Short news minerals
May 8, 2014 Category Automotive Metals & Minerals, Short news minerals
- China’s major rare earth producer Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Group said its net profit slumped 71.71% year-on-year to CNY69.38 million in the first quarter. Its revenue tumbled 52.76% from the same period of last year to CNY1.09 billion, according to the company’s financial report for the January-March period. The World Trade Organization (WTO) said on March 26 that China’s regulation on rare earth exports was inconsistent with the organization’s rules, signaling the country may have to further open its rare earth supply. Chinese rare earth producers have suffered since 2011 from continuing price falls due to excessive exploitation.
- China has appealed to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over its ruling that the country violated global trade rules by limiting exports of rare earth minerals, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said. “China will make the utmost efforts in the appeal process to guard its national interests,” said Ministry Spokesman Shen Danyang. The WTO panel report said China’s export duty, export quota and export quota administration and allocation measures imposed on rare earths, tungsten and molybdenum products were inconsistent with WTO rules.
- China has started releasing a monthly non-ferrous metals conditions index in a move to increase the nation’s influence in setting global commodity prices. The index for March was 46.7, indicating worsening conditions. The index is jointly compiled and released by the China Non-ferrous Metals Industry Association, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Economic Daily newspaper. Despite being the biggest producer and consumer of non-ferrous metals, China doesn’t carry much weight in global pricing, said Jia Mingxing, Vice Chairman of the Association. According to Jia, 2,339 companies in the industry reported deficits for the first two months of the year, accounting for 26.9% of all companies in the industry. The profit for the whole industry for the first two months declined 9.3% year-on-year to CNY15.54 billion.
- China expects coal imports to be more or less the same this year as the 267 million tons in 2013, when they grew 14%. Chinese coal markets remain well-supplied even though domestic producers have seen profits slashed by low prices. Domestic output rose 0.9% to 535 million tons in the first two months of the year compared to the same period last year.
- Turkey and China are in talks on a USD10 billion to USD12 billion investment in the Afsin-Elbistan coalfield and power plant project in southern Turkey, said Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz. Turkey is keen to make the most of its coal resources to reduce the country’s imports of natural gas and signed a deal with Abu Dhabi National Energy on the project in January last year. However, Taqa said in August that it was delaying investment and Turkey subsequently began talks with other companies. The Afsin-Elbistan region holds up to 45% of Turkey’s lignite reserves and the project includes the construction of a 8,000 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant.
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