China will not use its exports of rare earths as a “bargaining tool” with other governments and wants international cooperation in the use of the materials, which are crucial for advanced manufacturing, a government spokesman said yesterday.
China alarmed industrial users of rare earths — exotic minerals required to make mobile phones and other high-tech goods — with a de facto ban last month on shipments to Japan as a squabble unfolded over disputed islands.
“China will not use rare earths as a bargaining tool,” a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Zhu Hongren (朱宏任), said at a news conference. “Rather, on the basis of cooperation, development and a win-win outcome, we will have cooperation with other countries in the use of rare earths, because it is a nonrenewable energy resource.”
Zhu did not answer a reporter’s question about when normal exports of rare earths would resume.
Rare earths — a group of 17 elements — are used in high-tech products ranging from flat-screen televisions to lasers to hybrid cars.
China has about 30 percent of rare earths deposits, but accounts for about 97 percent of production. The US, Canada and Australia have rare earths, but stopped mining them in the 1990s as lower-cost Chinese supplies became available.
China’s Ministry of Commerce has said it will limit rare earths exports to protect China’s environment, but denied a report that -shipments would be cut by up to 30 percent next year.
This year’s export quota is 22,026 tonnes, down 30 percent from last year.
Zhu said a reduction in exports was in line with China’s free-trade commitments under the WTO.
The US and Japan, meanwhile, will cooperate to diversify the sources of imports of rare earths needed in high-tech products, Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said on Wednesday.
“We have to diversify the sources of rare earth minerals,” Maehara said in a press conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after they met in Hawaii.
“And here again Japan and the United States will closely cooperate with each other in order to engage in more diversified rare earth minerals diplomacy,” he said.
Clinton meanwhile welcomed remarks from officials in Beijing that China will not use its near-global monopoly on the rare earths trade as a “bargaining tool,” but she said it is important to diversify sources.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
RSS