China's rare earths are underpriced due to vicious competition and face low resource utilisation, which would lead to a race to the bottom, the country's industry minister said on Monday.
"Our rare earths did not sell at the 'rare' price but sold at the 'earth' price... because of competitive bidding, which wasted the precious resource," Xiao Yaqing from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said during a news briefing.Threats from China, the world's top producer of rare earths - a group of 17 minerals used in military equipment, consumer electronics and electric vehicles - to curb exports of the materials to the U.S.
The MIIT proposed in January to tighten regulation of the rare earths industry chain, including a stipulation that importers and exporters abide by foreign trade and export control laws. Meanwhile, the industry is also lacking high-level rare earth products, which is against technological innovation and progress, he added.
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