CHINA had no plans to cut its export quota for rare earth next year, a senior official at the department responsible for the minerals said at a conference in Xiamen yesterday.
There is no such thing, Jiang Fan, deputy director general of the department of foreign trade at the Ministry of Commerce, told reporters. I haven t heard any policy that China will reduce rare earth exports by 30 percent next year.
She was responding to a China Daily report quoting an unidentified official from the ministry as saying rare earth export quotas for 2011 would be cut by as much as 30 percent.
China cut its export quota of rare earth, metal used to make parts for hybrid cars, missiles and televisions, by 40 percent this year to boost prices and reduce pollution.
Export prices of some rare earth oxides have surged as much as tenfold this year from 2009, according to the Web site of Lynas Corp., which is building a rare earth project in Australia. Cerium oxide, which is used in automotive catalytic converters, has jumped from US$7.49 a kilogram in the second quarter, to US$40 as of Oct. 18, according to Lynas Corp.
Rare earth is 17 chemically similar elements, including neodymium and dysprosium. The oxides are used in the production of equipment for General Dynamics Corp. s M1A2 Abrams tank and Aegis SPY-1 radar made by Lockheed Martin Corp.
China has the largest share of worldwide reserves, about 36 percent, and the United States is second, with 13 percent, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
China s medium and heavy rare earth reserves could last 15 to 20 years at the current rate of production, possibly requiring imports in the future, the Ministry of Commerce said Friday.
Production and export quota cuts were to protect the environment and were in line with WTO rules, Yao Jian, spokesman for China s Ministry of Commerce, said last week. China cannot rule out the possibility that China may need to rely on imports sometime in the future, the ministry s Chao said Friday.(SD-Agencies)
