At the China International Copper Forum in 2019 (the 17th), the industry's attitude towards the “grey rhinoceros” facing the development of the industry and the optimistic expectation of consumption growth made the author fall into deep thought. To this end, the author once again examines the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Yearbook 2001 and 2018 and the annual GDP data of “Quick Money Network”, and invites the industry to seriously consider public data and attaches great importance to the “grey rhinoceros” that has been presented, especially for the refinement of the world outside of me. Copper consumption has been considered in 2006 when there was a “peak” of 13.456 million tons.

According to the data of the world copper industry from 2000 to 2017, 15 countries or regions that accounted for 87.04% of the world's refined copper consumption in 2017, 11 of them had peak consumption before 2010, and the other 4 (China, Brazil, Turkey, and Spain are also in the process of being formed. Facing the world's centennial changes, it is unrealistic to expect the world's refined copper consumption to grow. The data shows that in addition to my foreign 2017, the world's refined copper consumption decreased by 1,846,600 tons compared with 2006, but GDP increased by 20.06 trillion US dollars. Although China's refined copper consumption has accounted for half of the world's consumption since 2014, the dependence of the economic increase in 2014-2017 on refined copper consumption has been significantly reduced. The consumption of refined copper in China in the new era will surely “shock”.