China's rare earth stocks buck downward trend (2)

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.

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