China Violated Free Trade with Rare Earth Restrictions

China has been dominating the world’s rare earth magnet exporting industry over the past few years. However, during the last couple of years, they implemented several restrictions on the export of rare earth magnets that created a lot of hassle in the world industry. It was even reported that China broke the international trade laws by implementing these restrictions on the export of rare earth magnets that are essential for modern world manufacturing processes. This incident was reported in a World Trade Organization panel discussion that took place in the last week of March. 

The reports have forced the Chinese government to think twice about their restrictions. They will even have to face trade sanctions from United States, who took the initiative in bringing the case, Japan and European Union. Before these export restrictions, China has been catering 9/10^th of the world’s rare earth magnet supply. These rare earth elements were used in many industries including the manufacturing process of motors. The reduction in supply has directly affected this production and that is the main reason why these countries are forcing China to take off the restrictions. 

From the statistical records, it is clear that China has reduced the terbium oxide production by 8.6 percent, terbium metal production by 6.1 percent and dysprosium oxide by 8 percent. In addition, the reduction of neodymium supply by 2.3 percent during the first few months of 2014 has greatly affected these industries, which heavily rely on it. Many experts predict that if China continues implementing these restrictions, they will have to look for alternatives or else ask China to follow a flexible policy on their exports. 

However, it is clear that China has not completely restricted the export of all the types of rare earth elements. For example, export of Samarium oxide has remained unchanged for the past few months. In addition, it has also been reported that the yttrium prices have been following a steady path for few weeks. Unfortunately, the elements with the biggest demand like neodymium have not remained unchanged, which has caused much hassle for the countries that heavily depend on these elements. 

About Stanford Magnets. http://www.stanfordmagnets.com/
Based in California, Stanford Magnets has been involved in the R&D and sales of licensed Rare-earth permanent magnets, Neodymium magnets and SmCo magnets, ceramic magnets, flexible magnets and magnetic assemblies since the mid of 1980s. We supply all these types of magnets in a wide range of shapes, sizes and grades.