China losing leverage on Japan as rare earth metal exports decline

[Anonymous user]

I have no problem and appreciate your research.. .. but if you look at the opening post of this thread, the RE exports have fallen from 74,000 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes (over last 7 years).

(The govt wanted to restrict exports and hence imposed a limit of 30,000 .... but there is no demand. The world does not want to buy even 30,000 tonnes of RE from china).

And the production cut is because prices have fallen too low, resulting in 90% decline in profitability of the referred "largest RE producer".

That said, I don't think $ 50 billion is the true value... could be even as low as $ 1 billion or so..

Its almost impossible to quantify the reasons why the REE demand has fallen, besides the usual culprits of economic factors (which is in the toilet) and possibly Japan recycling the REE there are also other factors to consider whereby the end consumer is buying REE resultant end products from China manufacturers (hence not needed to import the raw goods). Not to mention the new suppliers which have come online since 2011 or the black market suppliers which are not on the official figures but do have substantial exports on their own. (In fact I will not be surprised if this is the main reason)

At the end of day, if we go back to the source of the article which claims China is losing a diplomatic card over Japan due to REE exports is another speculation. I see the REE playing such an small role in China's current position I am not sure how its even relevant except to naysayers looking to blow things up.

 

[Bobby]

clueless cheerleading Indians as usual```we are more than be happy of this news``rare earth is a national strategic asset, vital to high tech sector, and sadly huge environmental effect

Dont spit on your wound...