China will not issue more rare earth export quotas for foreign companies next year, and the first batch for 2011 totalling 14,446 tonnes included those for foreign firms, the Commerce Ministry said on Wednesday.
That means China's first batch of export quotas for rare earth for 2011 would fall by 35 percent compared with the volume issued a year-ago.
In March, the Commerce Ministry issued 5,978 tonnes of rare earth quotas for foreign companies in 2010, in addition to the first batch of 2010 export quotas, 16,304 tonnes, issued to Chinese companies in late 2009.
“We have included the volume (for foreign firms) in the first batch of quotas and will do so in the future,” said one official with the ministry's export division of industry products. He said the ministry will issue more rare earth export quotas for next year, but declined to give the total volume.
The ministry said it has not decided full-year 2011 rare earth export quotas and urged concerned parties not to estimate full-year quotas by just looking at the first set of quotas, in an apparent move to soothe market concerns. - Reuters