Yunnan's 'computing metals' sales climb as tax authorities support nonferrous industry upgrading

Surging demand from AI servers, intelligent computing centers and optical communication modules has pulled up upstream copper, aluminium and tin — the so-called computing metals. Yunnan's tax authority analysed invoice data and found sales revenue of nonferrous mining, smelting and rolling up 27% year on year in the first three quarters of 2026, with copper up 36%; aluminium, tin and tungsten-molybdenum also rose on both volume and price. Yuanjiang Tianli Mining, which mines copper and makes electrolytic copper, saw revenue up 55% as its high-purity output kept feeding computing-material plants inside and outside the province. Local tax officials visited mining workshops and copper plants to track output, sales and downstream orders, matched enterprises with incentives such as tailings comprehensive-utilisation exemption and the halving of six taxes and two fees, and drew up risk checklists covering mining, ore sorting, copper processing and export sales. Wenshan Aluminium's revenue rose 14% and received a one-firm-one-policy plan focused on R&D expense super-deduction. Xiangmai Technology, which supplies phosphate rock to AI server, data centre and optical module makers, set up a three-tier self-inspection process after tax guidance, while Huasheng Platinum in Tonghai got help with invoice management and R&D cost allocation through face-to-face sessions.