more news on RRE10 Jun 2019 20:41
China, the world’s largest producer and exporter of rare earths elements, sharply reduced its overseas shipments of the critical product in the first five months of 2019, amid growing populist calls by nationalists and officials to use the country’s stockpile as a tit-for-tat retaliation in its trade war with the United States.
Exports of rare earth elements fell 16% in May from a month earlier to 3,640 metric tons, according to the General Administration of Customs data.
(Click to enlarge)
Overseas shipments for the first five months of 2019 fell 7.2% to 19,265 metric tons compared to the same period last year. In 2018, China produced 120,000 metric tons or 70% of the world’s total rare earths, according to the United States Geological Survey. In the same period, the US mined 15,000 metric tons of rare earths last year.
Rare earths are 17 elements on the periodic table with names like europium and ytterbium which share similar chemical and physical properties. Although as abundant in the earth’s crust as other metals, these elements are “rare” because they always occur in nature as compounds and oxides, which make them extremely expensive and environmentally polluting to refine and extract in commercially viable quantities. They are used to provide precision polishes to flat-panel displays, remove impurities in steelmaking and to make phosophers used in incandescent and LED lights. Some are even used as pigments in ceramics. Another commonly used rare earth is neodymium, found in permanent magnets in motors, miniature amplifiers and speakers.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
