Jul 17.07.2019, XNUMX - The China National Development and Reform Commission held its regular press conference earlier this week, at which it highlighted the importance of the rare earth industry and outlined possible industrial development strategies in this regard, which will be published later. It has also been mentioned that in the context of the Sino-US trade crisis, China is critical of trade pressures from countries using its rare earth resources.

Some of the interpretations highlighted at the National Development and Reform Commission press conference:

It is emphasized that rare earths are an important strategic resource. China is the largest producer of rare earths with the world's largest rare earth deposits. The global rare earth separation capacity is approximately 500.000 tonnes, of which China's rare earth separation capacity is nearly 480.000 tonnes, which corresponds to 96% of the world's separation capacity. China's Rare Earth Separation Technology comes first in the world, and its separation costs are lower than any other rare earth companies in the world.

In order to promote the high-quality development of the rare earth industry, the state focuses on their investigation. The National Development and Reform Commission held three symposia in a row and, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Natural Resources, conducted research on the main Rare Earth production areas. The Department of Industry and Information Technology recently issued a directive on rare earth packaging standards that will help better track the traffic in rare earth products. In addition, the later relevant policy will be pursued further, which will accelerate the favorable development of the rare earth industry.

China will strengthen oversight over the control of rare earth exports and establish a mechanism for full traceability and verification of rare earth exports to better regulate rare earth exports. To the 1. In May 2015, the state has dropped export tariffs and quotas for rare earths, causing the export volume of rare earths from 27.729 tons in 2014 to 32.324 tons in 2018 increased sharply, which represents an increase of 23% per year. According to the national rare earth index of 120.000 tonnes in the year 2018, the export volume is 44% of the production index. In addition, exports of rare earth metals will be strictly controlled in the future.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is paying close attention to environmental issues in the rare earth industry. To promote mine development and environmental management, the state will introduce guidelines to thoroughly investigate environmental issues in rare earth production companies and to address or eliminate companies with environmental problems.

With the aim of the present illegal production of the rare earth industry, the government will strengthen the industry standard for rectification, establish a long-term monitoring mechanism and regulate the industrial development order. The country will step up its efforts to address longstanding problems such as illegal mining, illegal production and overproduction, and so on. In addition, it is possible in China to carry out supply-side reforms in production surpluses. At present, China's Rare Earth Industry suffers from severe overcapacity, leading to irrational development in the industry.

The government will accelerate all decisions on rare earths, establish a solid and effective incentive mechanism and support innovation. The use of rare earths is very extensive, and industrial end-use research can improve the structural consumption of rare earth elements.

The National Development and Reform Commission has repeatedly pointed to the high-quality development of the rare earth industry. The state will implement the above issues as soon as possible and will introduce relevant policies to effectively address the historic problems of rare earth industry development such as environmental protection, illegal production, overcapacity and delay in terminal application. A favorable policy will help to improve the rare earth market. Inspired by various factors such as falling supply and rising prices, the rare earth market can be reformed later. Finally, the National Development and Reform Commission emphasized that in the current trade disruption between China and the US, China is resolutely opposed to those that violate world trade rules and violate the global industry chain and those who use products from their rare earth production ,

Institute for Rare Earths and Metals Arndt Uhlendorff - July 2019

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