Is China building a rare metals cartel equivalent to OPEC? Analysts began contemplating this possibility last month when a draft report by the Chinese government surfaced stating that China planned to ban the export of rare earth minerals. Last week, Chinese officials stepped back from this claim and said they were only planning to reduce export quotas of rare metals to 35,000 tons per year from 53,000 tons in 2008. World demand is currently over 110,000 tons and expected to grow to 188,000
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Despite early reports to the contrary, China will not ban exports of rare earth metals, the New York Times reports. Instead, China will just virtually ban them : A copy of the draft rules, viewed Thursday, said China would further reduce its combined annual export quotas for all rare-earth elements to 35,000 tons a year, from 53,000 tons last year and almost 66,000 tons as recently as 2005. The draft policy also clearly stated that exports of dysprosium and terbium were to be prohibited a
