China, the world’s biggest rare-earths supplier, cut the first-batch export quota for next year by 27 percent as overseas demand for the elements waned.
China Minmetals Corp (中國五礦資源), Aluminum Corp of China (中國鋁業) and other producers will be allowed to export 15,501 tonnes in the first round for next year, the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday on its Web site. The first-lot quota for 2012 was 21,226 tonnes.
China’s export restrictions on rare earths, a group of 17 chemically similar elements used in hybrid cars and wind turbines, have soured ties with the world’s major users, including the US and Japan.
The WTO agreed in July to probe China’s export limits and tariffs for rare earths following complaints that the curbs breached rules of global commerce.
“If overseas demand picks up next year, the government may increase its second-batch quota,” said Wei Chishan, a Shanghai-based analyst with SMM Information & Technology Co.
The first batch for next year will include 13,563 tonnes of light rare earths and 1,938 tonnes of the heavy variety, the commerce ministry said.
Shipments from China fell 3.1 percent to 13,014 tonnes in the first 11 months of this year because of substitution and declining overseas demand. Prices plunged 77 percent from their 2011 peak.
China usually issues the quotas in two batches. In August, the government allowed 9,770 tonnes for exports in the second batch for this year, taking the full-year limit to 30,996 tonnes, the highest in three years.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained