Analysis of energy savings potential of China's nonferrous metals industry

•The energy savings potential of the 27 administrative regions is discussed.•Energy savings potential differed according to their regional characteristics.•Regions with large output of secondary metals have low energy savings potential.•Some policy recommendations are provided for China's nonferrous metals industry.

China is one of the world's leading producers of refined copper, primary aluminum, lead, refined zinc, refined nickel, antimony, primary magnesium, manganese ore, tin ore, tungsten, and molybdenum. The production of the nonferrous metals industry is also energy-intensive, its energy consumption increased from 31.5 million tons of oil equivalent in 2000 to 112 million tons of oil equivalent in 2012, which is almost the same as Australia's total energy consumption (133 million tons of oil equivalent) in 2012. Thus, it is imperative for the industry to reduce its energy consumption. This study tries to analyze the energy savings potential of China's nonferrous metals industry by employing the directional distance function approach to model the nonferrous metals industry's production system. Further, the energy savings ratios and energy savings amounts of the 27 administrative regions of China during 2003-2009 are also discussed. The results show that the nonferrous metals industry, overall, can save more than 20% in energy consumption, and that none of the 27 regions show a year-on-year decrease in their energy savings ratios. In addition, the study finds that the regions with a high proportion of output of secondary nonferrous metals have low energy savings ratio. Another key finding of this study is that the energy savings potential significantly differed according to regional characteristics, and the energy savings opportunities are great in the central and western regions of China. Finally, this study provides several recommendations to improve the energy efficiency of the nonferrous metals industry.