China Studying Full-Year Rare Earth Export Quotas
China’s commerce ministry and other agencies are considering full-year rare-earth export quotas and pledged to set them according to World Trade Organization rules.
China set 2011’s first export batch quota at 14,446 metric tons, almost half of last year’s total and a 35 percent decline from the same period of last year, the ministry said on Dec. 28.
The ministry’s comments indicate that a second-batch quota will be issued later this year. China, which accounts for more than 90 percent of world’s supply of rare earths, slashed its export quota by 72 percent in the second half of last year, triggering concerns among global users and a surge in prices.
“The first batch of export quotas released earlier doesn’t represent the full-year quota,” Yao said today at a briefing in Beijing. China will continue to supply rare earths, he said.
The government will decide on the full-year quotas after evaluating domestic output and demand, as well as global requirements, the ministry said on Dec. 28. The “sustainability” of the industry in China also will be reviewed, it said then.
Rare earths are 17 chemically similar elements including neodymium, cerium and lanthanum that are used in the production of electronics, weapons and hybrid cars.
--Li Yanping, Zheng Lifei and Xiao Yu. Editors: Alan Soughley, Indranil Ghosh
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Xiao Yu in Beijing at +86-10-6649-7564 or yxiao@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Keith Gosman at kgosman@bloomberg.net
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