China's export controls see April rare earth shipments tumble on month
BEIJING - China's exports of rare earths in April fell 15.6% from the month before after the country, which dominates global supply, announced controls on shipments of some of the critical minerals.
China's exports of the group of 17 minerals stood at 4 785 metric tons last month, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Friday.
That compared to 4 566 t in the same month in 2024, and 5 666 t in March.
Beijing announced on April 4 it was placing seven categories of medium and heavy rare earths - samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium-related items - on its export restriction list with immediate effect.
Shipments of the seven rare earths placed on the export control list have ground to halt, Reuters reported last month.
In the first four months of 2025, exports rose 5.1% compared to the year before to 18 962 t, the customs data showed.
China's rare earths imports last month slid nearly 4% on the year to 12 623 t.
Total imports in the first four months of this year dropped 23.6% from the year before to 37 302 t, the customs data showed.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation