China’s rare earth export plunge caused by coronavirus, not Beijing agenda, industry group says
- An official at the China Rare Earth Industry Association says geopolitical factors were not behind a drop in China’s rare earth exports last month
- Beijing briefly used rare earths as a geopolitical weapon against Tokyo in 2010, in a territorial dispute over the East China Sea
A plunge in China’s rare earth exports last month has fanned speculation over whether Beijing has been curbing overseas shipments of the raw materials to inflict pain on its trade partners, but an industry association official says the decline in such exports is more of a result of coronavirus shock than a deliberate effort to cut off supplies.
Chen Zhanheng, a deputy general secretary at the China Rare Earth Industry Association, an industry group of domestic rare earth companies, said the drop in July’s rare earth exports has led to rumours about whether China is weaponising rare earths in trade.
“Some people attributed it to geopolitical factors. That is actually not the case,” Chen said. “The foremost factor should be the pandemic, which led to weak external demand [for rare earth minerals].”
China exported 1,620 tonnes of rare earth elements last month, a drop of 69.1 per cent from a year earlier and down 44 per cent from June, according to Chinese customs data.
China’s rare earth exports to the United States dropped 35.2 per cent from a year earlier to 5,184 tonnes in the first half of the year, according to data from the China Rare Earth Industry Association.
China owns 36.7 per cent of global reserves and is the world’s largest producer and exporter. The country’s output last year accounted for 62.8 per cent of the world’s total, according to the US Geological Survey.
The United States imported about 80 per cent of its rare earths from China from 2015-2018. But after seeing the risks of relying on China for supplies, the US last year restarted operations at the Mountain Pass mine in California, with output lifted to 26,000 metric tonnes in 2019.
Beijing briefly used rare earths as a geopolitical weapon against Tokyo in 2010, in a territorial dispute over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, but it was a misfire. The Japanese responded by building a rare earth supply chain outside China, and the Chinese share of rare earth production dropped from more than 95 per cent of the world’s supply in 2010 to around 70 per cent in 2018.
Mei Xinyu, a senior fellow with the Ministry of Commerce’s research institute, also pointed to weak demand overseas for the materials.
“China should maintain its status as a reliable supplier unless it is engaged in a war,” he said. “Unlike the US, which often threatens sanctions or supply cuts, China should be a responsible country to maintain order in global trade in such an uncertain time.”
