Rare Earth Elements - News from China and Japan

China announced a stated 2012 export quota of 30,996 metric tons of rare earth elements but actually only exported 16,266 tons according to a report issued by the Government on January 21 2013,  revealing that its exports of rare earth metals in 2012 were only 53% of the quantity it had planned to release.

China's Rare Earth Elements Exports Down

Exports were down over the whole year, the report revealed, despite a dramatic increase in exports of rare earth metal ores during December 2012.

The largest element of the exported quota was from the country’s largest producer, Baotou Steel Rare-Earth, and the company exported a mixture of light rare earth oxides, Praseodymium Metal and rare earth functional materials. It is expected to remain a major provider of the metals for export in 2013.

Analysts expect the quantity of rare earths exported from China to stabilise in 2013 at an estimated 30,000 tons, but the country is coming under increasing pressure from other producers outside of China, particularly from the new Lynas Corp processing plant in Malaysia and from US company Molycorp.

Meanwhile tensions between China and Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea have reportedly escalated again with Chinese fighter planes allegedly tailing Japanese planes over the disputed area, known in China as the Diaoyu Islands and called the Senkaku Islands by Japan.

While Japan has indicated that it had a right to fire warning shots and take other measures China has claimed that its planes were not violating Japanese air space. When the dispute last flared up three years ago China withheld supplies of rare earth metals from Japan, which depended on approximately 50% of its industrial supplies for use in the magnets in the batteries of electric vehicles and also for use in consumer electronic equipment.

Rare Earth Elements Surveys

It is perhaps no surprise therefore that Japan has signalled its intention to pursue further surveys on the sea bed off its coast this year after scientists last year identified dysprosium in samples of mud taken from the area last year.

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