Figure 41 left Electricity use per tonne copper anode MWht 2013 right el ectricity use per tonne copper cathode MWht2013 SourceJRC 2016 246 The productivity of the EU copper industry is one of the highest in the world In the case of copper refneries the EU has one of the lowest production costs The higher recycling rate could be an advantage for the EU as copper anodes can be produced by either the primary or the secondary route and be processed in the same copper refneries In copper cathode production the higher electricity consumption per tonne cathode compared to international competitors is due to higher electrointensity in the EU but overall energy use per tonne of cathode produced is lower compared to the other countries EU zinc smelters have some of the lowest total average production costs among the countries compared and one of the highest productivities 247 While the high productivity does mostly ofset the higher electricity and labour costs in the EU this does not imply that future large increases in electricity costs in the EU will not im pact the competitiveness of EU metals production Further productivity gains become more difcult while other countries will also seek to improve the efciency of metals production while in many cases facing lower electricity costs L ast but not least the CO 2 intensity of EU metals production is low mainly due to the efciency of production and the low CO 2 intensity of power production In China the largest metals producer in the world the CO 2 intensity is notably higher with CO 2 emissions per tonne aluminium 186 higher than the intensity in the EU 20 t CO 2 t Al versus 7t in the EU for nick el this is 678 higher 70 t CO 2 t Ni versus 9t and for silicon 116 t CO 2 t Si versus 34t and zinc 6 1 t CO 2 t Zn versus 25 t respectively 241 and 150 higher 246 It is important to note that these fgures are not representative of the comple xity and diversity of EU copper productions They e x clude the secondary production disregarding the variability in energy and cost in the copper industry The copper sector is heterogeneous The energy electricity consumption varies signifcantly depending on the scale of operation comple xity of raw materials production routestechnologies and process confguration 247 JRC 2016 Figure 39 left Production costs EURt copper anode 2013 right Production c osts EURt copper cathode 2013 SourceJRC 2016 The EU s competitive pricing can be e xplained by the high productivity of metals production in the EU in particular the high level of energy efciency visible as the MWht metal required Figure 40 left electricity use per tonne liquid aluminium MWht 2013 right electricity use per tonne zinc MWht 2013 SourceJRC 2016 2786 45 1 417 2 1460 241 1 6 7 Energy L abour other Credits from byproducts Zambia P eru China Chile EU Zambia P eru China Chile EU 0 0 50 2460 230 191 1 1063 445 324 136 48 13 98 49 1030 2312 556 1843 4015 200 0 29 2 836 916 37 1 385 314 289 4 9 7 2 7 7 3 0 1 552 55 7 109 4 260 27 0 56 1756 648 1883 2780 1514 2415 1389 109 3 139 138 135 14 7 153 Russia Norway Namibia K azakhstan China EU Russia Norway K azakhstan Iceland China EU Electricity average MWht liquid aluminium Electricity average MWh electricityt Zinc 0 1 3 6 10 4 1 46 46 45 44 8 22 22 20 18 139 38 12 19 1 1 14 Zambia P eru China Chile EU Zambia P eru China Chile EU Electricity average MWht Copper anode Electricity average MWht Copper cathode 9 73 1 26 0 35 0 35 0 30 0 52 13 13 25 30 1 1 0 40 MET ALS IN A CLIMA TE NEUTRAL EUROPE A 2050 BL UEPRINT 69