Metal-Pages ... Good Read on Tungsten Market 19 Jul 2013 by Metal-Pages
Chinese tungsten APT prices hold firm on limited availability
BEIJING (Metal-Pages) 19-Jul-13. Chinese tungsten APT prices showed some softness at the beginning of the week due to sparse purchases, but limited availability has prevented prices from falling further.
Domestic prices for tungsten APT grade 88.50% have stayed at RMB214,000-219,000/tonne, without slipping over the past three days.
18 Jul 2013 by Metal-Pages
ANALYSIS: Japan speeds search for alternative rare earths supplies as China curbs illegal mining
LONDON (Metal-Pages) 18-July-13. China's crackdown on illegal rare earths production, which appears to be having an impact, poses a dilemma for the world's number two consumer Japan and is quickening its determination to find alternative suppliers.
In that vein Japan and Vietnam said they are committed to speeding up the pace of their cooperation for developing the latter's rare earths resources.
Japan's determination to find alternative rare earths suppliers to support its high-tech industries is likely to have been given a jolt by China's clamp down on illegal production and smuggling, which had contributed enormously to depressing rare earths prices by swamping world markets with surplus material. China, which had enjoyed a near monopoly in rare earths production, was effectively competing against itself with its export controls severely undermined.
A report on Wednesday in Vietnam's government online newspaper, VGP, said Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Duong Quang and Japan's Deputy Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Akaba Kazuyoshi reinforced their determination at a recent working session to review the implementation of a cooperative agreement between the two governments.
During a recent visit by Kazuyoshi, the two ministers discussed the need to outline a mid- and long-term vision to develop Vietnam's rare earths resources and agreed to progress the Ninh Thuan nuclear power plant project in the south of the country.
A dash for China alternatives is not so easy
Last year Japanese officials talked of sourcing around 50% of the country's rare earths requirements from outside China by mid-2013. But recent data suggests that Japan is falling behind its self-imposed time table.
During the first four months of 2013, Japan's imports increased 19% year-on-year to 4,300 tonnes with China supplying 63% of that figure, a rise of 11% on a year ago, according to various reports in Asia's press. Nonetheless, it's technically still a reduction in its dependence. In 2010, for instance, Japan imported just over 80% of its rare earths from China though a dispute over islands in the East China Sea saw that dependence fall to under 25% at one point, according to media reports from the region.
However, some industry participants suspected that much of those alternative supplies were in fact smuggled Chinese material shipped in via third party countries. Also, industry sources claim that Japan has been living off stocks acquired in earlier years and has made them last longer by optimising their usage. Media reports from Asia suggest that Japan consumed 14,470 tonnes of rare earths in 2012.
However, if Japan starts increasing its rare earths consumption its dependence on China is likely to grow for the harder to produce heavy rare earths where few alternative suppliers currently exist.
In Japan around 20% of rare earths oxides equivalent are used in high performance magnets with the glass and ceramics industry absorbing a further 20% and phosphors represent a further significant source of consumption, according to recent data by researchers IHS Chemical.
Spurring new production around the world
Nonetheless, Japan's efforts to break China's rare earths monopoly have been vigorous. It has inked exploration agreements with other countries such as Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Mongolia and India and has also implemented off-take deals with Lynas Corp and Molycorp. It is even looking to mine rare earths from the sea bed within its territorial waters. It is also pursuing numerous state backed measures to recycle and substitute rare earths where ever possible.
According to the Vietnamese Department of Geology and Minerals, the southeast Asian country has one of the world's largest rare earths reserves, mainly found in the northwest region -- hence the interest from Japan. On June 16, 2012, Vietnam inaugurated its first centre for rare earth research and technology transfer in Hanoi, based on an agreement signed by the Vietnamese and Japanese prime ministers in 2011.
The centre is to contribute towards rare earth ore processing in Vietnam and the application of rare earths in high- tech industries. It is the first facility in Vietnam extracting and separating rare earths from exploited ore before exporting it to Japan, according to the VGP article.
Though China's monopoly over light rare earths such as cerium and lanthanum has been broken by Lynas and Molycorp, it still remains almost the world's only producer of heavier elements, which are so crucial to high-tech and clean-tech industries, where Japan is a major global player.
China still maintains grip on heavy rare earths
Among those crucial heavy element are dysprosium for high performance magnets, europium with applications in lasers, terbium for fuel cells, naval sonar systems and yttrium, which is used to strengthen certain types of alloys, is an additive to phosphors and in some cases even used to treat of cancer.
China's efforts to end illegal mining and smuggling is having an impact on the prices of those heavier elements. Dysprosium oxide for instance has seen prices strengthen to around $500-550/kg, compared with $400/kg and even $250/kg in the case of smuggled material about three months ago. Other heavy rare earths are also seeing a price resurgence, which is likely to be worrying Japanese users.
However, significant alternative supplies of heavy rare earths are unlikely to emerge for another three to four years at least leaving many experts to predict significant prices rises in the years ahead. China is also determined to keep these resources for its own industries and add value to them at home, which is a potential threat to high-tech industries in Japan, South Korea, Europe and the US.
Should China this time succeed in permanently stemming illegal supplies and prices do increase significantly for the heavier elements as a result, there is likely to be plenty of strong rhetoric out of Tokyo, Washington and Brussels over unfair trade practices and in support of developing alternative origins.
-By Justin Pugsley in London (justin@metal-pages.com)