Ningbo, China, 2 November 2010

China's real consumption for copper may rise to 8.5 million tonnes by 2015, a director at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Tuesday.

Zhang Fengkui at the Ministry's nonferrous metals department told a conference in Ningbo city that copper demand from the power, car and home appliance industries would continue to push up consumption in China, the world's top copper consumer.

He did not provide consumption estimates for this year. State-backed research firm Antaike has predicted that consumption would rise to 6.8 million tonnes this year, from 6.1 million tonnes last year.

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