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.
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in artificial-intelligence (AI) chips, yesterday said that small-volume production of 3-nanometer (nm) chips for a key customer is on track to start by the end of this year, dismissing speculation about delays in producing advanced chips. As Alchip is transitioning from 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer process technology to 3 nanometers, investors and shareholders have been closely monitoring whether the company is navigating through such transition smoothly. “We are proceeding well in [building] this generation [of chips]. It appears to me that no revision will be required. We have achieved success in designing
PROJECTION: KGI Financial said that based on its foreign exchange exposure, a NT$0.1 increase in the New Taiwan dollar would negatively impact it by about NT$1.7 billion KGI Financial Holding Co (凱基金控) yesterday said its life insurance arm has increased hedging and adopted other moves to curb the impact of the local currency’s appreciation on its profitability. “It is difficult to accurately depict the hedging costs, which might vary from 7 percent to 40 percent in a single day,” KGI Life Insurance Co (凱基人壽) told an investors’ conference in Taipei. KGI Life, which underpinned 66 percent of the group’s total net income last year, has elevated hedging to 55 to 60 percent, while using a basket of currencies to manage currency volatility, the insurer said. As different
Taiwanese insurers are facing difficult questions about the damage of recent swings in the New Taiwan dollar. Regulators might have a partial solution: letting firms change how they calculate the value of foreign currency assets. The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is considering allowing insurers to use six-month average exchange rates when they calculate risk-based capital in their semiannual reports, a shift from the current system where insurers use exchange rates on the final day of reporting. The change could ease pressure on the US$1.2 trillion insurance sector, whose huge exposure to foreign assets came into the spotlight earlier this month after a
RSS