Constantine Karayannopoulos, the chief executive of Neo Material Technologies, also notes that Chinese exporters are only shipping out 20,000 to 25,000 tons of their quotas this year due to lower demand. The Chinese Commerce Ministry has penalized exporters that have not used up their full quotas by lowering quotas for next year. Consequently, the global rare earths market may see another shrink in supply next year, Karayannopoulos added.
Industry estimates put annual demand outside of China just below 40,000 tons.
Market Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF
For more information on rare earths, visit our rare earth metals category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.