Measuring technical efficiency of Chinese nonferrous metals enterprises on a background of industry consolidation

Abstract

Since 2009, Chinese nonferrous metals industry has been carried out industry consolidation with strong support by the central government. This work examined technical efficiency of Chinese nonferrous metals firms and its change during the period of 2007 and 2011. Based on financial data from nonferrous metals listed companies, technical efficiency of nonferrous metal minerals mining firms and nonferrous metal smelting, pressing and processing firms was estimated respectively using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. It was found that, in both sectors, number of pure technical and scale inefficient firms dominated over efficient ones. Overall, their technical and scale efficiency tended to be very low after 2009. In particular, efficiency scores of nonferrous metal smelting, pressing and processing firms fluctuated greatly during the research period. And a limited number of large leading firms were able to maintain 100% efficiency score in the industry, while efficiency of most of other leading firms has declined since 2009.