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October 18, 2010
China Plans to Reduce Its Exports of Minerals
By KEITH BRADSHER
HONG KONG — The Chinese government plans a further reduction, of up to 30 percent, next year in its quotas for exports of rare earth minerals, in an attempt to conserve dwindling reserves of the materials, the official newspaper China Daily said Tuesday.
Plans for smaller export quotas come just four days after U.S. trade officials announced they would investigate whether China was violating international trade rules with a wide range of policies to help its clean energy industries. One of the policies under investigation involves China’s steady reductions in rare earth export quotas since 2005 and its imposition of steep taxes on the exports.
China mines 95 percent of the world’s rare earths. They are crucial for compact fluorescent light bulbs, hybrid gasoline-electric cars, large wind turbines and other clean energy technologies, as well as for mobile phones and a number of military applications, like missiles, sonar and range finders on tanks.
Chao Ning, a Commerce Ministry official, told a conference in Beijing on Saturday that China had sizable reserves of the lighter elements among the 17 rare earth elements. But he said that the country had only 15 or 20 years’ worth of reserves left of medium and heavy rare earths and that it needed to conserve these. Light rare earths are used in lower-technology applications like oil refining and glass manufacturing, while medium and heavy rare earths are used more in clean energy and military applications.
China Daily is owned and closely supervised by the Chinese government, and presents official views on a wide range of issues. Its article Tuesday attributed the planned reduction in quotas to an unidentified Commerce Ministry official.
Bloomberg News quoted another Commerce Ministry official, Jiang Fan, who said at a conference in Xiamen on Tuesday that she was not aware of plans for a further reduction in rare earth exports.
But a further reduction in quotas for 2011 issued late this year would be consistent with recent Chinese policy. The Chinese government typically makes a main allocation of quotas near the end of the year, followed by a smaller, supplemental allocation in the summer. But the supplemental allocation issued last July was down 72 percent from a year earlier, as Chinese officials called for making sure that their own industries had ample supplies and that heavily polluting illegal mines should be closed.
Commerce Ministry representatives in Beijing did not answer numerous calls for comment Tuesday.
Dudley Kingsnorth, a rare earth market analyst at Industrial Minerals Co. of Australia in Perth, said that if China implements a further reduction in export quotas of 30 percent for next year, manufacturers elsewhere could face difficulties.
“That will create some problems,” he said. “It’ll force some people to look very carefully at the use of rare earths, and we might be reverting to some older technologies until alternative sources of rare earths are developed.”
Mines are being developed elsewhere, however, and analysts expect them to be producing 40,000 tons a year or more in several years.
Wang Caifeng, the secretary general of the Chinese Rare Earths Industry Association, predicted at the conference in Xiamen on Tuesday that domestic demand for rare earths in China would soar to 130,000 tons in 2015 from 75,000 tons now, Bloomberg reported. She said that world consumption would be 210,000 tons in 2015, which would seem to indicate that consumption outside China would total 80,000 tons.
By comparison, the export quotas for this year total just 30,258 tons, down from 65,609 tons in 2005.
China has halted exports of rare earths to Japan, its biggest foreign customer, since Sept. 21, even though ample export quotas are available for another six weeks of shipments this year, according to rare earth industry executives.
The suspension of exports began during a dispute over Japan’s detention of the captain of a Chinese fishing trawler near disputed islands; Japan released the captain Sept. 24, but Chinese customs officials have continued to block rare earth exports at major ports, although industry officials say smuggling may have increased.
Chen Deming, China’s commerce minister, has denied that any embargo is in place, suggesting that the country’s rare earth exporters simultaneously developed feelings toward Japan that caused them to stop shipments. There are 32 authorized rare earth exporters in China, 10 of them foreign-owned.
World Trade Organization rules bar countries from restricting exports of materials so as to force other countries to buy value-added products, but the rules allow export restrictions for the purpose of conserving natural resources.
Until recent weeks, Chinese officials said that the export quotas were designed to foster the development of value-added industries. But they have emphasized environmental concerns this autumn as trade frictions have increased.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/bu....html?ref=asia
Will redrawn borders for China...reduce ethnic tensions....
China Plans to Reduce Its Exports of Minerals
By KEITH BRADSHER
HONG KONG — The Chinese government plans a further reduction, of up to 30 percent, next year in its quotas for exports of rare earth minerals, in an attempt to conserve dwindling reserves of the materials, the official newspaper China Daily said Tuesday.
Plans for smaller export quotas come just four days after U.S. trade officials announced they would investigate whether China was violating international trade rules with a wide range of policies to help its clean energy industries. One of the policies under investigation involves China’s steady reductions in rare earth export quotas since 2005 and its imposition of steep taxes on the exports.
China mines 95 percent of the world’s rare earths. They are crucial for compact fluorescent light bulbs, hybrid gasoline-electric cars, large wind turbines and other clean energy technologies, as well as for mobile phones and a number of military applications, like missiles, sonar and range finders on tanks.
Chao Ning, a Commerce Ministry official, told a conference in Beijing on Saturday that China had sizable reserves of the lighter elements among the 17 rare earth elements. But he said that the country had only 15 or 20 years’ worth of reserves left of medium and heavy rare earths and that it needed to conserve these. Light rare earths are used in lower-technology applications like oil refining and glass manufacturing, while medium and heavy rare earths are used more in clean energy and military applications.
China Daily is owned and closely supervised by the Chinese government, and presents official views on a wide range of issues. Its article Tuesday attributed the planned reduction in quotas to an unidentified Commerce Ministry official.
Bloomberg News quoted another Commerce Ministry official, Jiang Fan, who said at a conference in Xiamen on Tuesday that she was not aware of plans for a further reduction in rare earth exports.
But a further reduction in quotas for 2011 issued late this year would be consistent with recent Chinese policy. The Chinese government typically makes a main allocation of quotas near the end of the year, followed by a smaller, supplemental allocation in the summer. But the supplemental allocation issued last July was down 72 percent from a year earlier, as Chinese officials called for making sure that their own industries had ample supplies and that heavily polluting illegal mines should be closed.
Commerce Ministry representatives in Beijing did not answer numerous calls for comment Tuesday.
Dudley Kingsnorth, a rare earth market analyst at Industrial Minerals Co. of Australia in Perth, said that if China implements a further reduction in export quotas of 30 percent for next year, manufacturers elsewhere could face difficulties.
“That will create some problems,” he said. “It’ll force some people to look very carefully at the use of rare earths, and we might be reverting to some older technologies until alternative sources of rare earths are developed.”
Mines are being developed elsewhere, however, and analysts expect them to be producing 40,000 tons a year or more in several years.
Wang Caifeng, the secretary general of the Chinese Rare Earths Industry Association, predicted at the conference in Xiamen on Tuesday that domestic demand for rare earths in China would soar to 130,000 tons in 2015 from 75,000 tons now, Bloomberg reported. She said that world consumption would be 210,000 tons in 2015, which would seem to indicate that consumption outside China would total 80,000 tons.
By comparison, the export quotas for this year total just 30,258 tons, down from 65,609 tons in 2005.
China has halted exports of rare earths to Japan, its biggest foreign customer, since Sept. 21, even though ample export quotas are available for another six weeks of shipments this year, according to rare earth industry executives.
The suspension of exports began during a dispute over Japan’s detention of the captain of a Chinese fishing trawler near disputed islands; Japan released the captain Sept. 24, but Chinese customs officials have continued to block rare earth exports at major ports, although industry officials say smuggling may have increased.
Chen Deming, China’s commerce minister, has denied that any embargo is in place, suggesting that the country’s rare earth exporters simultaneously developed feelings toward Japan that caused them to stop shipments. There are 32 authorized rare earth exporters in China, 10 of them foreign-owned.
World Trade Organization rules bar countries from restricting exports of materials so as to force other countries to buy value-added products, but the rules allow export restrictions for the purpose of conserving natural resources.
Until recent weeks, Chinese officials said that the export quotas were designed to foster the development of value-added industries. But they have emphasized environmental concerns this autumn as trade frictions have increased.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/bu....html?ref=asia
Will redrawn borders for China...reduce ethnic tensions....
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