The China Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Bureau, a unit of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, granted import allowances for 10,423 mt of high-grade copper scrap to 14 companies in the latest release, bringing the cumulative quotas for this year to 540,184 mt.

Jiangsu Tafel New Energy Technology on May 17 kicked off construction of its phase II and III capacity of a power battery project, which is located at the Jiangning Development Zone, Nanjing.  

Prices of most light and medium-to-heavy rare earth oxides increased last week as sellers firmed up offers on active enquiries by downstream consumers. SMM expects the improvement in enquiries to continue to support prices of medium-to-heavy rare earth oxides this week, while prices of light rare earth, such as praseodymium-neodymium oxide, will likely pull back as the strength of demand may unable to sustain a price rally. 

Prices of praseodymium-neodymium oxides, a type of light rare earth, increased for the fifth consecutive day as of May 14, lifted by stepped-up downstream stockpiling as demand resumes with the fading impact of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Southwest China's Yunnan province has unveiled detailed allocation of its first batch of rare earth and tungsten mining output quotas for this year. According to a circular issued by the province’s Department of Natural Resources on Wednesday, Yunnan issued 2,615 mt of mining quotas for tungsten concentrate and 12 mt for rare earth in the first batch for 2020.

China Southern Rare Earth Group, one of the six, state-owned rare earth mining groups in China, has raised the weekly listed prices for gadolinium oxide and holmic oxide while cut prices of erbium oxide. Overall demand for medium-and-heavy rare earth oxides remained weak. 

China will step up its fixed-assets investment in rail infrastructure, with a number of local governments, including Shanghai and Guangzhou, confirming to boost their spending in the sector, as the country moves to tackle the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

East China's Jiangsu province will accelerate its investment in new infrastructure projects in 2020, a move aimed at expanding information consumption and supporting the development of 5G networks, local authorities said in a press conference on April 15. 

Chinese silicon plants may face difficulties to resume production as scheduled in the wet season starting from June as the global widespread COVID-19 has disrupted the supply chain and led to a shortage of raw material wood charcoal. SMM learned that most silicon plants have conducted maintenance and tried to secure feedstock for the preparation of resumption.

The state-owned China Southern Power Grid company has planned to accelerate its investment in new energy vehicle charging facilities in the coming years, as part of the move to develop "new infrastructure" projects for boosting sustainable growth of the economy.