Foreign media said that rare earth export restrictions or will cancel the Ministry of Land and Resources to control the amount of mining

Recently, the discussion on China's cancellation of rare earth export restrictions and tariffs has been heating up, and according to the "Securities Daily" reporter, the above-mentioned statements about the abolition of export restrictions and tariffs are quite a bit from foreign media. In March this year, the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Experts Group report preliminarily ruled that the United States, the European Union, Japan v. China’s rare earth, tungsten, molybdenum and other related products export management measures, the Chinese side lost the case, foreign media has been using this "Dongfeng" to vigorously advocate, China Rare earth export restrictions and tariffs will be eliminated.

Regarding whether or not export restrictions and tariffs should be abolished, the relevant parts of China have not yet been finalized. On June 6, the Ministry of Land and Resources (hereinafter referred to as: Ministry of Land and Resources) officially posted the news of the National Voice of Weibo, and the Ministry of Land and Resources recently issued the "Notice on the Release of the 2014 Total Rare Earth Ore Tungsten Mining Total Control Index", which will continue. Implement management of total control indicators for rare earth ore and tungsten ore.

In this regard, some insiders explained that the "Notice" will continue to implement the management of total rare earth ore control indicators, which is a response to the rare earth lawsuit. Other countries have litigated China's rare earth exports and tariffs, but if China If it is controlled, it has nothing to do with other countries. If the total amount of mining is controlled, then the export will be bound to be limited, and this will also help China to fight for the right to speak for rare earth prices.

Control the amount of rare earth extraction

According to the Notice, the total amount of rare earth mining in 2014 was 105,000 tons, of which the rock-mine type (light) rare earth mineral index was increased by 11,200 tons, an increase of about 15% over the previous year; the total amount of tungsten mining was 8.9. Ten thousand tons.

According to the Ministry of Land and Resources, in 2014, the total amount of antimony mining control indicators will not be released; the implementation index of the comprehensive utilization index of tungsten ore will be checked and approved, and the constraints will be relaxed appropriately.

The notice stressed that “continue to implement the suspension policy of rare earth ore mining rights to June 30, 2015. For key projects of the State Council and central fund or provincial geological special fund projects, development and integration projects, resource depletion mining areas, ministry agreements, mines The resources are exhausted, the central poverty alleviation support project, the provincial government request support project and the large-scale rare earth enterprise project reorganization project, and the new rare earth ore tungsten mining rights are allowed under the requirements of total mining control and capacity balance.

This is the first time in recent years that the Ministry of Land and Resources has cancelled the control of the total amount of antimony mining. However, the total control of rare earths and tungsten ore has been going on for many years.

It is worth noting that the total amount of rare earth mining has been continuously controlled in recent years, but this year has increased. In this regard, some analysts told reporters: "China's rare earth export restrictions will be a foregone conclusion, which will make the resource tax increase on the agenda. The "Notice" of the Ministry of Land and Resources has increased the amount of rare earth mining, and may want Squeezing the living space of private mines, private mining and mining has always been a chronic disease in China's rare earth industry. Instead of letting non-standard enterprises mining, it is better to increase the production capacity of formal enterprises, which is also conducive to management, and will also increase resource taxes. Cover the strength."

The above analysts expect that after the issuance of the Notice, China will continue to introduce relevant policies to ensure the healthy development of China's rare earth industry and further crack down on private mining and smuggling activities.

In this regard, some insiders agree with the above viewpoints. "After the adjustment of export quotas and tariff policies, China will also promote the introduction of relevant policies such as resource taxes, and strictly manage the production sources of rare earth export products. Only production and environmental protection indicators are qualified. Enterprises can export and improve the chaos of rare earth exports from the source."

Poorly eliminating backward production capacity

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the “Notice on the Targets for the Elimination of Backward and Excessive Capacity in the Industrial Sector in 2014” (hereinafter referred to as “Task Notice”), and issued the target of eliminating backward and excess capacity in 2014 to various provinces and cities. The task, which involves 1,204 tons of rare earth (oxide).

At present, in addition to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Hunan Province, Sichuan Province, Jiangsu Province, etc. have also announced the list of enterprises that need to eliminate production capacity. Among them, there are 7 enterprises in Hunan Province that have eliminated backward production capacity in this year, involving 16,000 tons of production capacity; Sichuan has eliminated 2 rare earth (oxide) production capacity and has a production capacity of 0.7 million tons; a total of 1 backward production capacity enterprises in Jiangsu Province It involves a production capacity of 12,000 tons.

In order to successfully complete the elimination task, the provinces have also clearly defined the work schedule. Taking Hunan Province as an example, relevant enterprises must completely dismantle the announced backward production capacity equipment and production lines before the end of October this year, and it is strictly forbidden to phase out the backward production capacity equipment; all levels of government must complete the scene of all outdated capacity enterprises before the end of November. Inspection and acceptance, the provincial leading group for eliminating backward production capacity will conduct inspection and acceptance of the elimination of backward and excess capacity in 2014.

Although the requirements of the above-mentioned Task Notice are very clear, there are still difficulties in implementation.

Take the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as an example. This year, Inner Mongolia will eliminate 68.61 million tons of backward production capacity of the rare earth industry. In addition to Baotou Steel Rare Earth , 14 local enterprises such as Wulate Qianqi Jinxin Rare Earth Co., Ltd. and Baotou Huachen Rare Earth Company also entered the elimination list. It is understood that although many local governments have listed the list of enterprises that have eliminated capacity, a large number of enterprises belong to the enterprises that have been transformed or shut down, and the elimination of the rare earth industry has been greatly reduced.

As a major supplier of rare earths in the world, China's future rare earth policy is not conclusive. In order to have stronger competitiveness in the international market, the first condition is that the quality of products should be excellent. At the same time, we must pay attention to the sustainable use of resources and the sustainable development of the ecological environment to control the scale of domestic rare earth mining.