I. Export of rare earths
In 2021, China exported 48900 tons of rare earth products, an increase of 38 percent over the same period last year, with an export value of 4.22 billion yuan, an increase of 77.12 percent over the same period last year. Among them, the export of rare earth compounds was about 39500 tons, an increase of 34.93% over the same period last year, and the export volume was about 3.215 billion yuan, an increase of 76.29% over the same period last year, with an average price of 81.44 yuan / kg, an increase of 30.65%. The export of rare earth metals was about 9443 tons, an increase of 52.50% over the same period last year, and the export volume was about 1.005 billion yuan, an increase of 79.82% over the same period last year, with an average price of 106.42 yuan / kg, an increase of 17.92% over the same period last year.
There are 52 customs codes for rare earth products, including 42 for rare earth compounds and 10 for rare earth metals. A total of 41 customs-coded rare earth products were exported in 2021, as detailed in Table 2.
From the perspective of trading partners, China's rare earth products were exported to 66 countries and regions in 2021, an increase of 8 over 2020, as detailed in Table 3. Exports to EU countries are shown in Table 4. Table 5 shows the ranking of the registered places of China's rare earth export enterprises according to the number of exports.
II. Import of rare earths
In 2021, China imported 48 kinds of customs-coded rare earth products, the import quantity was 45700 tons (including 45500 tons of rare earth compounds and only 208tons of rare earth metals), the import volume was 6.677 billion yuan, the import volume decreased by 4.05% compared with the same period last year, and the import volume increased by 89.39% compared with the same period last year, as detailed in Table 6. Rare earth products are imported from 27 countries and regions, accounting for 94% of the total imports of the top three countries, including 76% of Myanmar, 11% of Malaysia and 7% of Vietnam, as detailed in Table 7.
III. Import of rare earth mineral products
The import of rare earth mineral products is shown in Table 8. The import of rare earth mineral products is theoretically equivalent to about 140000 tons of rare earth oxides. Among them, thorium ore and its concentrate, mixed rare earth carbonate, rare earth metal ore, unlisted rare earth oxide and compounds of unlisted rare earth metals and their mixtures can extract about 85700 tons of rare earth oxides, with a total import value of about 8 billion yuan. In theory, about 54700 tons of converted oxides of rare earth ores can be comprehensively recovered from zirconium ore and its concentrate, ilmenite and its concentrate.
From the import and export data, it can be seen that the import and export volume is equal, and the export volume is only about 3200 tons more than the import quantity, but the export amount is 2.457 billion yuan less than the import amount, and the export volume is only 63% of the import volume. In addition, the import value of major rare earth mineral products is about 8 billion yuan, of which rare earth metal ore and thorium ore and their concentrate import a total of 2.651 billion yuan. Generally speaking, China's international trade in rare earths has a deficit of 5.1 billion yuan. The import of rare earth products in China is characterized by imported rare earth mineral products, and the main reason for the rare earth trade deficit is the serious shortage of domestic rare earth mineral supply. non-mining enterprises need to import a large number of rare earth mineral products, and the high operation of the rare earth market in 2021 will inevitably lead to a substantial increase in the import of rare earth mineral products.
(China rare Earth Society, China rare Earth Industry Association)
