BEIJING, March 5 (Reuters) – China unveiled its 15th five-year plan on Thursday at its annual parliamentary meeting, outlining Beijing’s priorities for the economy and sectors slated for policy support and funding.
Here’s a summary of what matters for commodity markets:
METALS AND CRITICAL MINERALS
* China singled out its competitive edge in rare earths forthe first time in a five-year plan, pledging to maintain itslead and upgrade the industry. * Beijing also said it would improve its export controlsystem, which has caused shortages of critical mineralsoverseas. * For metals more broadly, China’s push to expand cleanenergy may boost copper and aluminium demand via the massivegrid build-out, some of which has already been flagged. * China is heavily reliant on imports like copper and ironore, and Beijing said it would push for more domesticexploration and mining, although it gave no examples.
OVERCAPACITY
* China again vowed to tackle overcapacity in heavy industrylike steel, petrochemicals and copper smelting, although itstopped short of setting goals or calling for cuts to output. * However Beijing did set targets for energy savings to helpaccelerate restructuring in these carbon-intensive industries.
CLIMATE, POWER AND COAL
* China will aim to cut carbon intensity, or how much carbonis released in economic activity, by 17%, slightly below the 18%target set the previous year. Actual carbon intensity only fell12% over the last five years. By focusing only on carbonintensity, emissions can still increase as growth does. * China will push for coal consumption to peak in the nextfive years but omitted previous language about phasing down coal— leaving open the possibility that coal consumption may merelyplateau rather than decline. * It did, however, set a target of 25% of all energyconsumed to be generated by non-fossil energy by 2030.
OIL AND GAS
* China will prioritise steady domestic oil output at 200million tons annually but keep growing gas production and itsstrategic oil stockpiles. * China also said it would advance “early work” on the Powerof Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which Moscow has presented as all butagreed, but has been long-delayed by disagreements over price. * It would also continue to expand the dirty coal-to-liquidssector, where coal is turned into oil, gas and petrochemicals.
AGRICULTURE
* China aims to raise annual grain production target to 725million metric tons by 2030 and said it would lean on newtechnology and higher yields to reach it as new farmland getsscarce. * It again emphasised the push for secure overseas suppliesfor the vast quantity of foodstuffs it still imports. * China said it would regulate overcapacity in the hogindustry and support the dairy and beef sectors, both of whichhave recently been put behind tariff walls.
(Reporting by Ella Cao, Daphne Zhang, Lewis Jackson, Amy Lv, Sam li, and Colleen Howe in Beijing, Dylan Duan in Shanghai and Aizhu Chen in Singapore; editing by Andrei Khalip)
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