On the afternoon of July 30, the 2022 Closed-door Roundtable Conference and High-end Forum on China’s New Energy Materials Industry Chain which was co-hosted by China Minmetals and the Counsellors’ Office of the State Council (COSC) and undertaken by Minmetals Economic Research Institute was held at Minmetals Plaza. Weng Zuliang, Party Group Secretary and Chairman of China Minmetals, and Zhang Yantong, Party Group Member and Vice Chairman of COSC attended the forum and delivered a speech respectively.

Weng Zuliang pointed out in his speech that every energy revolution reshaped the global economic and political pattern. At present, the world is ushering in the third-generation energy revolution represented by new energy. This revolution is not only a brand-new industrial and economic revolution, but also an important part of “great changes unseen in a century” proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping. In this revolution, manufacturing industry’s standards, industrial chain and value chain patterns, competitive advantages of countries and industrial division of labor will all undergo fundamental changes. In the entire new energy industry chain, new energy vehicles and related battery materials have played a pivotal role. China has the world’s largest production capacity of new energy vehicles and related battery materials, which will make an important contribution to winning the future global industrial competition. However, at the same time, some problems still exist in China’s new energy materials industry, which requires upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain to strengthen cooperation at the industry level, and relevant ministries and commissions to reinforce coordination and guidance at the policy level. With the mission of serving and reinvigorating the country through metal mining industry, China Minmetals has gradually formed a relatively complete & basic industrial chain system of new energy from resources to anode and cathode materials for traction batteries. The purpose of China Minmetals holding this conference and forum is to establish a normalized communication mechanism between enterprises and the government. With this mechanism, the competent authorities can timely understand the reality and demands of enterprises, and identify the key issues of the industry, so as to promote the high-quality development of the industry with accurate and efficient industrial policies. Besides, with the help of this mechanism, the upstream and downstream leading enterprises will link more closely in resources, capital and projects, work together to address common challenges faced by industrial development, and continuously improve China’s control power and voice in key links in the industrial chain.

In his speech, Zhang Yantong spoke highly of China Minmetals for hosting the closed-door roundtable conference and high-end forum on the new energy materials industry chain. He pointed out that as a leading enterprise in China’s metal mining industry, China Minmetals not only played an important role in ensuring the supply and safety of important national mineral resources, but also took the lead in realizing the layout of the whole industry chain in the field of new energy materials and become the backbone to promote the rapid development of new energy materials in China. He said that the scientific judgments and valuable suggestions on the future development of the industry chain which were put forward by experts and leading entrepreneurs from all aspects of the new energy materials industry chain would surely promote the high-quality and sustainable development of China’s new energy materials industry chain. He also indicated that the Counsellors’ Office of the State Council would feedback the consensus and suggestions made at the roundtable and high-end forum to the relevant departments of the State Council, and contribute wisdom to jointly promoting the development of China’s new energy materials industry chain.

In the closed-door roundtable conference, relevant heads of the leading enterprises in each link of Chinese new energy industry chain, including heads of SAIC, CATL, Ganfeng Lithium, Tianqi Lithium, BYD, successively exchanged views on the development of their enterprises and the current problems they were facing. Guests from the Office of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs, Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China, Ministry of Natural Resources of the People’s Republic of China, China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association and other relevant ministries and associations also exchanged views on relevant issues. The participants believed that the establishment of a normalized communication mechanism within the industry chain and between the industry and the government as proposed by China Minmetals was very important and timely. Besides, they all expressed their willingness to continue to participate in and support the closed-door roundtable mechanism, and work together to support the development of China’s new energy materials industry.

In the high-end forum, experts from China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, SAIC, Huayou Cobalt, BYD, ENFI and other companies delivered speeches on “Policy and Status of Lithium Resource Development”, “Development Status of China’s New Energy Vehicle Industry”, “Status of Security and Supply Chain of Mineral Resources as New Energy”, “Development Status of Traction Battery for New Energy Vehicle”, “Technological Innovation Leads the Safe, Efficient and Low-carbon Development of New Energy Material Industry” and etc.

Jiao Jian, China Minmetals’ Vice President and Party Group Member presided over the forum, and leaders from China Minmetals’ head offices and its directly-managed enterprises as well as more than 10,000 people from inside and outside of China Minmetals participated in the forum both online and offline. More than ten mainstream media, including Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily Online, Economic Information Daily, China Securities Journal, and China Nonferrous Metals News, reported on the forum. It was also broadcast live on media and information platforms such as China Securities Journal, RoyalFlush, Great Wisdom, and Wender.