Resumen de Rare Earths: : Year in Review 2014
Meanwhile, China's total rare earths export quotas for 2014 remained flat year-on-year (y-o-y) at 30,600 tonnes, despite a pending appeal filed by the US, Europe and Japan to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Chinese rare earths and tungsten export quotas in 2012. Rare earths exports rose by 60.4% y-o-y between January and May 2014, with Japan and the US being the main importing countries.
The Chinese government announced it would lift export quotas in 2015 in order to comply with the WTO's ruling, but it plans to increase the tax rate to 35% on heavy rare earths (HREE) and to 22% on light rare earths (LREE). The measure is expected to push up rare earths prices during 2015.
Meanwhile, rare earths industry players said at the 10[superscript]th International Rare Earths Conference in Singapore in November 2014 that demand in the rare earths industry could be revived by a growing automotive market, which will particularly affect NdFeB magnets and cerium oxide-based catalysts.
