News & Features, Rare Earths, Resource News
China as importer of REEs good news for West
By Resource Intelligence · July 18, 2012 · 9:34 am · Leave a Comment
Bloomberg today reported:
U.S. and Canadian producers of heavy rare earth metals are poised to benefit as China becomes a net importer of some of the materials as early as 2014, said Peter Cashin, chief executive officer of Quest Rare Minerals Ltd. (QRM)
“They’ll be a very important consumer for our products,” Cashin said in an interview. “They are an unanticipated consumer; most of the assumptions have been for non-Chinese consumers. The Chinese would be a huge market for us.”
China is the world’s biggest producer of rare earths, 17 chemically similar metallic elements used in the defense, renewable-energy and electronics industries by companies such as Apple Inc. (AAPL) (AAPL), Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) and Boeing Co. (BA) (BA) As China develops its high-tech industries, the Asian country is expected to become an importer of some rare earths by 2014, a year earlier than it forecast early last year….
The author points out that since 2000 China’s consumption of REEs has jumped from 19,000 tonnes in 2000 to 73,000 tonnes in 2009 primarily for use in the magnet industry.
Click here to read the rest at Bloomberg.
