LAUSR

Abstract Non-ferrous metals are important basic raw material in the urbanization and industrialization process, the sustainable development of non-ferrous metal industry (NMI) is important for China's economy development. To clarify the decoupling status and its driving factors of China's 29 NMIs, this paper integrated Tapio index and a comprehensive decomposition approach to estimate the decoupling degree and further decompose the decoupling index of China's NMI. The results indicate that during 2004–2017, China's NMI experienced five different decoupling statuses (i.e., weak decoupling, expansive coupling, expansive negative decoupling, strong decoupling, and strong negative decoupling) and dominated by weak decoupling. View the whole study period, the decoupling relationship gradually towards to a lower decoupling level. Energy-saving technology progress was a dominant contributor facilitated decoupling process, while energy-saving technology gap change impeded the decoupling process in most industries except four manufacturing and rolling processing industries. Potential energy intensity also was an important factors facilitated decoupling process in most industries. Additionally, production technology change played a mild role in promoting decoupling process in most NMIs. Briefly, the decoupling process and its driving factors were distinctly various among 29 different NMIs, thus the decoupling policies should be established and implemented tailored to their characteristics.