Chinese “Copper” Dragon Takes Off 2: Technologies of Global Domination

Copper is the key component in implementing this policy; each of the ten high-tech sectors defined in the program (for example, medical equipment, electric vehicles, wind turbines, quantum computing) heavily depends on this metal as raw material.

China has spent years developing a strategy to dominate copper supply chains from both ends. On the supply side, Beijing has created a massive, state-subsidized surplus in smelting capacity, now accounting for nearly half of global production. On the demand side, its position as the world’s largest copper importer has allowed it to exert enormous influence on global copper prices since 2008. Taken together, China can influence the global copper market whenever it wishes.

To this end, China has built the world’s largest copper smelting capacity: 47 operating plants and another five under construction. In 2024, the country accounted for nearly half (44%) of global copper production.

China’s aggressive expansion of copper smelting capacity—even under conditions of global concentrate shortages and negative refining margins—reflects a deliberate strategy to dominate a narrow but critical link in the copper supply chain. By controlling the conversion of concentrate into refined cathode copper, China secures feedstock for its midstream and downstream producers and acts as a dominant player capable of exerting long-term influence over global prices and availability. For instance, China has built so many smelters that plants now pay miners for the right to process raw copper, which has already led to shutdowns of smelters, such as those in the Philippines. Beyond its excess smelting and refining capacity, China’s copper industry benefits from a broader global customer base, as it is less affected by US and allied sanctions.

China’s dominant position in the copper supply chain is further reflected by the fact that, in addition to controlling over half of the world’s refined copper production, it is also the largest exporter of semi-finished copper products, accounting for 13% of global output in 2024. Thanks to state subsidies, China can run smelters at a loss and sell semi-finished products such as rods at prices lower than the raw material cost in the US. Moreover, according to Global Trade Tracker, in 2024, the average unit price of copper exported from China was 9% ($0.42 per pound) lower than elsewhere in the world.

However, China’s influence on the global copper industry emerges not only through monopolizing supply but also through its monopsony power as the largest buyer. China is the world’s biggest importer of unrefined copper, accounting for roughly 30% (about 8 thousand tons) of total global imports annually since 2008. Its monopsony power is evidenced by the close correlation between global spot copper prices and China’s import volumes, with spikes in Chinese demand corresponding to sharp price increases. The correlation between China’s import price and the global copper price is 82%.

China’s rise as the world’s largest copper consumer stems from its aforementioned smelting expansion, which has driven high imports of copper in raw, concentrated, and scrap forms. For example, China has become the largest buyer of US copper scrap, purchasing more than half of total US copper scrap exports by value in 2024.

As the world’s largest copper importer, China exerts a disproportionate influence on global price formation, strengthening its ability to shape the entire copper value chain.

Yet China’s “copper” strategy extends far beyond its borders, and the Middle Kingdom is successfully transforming into a genuine transnational giant. The Chinese copper dragon has spread its wings over the entire planet—including the territory of the United States itself. To achieve this, China employs direct foreign investments much praised by neoliberals, which enable it to “leap over tariffs” and solidify its position across the global copper industry’s technological chain.

In 2014, Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group built a $100 million copper tube plant in Alabama, the first major Chinese copper tube factory in the United States. This investment allowed the company to bypass anti-dumping duties while embedding itself within domestic supply chains for HVAC systems and household appliances.

Hailiang Group, one of China’s largest producers, followed suit, building a large copper tube facility in Texas that is expanding to 100,000 tons per year. By producing in the US, Hailiang shields itself from import duties while positioning as a key supplier to automakers and industrial clients. Hailiang also expanded in Europe by acquiring five KME copper and brass plants in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain in 2019, securing advanced alloying capacities and customer networks in allied countries.

In Mexico, Jiangyin Electrical Alloys established a subsidiary producing copper busbars and strips for clients such as Schneider Electric. Since exports from Mexico enter the US duty-free under USMCA rules, Chinese companies gain North American origin benefits while avoiding China-specific trade restrictions.

Chinese-linked companies have made strategic investments in Vietnam, Mexico, Germany, and even the US, including Wellascent’s $100 million flat wire plant in Texas and Boway’s subsidiary Boviet Solar, which received up to $20 million in subsidies for building a plant in North Carolina. As a result, China’s massively subsidized excess capacity in smelting and refining—now approaching half of global production—enables it to manipulate prices, supply cheap raw materials to manufacturers, and drive out foreign competitors.

At the same time, Chinese firms have learned to evade US trade rules. When Washington imposed tariffs on copper tubes, subsidiaries relocated production to Vietnam and continued dumping on the US market. Vietnam’s Jintian Copper plant, which according to the Commerce Department in 2021 kept exporting to the US with an 8.35% dumping margin, exemplifies how Chinese companies conceal country of origin to bypass US trade sanctions.

Other Chinese companies, as seen above, went even further by locating their facilities directly in North America: Golden Dragon in Alabama, Hailiang in Texas, and Jiangyin Electrical Alloys in Mexico. These “tariff bypass” investments enable Chinese producers to claim “local” origin while embedding themselves in America’s critical supply chains.