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China Begins Stockpiling Rare Earths, Draws WTO Attention

Posted by timothy on from the stockpiling-is-the-pejorative-for-conserving dept.

eldavojohn writes "A report by China Securities Journal claims that China is now stockpiling rare earths although it has not indicated when this stockpiling started. Many WTO members have complained about China's tightening restrictions on exports of rare earths while China maintains that such restrictions are an attempt to clean up its environmental problems. A WTO special conference scheduled for July 10th will hopefully decide if China's restrictions are unfair trade practices or if the US, the EU and Japan are merely upset that they can't export their pollution and receive rare earths at low prices. Last year, China granted its mining companies the right to export 30,200 tons but in actuality only 18,600 tons were shipped out of country."

11 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. Smart but not nice by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Insightful

    China thinks ahead, but doesn't play nice.

    They could be doing it not just for practical purposes but possibly for setting up a DeBeers of rare earth metals.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    1. Re:Smart but not nice by benjfowler · · Score: 5, Informative

      They're tried.

      The Chinese (through various proxies) tried buying Australian rare earth mines in Australia. There was political dissent within Australia, so the Chinese deployed viruses on the computers of MPs and Australian miners to get an inside track of the negotiations.

      Can't remember how it ended, but I think that basically, the Chinese were caught doing the wrong thing, the negotiations ended, and the Chinese left in a huff and a blizzard of threats.

    2. Re:Smart but not nice by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Interesting

      ... setting up a DeBeers of rare earth metals.

      Diamonds are valuable only because they are rare. If the DeBeers cartel fell apart, the value of diamonds could quickly collapse, because demand would likely go down with falling prices (the opposite of normal supply/demand). But rare earths are different, because they are actually useful. If they became more plentiful and the price started to decline, many alternative uses would open up, which would push demand back up, and provide price support. Rare earths are used in things like super-magnets, catalysts, specialty alloys, etc. These could be used much more widely if they were cheaper. There is very little risk of a price collapse.

       

  2. Why shouldn't they? by Gothmolly · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The minerals are theirs; why shouldn't they keep them?

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    1. Re:Why shouldn't they? by cockpitcomp · · Score: 5, Informative

      Because they agreed to free trade in return for open access to markets in the WTO.

    2. Re:Why shouldn't they? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think that he managed to suggest that, even after starting a land war in Asia, those terrifying greenies with their incredible political power would still rank among his serious concerns... Impressive.

  3. Perhaps appeasement for business & China was b by sethstorm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Even if it harms the businesses and the fellow travelers that aid and abet such a hostile regime, it is time that the world plays hardball on China.

    Things like this are why Faustian deals of getting a pliant slave-labor workforce are always a bad idea. Trade is no excuse for appeasement.

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    Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
  4. Re:Perhaps appeasement for business & China wa by benjfowler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They can't and won't. They're afraid of China.

    The world will eventually regret not opposing the rise of China, because they will be bullies 100 times worse than the Americans at their worst, with the added bonus that the Chinese are fiercely xenophobic and have a massive chip on their shoulder from their "100 years of humiliation".

    I'm looking forward to an age of oppression and tyranny under the boot of the Chinese Communist Party.

  5. Re:Wait by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They sell low cost consumer goods by manipulating exchange rates.
    They don't see low cost raw materials by manipulating supply.

    Both sides function as pro-Chinese manufacturing, anti-US manufacturing.

  6. Molycorp already on line by Animats · · Score: 5, Informative

    Molycorp, which owns a big rare earths mine at Mountain Pass, California, is back on line. That mine used to supply 100% of US demand, plus exports. It was shut down in 2002 due to cheaper rare earths from China. Now it's back.

    Rare earths aren't that rare. They're just present in small concentrations. So mining produces huge volumes of waste for small amounts of product. The big rare earths mine in China is an environmental disaster area. The one in California had to comply with US and California regulations. At current rare earths prices, that's not a problem. (They do, however, ship some of the sludge to Nevada through a 20 mile pipeline. Really).

    A year from now, rare earth supplies won't be a problem. Then people will be bitching about the Molycorp monopoly.

  7. Re:What the hell by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 5, Insightful

    unfair places of the world full of stupid people doing it to themselves

    Allowing people to do stupid shit to themselves is my idea of "fair". What is unfair is expecting the rest of us to bail out their stupidity in the name of "fairness" or whatever. Sorry, but trying to fix people's idiocy doesn't accomplish a thing except make a few people feel better about themselves as being some form of superior or another.

    Stupid should hurt. That is how some people learn (and often the ONLY way they learn)

    --
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