The rise in prices for rare earth metals has stopped

The city of Baotou is the epicenter of China's rare earth metals industry, which produces about 90 percent of the world's total. China's industry consumes 70 percent of the 17 elements (REE) used in various high-tech industries, including renewable energy, medical devices and defense technology.

Recently, China has made many changes in the rare earth metal industry. Beijing has consolidated the industry to six large organizations led by the China North Rare Earth Group. In addition to the consolidation of the production of mines, the country is modernizing its low-tech divisions and processing of the country's rare earth enterprises.

Following the decision of the World Trade Organization, China was forced to abolish its 10-year-old system of quotas on the export of rare earth metals. The country's Ministry of Industry recently issued new mining and export quotas for rare earth products for 2015. At the same time, export quotas increased by 12 percent compared to last year, while processing may increase by 10.6 percent. 60 percent of the quotas were allocated to the China North Rare Earth Group.

China's Rare Earth Industrial Association statistics show that after the export slump in January, REE exports have already recovered and increased in February by 24.7 percent year on year to 2,052 tons. Therefore, the rise in the price index at the beginning of the year (the 20-day average of REE prices in the entire industry) has now stalled.