{"id":1168560,"date":"2020-02-28T16:01:21","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T22:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1015614"},"modified":"2020-02-28T16:01:21","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T22:01:21","slug":"china-restarts-rare-earth-capacity-after-coronavirus-closures-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1168560","title":{"rendered":"China restarts rare earth capacity after coronavirus closures \u2014 report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The impact of the coronavirus has been felt on a range of markets as well as the macroeconomic performance of the Chinese economy during early 2020.\u00a0\u00a0The rare earths industry has not been exempted from these factors, as many Chinese processing facilities have reported prolonged closures after the Chinese New Year holiday and there have been disruptions to both local and national transport networks,\u00a0labour\u00a0availability and enforced shutdowns at facilities, a new market report by Roskill found.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWhile temporary closures are not uncommon around Chinese New Year celebrations, the widespread prolonged nature of the closure, compounded by disruption to distribution networks, has caused concerns over the supply of Chinese rare earths both domestically and internationally,\u201d Roskill\u2019s David Merriman wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p> At the beginning of February 2020, 70\u201380% of capacity at rare earth processing facilities is estimated to have been suspended \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>At the beginning of February 2020, 70\u201380% of capacity at rare earth processing facilities is estimated to have been suspended for a period, representing roughly 80-100ktpy REO of reported processing capacity for predominantly heavy rare earth products, the report found.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThough this may at first appear worrying, considering global refined production&nbsp;totalled&nbsp;173kt REO in 2019, in reality a significant portion of this capacity is redundant, representing outdated or unlicensed facilities, Merri Rare earth separation facilities in southern China have consistently reported capacity&nbsp;utilisation&nbsp;of below 40%, with many remaining mothballed since environmental controls were tightened in 2017-2018,\u201d Merriman wrote.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Disruption to Chinese transport networks, may&nbsp;impact the distribution of rare earth products to domestic and international customers, and many processing facilities had prepared inventory to meet orders ahead of planned closures in late January, the report read.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a result, there has been minimal impact on suppliers\u2019 ability to meet demand, indicated by only limited price reactions for rare earth products, with Dy oxide prices increasing only 2.6% between the start of January and mid-February 2020. The restart of production at those rare earth processing facilities with effective capacity is now being reported in southern provinces, most notably in Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces, with capacity expected to meet demand and minor restocking at end-users,\u201d Merriman wrote.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>(Read the<a href=\"https:\/\/roskill.com\/market-report\/rare-earths\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" full report here (opens in a new tab)\"> full report here<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new market report by Roskill looks at the impact of the disruptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168560"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1168560"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1168597,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168560\/revisions\/1168597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1168560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1168560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1168560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}