What's in China's new 5-yr plan for commodity markets
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
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China singled out its competitive edge in rare earths for the first time in a five-year plan, pledging to maintain its lead and upgrade the industry.
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Beijing also said it would improve its export control system, which has caused shortages of critical minerals overseas.
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For metals more broadly, China's push to expand clean energy may boost copper and aluminum demand via the massive grid build-out, some of which has already been flagged.
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China is heavily reliant on imports like copper and iron ore, and Beijing said it would push for more domestic exploration and mining, although it gave no examples.
Overcapacity
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China again vowed to tackle overcapacity in heavy industry like steel, petrochemicals and copper smelting, although it stopped short of setting goals or calling for cuts to output.
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However Beijing did set targets for energy savings to help accelerate restructuring in these carbon-intensive industries.
Climate, power and coal
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China will aim to cut carbon intensity, or how much carbon is released in economic activity, by 17%, slightly below the 18% target set the previous year. Actual carbon intensity only fell 12% over the last five years. By focusing only on carbon intensity, emissions can still increase as growth does.
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China will push for coal consumption to peak in the next five years but omitted previous language about phasing down coal — leaving open the possibility that coal consumption may merely plateau rather than decline.
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It did, however, set a target of 25% of all energy consumed to be generated by non-fossil energy by 2030.
Oil and gas
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China will prioritize steady domestic oil output at 200 million tons annually but keep growing gas production and its strategic oil stockpiles.
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China also said it would advance "early work" on the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which Moscow has presented as all but agreed, but has been long-delayed by disagreements over price.
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It would also continue to expand the dirty coal-to-liquids sector, where coal is turned into oil, gas and petrochemicals.
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