 2020 is only 18.
61 million tons, if the reduction of copper smelting and sulfuric acid production caused by smelting flue gas acid production, there is still a gap
of nearly 20 million tons in production capacity.
Secondly, the quality of sulfuric acid is better than that of smelting acid, and the price is slightly higher, serving the needs of customers
with different requirements.
Third, China is also a sulphur-deficient country, with 51.
9% of sulphur in the Chinese market being imported in 2020, with an import value of US$600 million (average price of US$70.
8/tonne).

Reducing the import of copper ore, the gap of sulfuric acid raw materials must be made up by importing sulfur, which cannot reduce China's imports
of foreign raw materials as a whole.

Therefore, the contribution of copper smelters to China's society and economy is not only to provide copper, but also to provide
guarantee for the supply of sulfuric acid.
Among the top 10 enterprises in sulfuric acid production: Jiangxi Copper Group ranked second, Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group ranked fourth, Jinchuan Group ranked fifth, and Yunnan Copper ranked seventh
.
Copper companies support agricultural fertilizer production and ensure food security, while promoting industrial innovation, including the application and promotion
of technologies such as new energy lithium batteries.
It can be seen that continuing to encourage the application of copper and moderate imports of copper ore are in line with the short-term needs of China's economic development, and are also conducive to national economic security and the realization of healthier and more sustainable long-term growth
of China's economy.
(International Copper Association)

From: China Nonferrous Metal Network