Development Of The Molybdenum Industry in China

China only started to build molybdenum smelters at the end of the 1950s. Between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, China's molybdenum metallurgical industry added many new plants and began to develop towards deep processing. In the mid-eighties, China began to introduce advanced technology and equipment from abroad. After decades of development, the mining capacity of China's molybdenum industry has grown significantly, from 93,000 tons of molybdenum ore in 2006, to 171,000 tons in 2008, and to 313,000 tons in 2013; and molybdenum ore processing capacity has increased from 132,000 tons of molybdenum ore in 2006, to 210,000 tons of molybdenum ore in 2008, and to 352,000 tons of molybdenum ore in 2013, which is the largest in the world. million tons. China's molybdenum mining capacity is mainly concentrated in Henan, Shaanxi, Liaoning and Jilin, i.e. provinces with concentrated molybdenum resources. The molybdenum mining capacity and ore dressing capacity of the above four provinces account for 71% and 80% of the national total capacity respectively. It is noteworthy that in 2008, the utilization rate of China's molybdenum mining capacity was 92%, and the utilization rate of beneficiation capacity was 77%, i.e., from 2008, China's molybdenum beneficiation capacity has been in surplus.The approximate statistics and estimation of China's molybdenum beneficiation capacity utilization rate in 2013 was 78.6%, which was similar to that of 2008.

China's molybdenum concentrate production has also been growing with the increase in processing capacity. 2006 molybdenum concentrate production (metal tons) was 45,000 tons, in 2008 it was 81,000 tons, and in 2012 it increased to 121,000 tons. Due to overcapacity, the average molybdenum price in 2013 was higher than that in 2003 but lower than that in 2004, and had basically bottomed out, so molybdenum concentrate production in 2013 slipped to 118,000 tons.

In order to protect and rationally utilize the advantageous mineral resources in China, our government has implemented export quota license management for molybdenum in China since June 18, 2007, and announced the total amount of molybdenum exported every year. In addition, our government has included molybdenum in the directive production plan for rare metals, of which the directive production plan for molybdenum concentrate (containing 45% molybdenum) was 185,000 tons in 2010. in December 2014, the ministry of commerce issued "015 tungsten, antimony, silver, indium, tin" and other quota quantities and the list of exporters and canceled the 2015 tungsten and molybdenum export quotas. tungsten and molybdenum export quotas in 2015 and canceled the molybdenum export qualification management on this basis.On May 1, 2015, China canceled the molybdenum product export tariff. At the same time, China has implemented the reform of molybdenum resource tax clearing and ad valorem taxation since May 1, 2015.

With the development of China's molybdenum industry, the problems in China's molybdenum industry are also becoming more and more prominent, such as: China's small-scale molybdenum enterprises, strong enterprises are few, overcapacity, eliminating backward production capacity of the heavy task; exports to primary processing products, technology backward and so on.
In view of the above problems, China's molybdenum industry should make full use of China's molybdenum resource advantages on the basis of adjusting the industrial structure, molybdenum mining enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises should increase the strategic cooperation and win-win efforts, and gradually formed in the country and even the world has a strong competitiveness of the specialization, large-scale molybdenum mining enterprise group, improve industrial concentration. In addition, China's government and enterprises should also continue to increase investment in molybdenum resources exploration, adhere to the cultivation of independent innovation capacity, increase investment in science and technology, and strengthen the three combinations of production, learning and research, but also should introduce advanced production equipment and technology from abroad, and digest and innovate these equipment and technology. On this basis, China's molybdenum enterprises also need to expand the scope of mineral business, from a single molybdenum ore development and utilization to the transformation of copper and tungsten and other multi-metal development and utilization. In addition, China's molybdenum enterprises also need to implement the "go out" strategy, rational development and utilization of overseas resources.