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.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,
RSS