Steady demand seen for rare earths

China's Ministry of Commerce on Monday said it expected steady overseas demand for rare earths to continue next year.

The ministry made the statement while announcing the first round of 2014 export quotas for non-ferrous metals including rare earths and the list of enterprises eligible for exports earlier this month.

The export quota for the first round includes 13,314 metric tons of light rare earths and 1,796 tons of medium and heavy rare earth metals. The combined numbers are, however, slightly lower than last year's first export quota of 15,501 tons.

"The decrease is mainly because some of the quotas have not been distributed as some enterprises are still having problems relating to environmental protection or mines," said Shen Danyang, spokesman for the ministry.

Till October, China has exported 17,911 tons of rare earth, accounting for 57.8 percent of this year's total export quota.