China is the largest nonferrous metals producer in the world and largest consumer for six kinds of common nonferrous metals including copper, aluminum, zinc, lead, nickel and tin. This paper provides an overview of the nonferrous metals industry in China, from a CO2 emissions reduction perspective. It addresses energy use disaggregated by energy carrier and by province. It focuses on an analysis of energy efficiency in the production of aluminum, copper and nickel. A few large-scale enterprises produce most of the aluminum, copper and nickel in China, and use manufacturing facilities that were built within the last 20 years or have recently upgraded their main production equipment and processes. The energy efficiency of these operations is not particularly low compared to international practice. A large number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) operate nonferrous metals production facilities which rank low in energy efficiency and therefore are highly energy intensive per unit of physical output. Backward production capacity would be phased out continuously by enforcing the energy intensity norms. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.