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Export quotas in China unchanged. To get an idea of how big a place China is, take a look at the tables below. Amazing.

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China’s rare earth exports below quota in first half of year
Posted on July 30, 2014 by Hongpo Shen
China exported 14,061 tons of rare-earth ore, metals and compounds in the first six months of 2014, the exports volume rose 49.47% year-on-year, but which still below the first batch of rare earth export quota of 15,500 tons, according to official data.

During the first half of this year, the total value of China’s exports of the rare earths declined 4.5% to US$203.7 million compared to the same period in 2013, according to data released by the China Customs Statistics Information Center.

In the first six months in 2014, Japan imported 5,579 tons of rare earth from China, surged 91.42% compared to the same period in 2013, making it the top overseas buyer; the U.S. imports increased 43.59%, year on year, to a total of 4,988 tons; Italy’s imports was 723 tons, while China exported 609 tons of rare earth to Germany, reflecting a year-on-year jump of 445.74%; It’s worth noting that Vietnam’s imports of rare earth from China reached 567 tons, which has become the fifth overseas customer.

In June alone, China’s exports of the rare earths fell 3.4% year-on-year to 1,556 tons of rare-earth ore, metals and compounds. The average export price dropped from US$22,874.08 per ton to US$ 16,967.5 per ton, fell 25.8% year on year. While China exported 916 tons of rare earth to Japan and 420 tons of rare earth to the U.S. respectively. Customs data showed.

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The figure from the Customs also shows that China’s imports of the rare earths surged 68.82% month on month in June to 87 tons.

The exports of rare earth oxides and related products in 2014 are shown below:

2014-7-30-Hongpo

Moreover, Inner Mongolia exported 1,951.4 tons of rare earth during the first six months of the year, up 0.5% from a year earlier, while export value down 37.1% year-on-year to 95.71 million yuan or average export price of rare earth was at 49,000 yuan per ton, according to China’s Huhehaote Customs.

Obviously, current global demand for rare earths is recovering outside of China. However, the problem that China’s rare earth market is still dominated by illegal operations at present, China Mining Association reported on July 29th that current illegal or unlicensed rare earth ore production still reached about 40,000 tons to 50,000 tons in the domestic market. Which resulted in a serious oversupply of rare earth elements in the country and a sluggish rare earths price.

The sell price of the ion-absorbing type rare earths ore is about 90,000 to 130,000 yuan per ton in Chinese black market, however the official price, such as Ganzhou’s official sell price is nearly 190,000 to 200,000 yuan per ton. Affected by the rampant domestic illegal producers and smuggler of rare earth, some Chinese rare earth giants, such as China Minmetals Rare Earth Co Ltd has estimated it would record a net loss of around 40 to 50 million yuan, while Xiamen Tungsten Co Ltd estimated it’s rare earth business would record a net loss of around 17.29 million yuan for the first half of this year.

China is the world’s dominant supplier of rare earths, the country has imposed a quota system to curb production and exports to conserve resources and protect the environment after decades of excessive exploitation. On July 14th, the Ministry of Commerce announced that the second batch of rare earth export quotas for 2014, the export quota includes 13,691 tons for light rare earths and 1,809 tons of medium and heavy rare earths. Therefore the total export quota this year is 31,000 tons, unchanged from last year, which will be shared by 24 companies. Below is the distribution table of the first &second batch of China’s rare earth export quotas in 2014:

2014-7-30-Hongpo-2The WTO in late March ruled that China’s caps on exports of rare earth elements break global trade rules, while the final ruling report will be issued on August, therefore rare earth metals probably became a hot topic again in the month. Chinese officials have said that if the final ruling upholds the panel report, the country will remove the rare earth export restrictions.

With the government will increase exploration and production quotas for rare earth companies by 10% of light rare earths to set a total quota for production at 105,000 tons this year to bring output in line with the sector’s capacity, Huang Libin, an official at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the increase is a response to rapid industrial development in the country.

“Giving more quotas to the large companies will allow them to replace those that have closed. The quotas might grow further as regulation of the industry improves amid growing market demand.” Huang Libin said.

However, North Korea shipped rare-earth minerals worth US$550,000 and US$1.32 million to China in May and June, respectively, which amounted to a total of 62,662 kilograms, according to the Korea International Trade Association based in Seoul. Moreover, China imported 63.1 tons, valued at US$ 32,000 of rare earth minerals from Vietnam, according to the Yunnan Jinping government.

I predicted that China’s rare earth imports will continue to rise, while it will become a new source for the country’s rare earth oversupply.

- See more at: http://investorintel.com/rare-earth-intel/chinas-rare-earth-exports-quota-first-half/#sthash.u09bzKVG.dpuf