Copper vs. Aluminum: An Upgrade That Could Determine the Future of China's Cable Industry

The copper industry should welcome and calmly accept the substitution of copper with aluminum and other materials. Currently, some people in China overestimate the substitution of copper with aluminum; in fact, this substitution is limited." Ma Shiguang, an expert from the China Nonferrous Metals Processing Industry Association, said this at the 2014 China Copper Processing Products and Equipment Development Seminar held in Tianjin on March 6.
Reporters from Cableabc learned at the seminar that the largest application market for copper processing materials in China is copper wires and cables for the power industry, with consumption accounting for about 50% of the total consumption of copper materials. In other words, the substitution of copper with aluminum, while affecting the development of China's copper industry, also influences the development of the cable industry to some extent.
In the past two years, the substitution of copper with aluminum has become a hot topic in China's cable industry. With the continuous development of society, the competition between copper and aluminum as the preferred conductor material for wires and cables is intensifying.
At the 2013 Global Wire and Cable Annual Conference, Gong Xinming, chief technical consultant of CTC Asia, said that compared with copper, China has much richer aluminum resources and a much lower price. Moreover, aluminum has stronger conductivity than copper under the same weight; the conductivity of 1 ton of aluminum is approximately equal to that of 2 tons of copper. He believes that using aluminum to replace copper in cable manufacturing would significantly reduce the production cost for enterprises.
Liu Bin from the Shanghai Cable Research Institute previously pointed out that using aluminum conductor cables instead of copper cables can reduce cable weight, installation costs, and equipment and cable wear. At the same time, aluminum conductors are much more flexible than copper and have good bending properties, allowing for a smaller bending radius during installation and easier terminal connection.
In the view of Wu Changshun, director of the National Wire and Cable Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, as an alloy material formed by adding a small amount of iron, silicon, and magnesium to aluminum and undergoing processing, aluminum alloy conductors greatly improve the bending, corrosion resistance, machinability, heat resistance, and mechanical strength of aluminum.
Zhang Ronghan, director of the Heavy Machinery Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Equipment Industry Division, predicted at the 2nd China (Wuhu) Wire and Cable Expo and Product Quality Summit that with the development of science and technology, aluminum alloy cable technology will gradually mature, and its development and application will become a trend.
Chen Yanhai, director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Raw Materials Industry Division, emphasized at the recently held "Seminar on Expanding the Application of Aluminum in the Power Industry" that China's dependence on foreign copper resources is higher than that of aluminum, and the price difference between copper and aluminum has been widening in recent years. The safety and electrical performance of aluminum alloy cables and copper-aluminum composite materials in the power field have been continuously improved, and promoting the "substitution of copper with aluminum" in the power field will help optimize resource allocation and resolve the overcapacity of electrolytic aluminum, which is of great significance to safeguarding national resource security and the stable and healthy development of related industries.
Although there are strong calls for substituting copper with aluminum, can aluminum really completely replace copper? There are different opinions within the industry on this issue.
"Aluminum alloy cables have been very popular in China this year, but it is important to note that copper has significant advantages in high conductivity and high reliability, making the hype surrounding aluminum alloy wires and cables unrealistic." Zhou Sheng, president of the International Copper Association for China and Southeast Asia, said this at the Asia Copper Week International Copper Association media meeting.
John Holland, president of the International Copper Association, believes that the problem currently facing China is resource constraints. From the perspective of front-end cost alone, aluminum alloy is indeed cheaper than copper, but from the perspective of recycling rate, the recyclability advantage of copper is incomparable to that of aluminum alloy.
After officially entering the Chinese market in 2012, the high-quality aluminum alloy cable products of American General Cable became its pioneer in market development. However, Tan Bingwen, president of American General Cable (China), said in an interview with the media that General does not agree that aluminum alloy can completely replace the performance of copper. Therefore, based on specific project cases, if copper is more suitable for customer use, General will also recommend that customers use it.
The competition between copper and aluminum as the preferred material for wires and cables is showing a trend of intensification. At this time, China's cable industry needs to treat this scientifically. As Huang Chongqi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said at the 2013 China Cable Materials Conference: "Where copper is necessary, copper should still be used; in cases where both copper and aluminum can be used, scientific verification and practical application are needed; if aluminum can be used, it should be used, achieving gradual development."