China's rare earth stocks buck downward trend

BEIJING - China's rare earth stocks bucked the downward trend of the broader markets on Tuesday after regulators gave the green light to the first batch of companies under the new rare earth industry entry requirements.

The seven qualified companies included a subsidiary of Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-earth Hi-tech Co, China's largest rare earth producer, according to a brief notice released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology late Monday.

Some key names in the sector posted modest gains in the morning session. REHT's share price climbed 0.51 percent to end the morning session at 33.56 yuan ($5.33). Rising Non-ferrous Metals Share Co added 1.92 percent to 43 yuan.

The sector has been weighed down this year, as rare earth prices fell from dizzying heights due to weakening demand amid sluggish global growth and new rare earth production coming online.

To shore up prices, many Chinese producers, including REHT, have announced production halts. Such moves have helped to boost prices of major rare earth products by as much as 20 percent from their lowest levels this month, according to baiinfo.com, a domestic industry information provider.

As the world's largest rare earth producer, China supplies more than 90 percent of global demand for the minerals, which are crucial in the production of a range of hi-tech commodities such as wind turbines, hybrid car batteries and smart phones.

China has announced various measures to control environmental damage during the mining and processing of the minerals, including new industry entry requirements, stricter emission standards, production caps and export quotas.

The new entry requirements for the rare earth industry, released in August, listed a series of rules for project set-up and layout, production scale, energy consumption and environmental protection.