Production costs of the non-ferrous metals in the EU and other countries: Copper and zinc

Abstract

Our study compares production costs of the non-ferrous metals (NFM) industry in the European Union (EU) and other countries in order to understand whether these costs are higher in Europe. Our analysis focuses on copper and zinc, since they are considered to be the most greatly consumed non-ferrous metals after aluminium. The countries selected for comparison depend on the metal and are based on high shares of extra-EU28 trade and/or of global installed capacity. A bottom-up approach has been followed, based on information at facility level for primary production of the two metals. The analysis includes 32 copper smelters, 34 copper refineries and 23 zinc smelters, representing 72%, 58% and 30% of global production of copper anodes, cathodes and zinc slab respectively. Taking into consideration the complex structure of the industry, costs are broken down to three components: (1) Energy, (2) Labour and other costs (salaries, consumables and other on-site costs) and (3) Credits (due to co-products). Our findings suggest that although interesting observations emerge in each of these components, overall costs compare more favourably among countries than initially thought. The EU industry does not have the highest production costs. On the contrary, especially in the case of copper refineries and zinc, it has lower production costs than most of the countries included in the study.