The hunger of the world economy for rare earths is great. And yet the prices for the coveted commodities, which are processed in mobile phones and computers, fall for some time. China counters with a production stop - which is now being extended.
Manganese nodule - looks more like potato than metal. It lies on the ocean floor at a depth of four to six thousand meters and contains a raw material package of manganese, copper, zinc, nickel, cobalt, iron, molybdenum, selenium and tellurium.
They have strange names such as europium, cerium or neodymium - metals that are better known under their collective term "rare earths". 17 chemical elements that the high-tech industry needs to live. These metals are absolutely necessary in order to manufacture computers, cell phones, batteries or flat screens. They are also used in wind turbines, rockets, electric cars and many other goods.
Hardly any industry can do without rare earths. Accordingly, the economy complained about the price explosion in the year 2010 and in the first half of the year 2011. But then the relief, since mid-2011, there was a pleasant relaxation, prices fell in some cases by far more than 50 percent.
China is scarifying the offer
The company Freud was China's suffering. The People's Republic is the quasi monopolist of the industry. Although the country sits only on about a quarter of the known worldwide deposits. But it promotes more than other commodity countries. The US, Canada and Australia have long neglected their promotion. For example, the Chinese can serve around 95 per cent of global demand with their deliveries.
The price decline of the last year and a half, however, reduces the profits. Therefore, the country artificially curtailed its offer to support the price of the world's coveted commodities. The latest coup: The largest supplier Baotou Steel announced on 23. October, virtually all his works, including those in the eastern province of Jiangxi, temporarily close down. Actually, the production stop should be limited to two months.
But the desired effect did not occur, so the delivery break is now being extended. A message from Baotou Steel to the Shanghai Stock Exchange said the mines in Inner Mongolia would remain closed. Due to the production stop in the past two months, the market for rare earths experienced "a slight recovery". "But there was no fundamental reversal," complained the group.
New promotion areas around the globe
China's quasi-monopoly causes conflicts with its major trading partners. At the request of the United States, the EU and Japan, the World Trade Organization (WTO) set up a committee in July on Chinese exports of rare earths. The needs of the economy continue to rise rapidly. By 2020, global consumption is expected to nearly double on 200.000 to 240.000 tonnes per year. 70.000 to 90.000 tonnes are expected to account for the non-Chinese part of the world.
Business nations like the USA do not want to be dependent on China anymore. Therefore, worldwide efforts are being made to open up new mining areas and resume decommissioned projects. They had rested, among other things, because of possible environmental pollution that may occur during mining.
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Source: http://boerse.ard.de/mektiven/produktionsstopp_fuer_seltene_erden_verlaengert100.html
