China's largest copper producer Jiangxi Copper Corp. expects domestic copper consumption to hit 3.5 million metric tons this year and keep rising for the next several years.

Copper cathode consumption in China is expected to rise another 9 percent in 2006, said He Changming, Jiangxi Copper general manager.

In 2004, China consumed around 3.2 million tons of copper cathodes.

"Even though the government is trying to implement measures to cool the economy, I'm sure it will try to keep GDP growth at 8 percent to 9 percent per year," He said, adding strong economic growth would continue to support copper consumption growth.

"So, I believe China's copper consumption will see rapid growth (in the next few years)," he added.

He said he was bullish on copper prices in the second half of the year because of the positive outlook on demand in China and India.

"Maybe three-month London Metal Exchange copper could hit US$4,000 per ton later this year. Nothing is impossible in the global market," He said.

He said the company planned to expand smelting capacity to take advantage of growing demand for copper in the domestic market.

"We plan to expand our annual smelting capacity to 700,000 metric tons in five years from the current 400,000 tons through technical upgrades," he said.

The group's smelting business is currently operated by its listed unit, Jiangxi Copper Co., which is traded on Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges.

He said the group also planned to expand its copper foil plant's capacity to 400,000 tons per year in two to three years from the current 150,000 tons through adding new production lines.

Among other plans are a proposal to establish a new rolled-copper plant with foreign partnership as part of the group's plan to expand its rolled-copper production capacity to 500,000 tons from the current 200,000 tons in five years.

Details of the proposed joint venture weren't available yet, he said.

Jiangxi Copper Corp. planned to source more than 250,000 tons of copper metal contained in copper concentrate a year from its own mines and by the time annual smelting capacity was expanded to 700,000 tons in five years, He said.

However, it would still need to import another 1 million tons of copper concentrate, with an average copper content of 30 percent to 40 percent, by then, he said.

But there was no cause for concern on the raw material supply front, he said.

"We have quite a few stable copper concentrate suppliers in South America, Europe and Japan. We have a very good relationship with them and have signed long-term buying contracts with these firms," said He.

Moreover, Jiangxi Copper Group has been aggressively investing in overseas mines to lock in stable raw material supplies. The group was considering buying copper mines in Africa, South America and Asia, He said.

In domestic market, the company acquired the Fujiawu pit in 2001. Fujiawu is part of China's largest Dexing copper mine, currently operated by Jiangxi Copper Co.

The Fujiawu pit is expected to produce around 22,180 metric tons of copper contained in concentrate per year after the mine starts commercial operation in 2006.