Rare Earth Smuggling Channel Survey: Complete Black Chain Has Been Formed

This year, China's rare earth has suddenly become hot, and the surge in share prices of major rare earth companies has made this once low-key industry exposed and sensitive, and has been eagerly concerned by the central government and the general public.

Smuggling is still the biggest problem in many sensitive problems in the rare earth industry. Recently, customs statistics show that every year in China Smuggling rare earth At least 20 thousand tons, but in recent three years, the amount of smuggled rare earth in China has been only about 16 thousand tons. It can be seen that the number of smuggling is large. This leads us to ask, how can a large-scale smuggling flow to overseas through a way? Dark Smuggling chain 。

　 Professional team operation smuggling

Although the Customs has made considerable efforts in cracking down on smuggling of rare earths, statistics from customs statistics show that the number of smuggling smuggled by customs is far less than that of smuggling. In recent years, rare earth smuggling is still rampant.

Baotou Iron and steel rare earth official told reporters that this is mainly because the rare earth ore and many other mineral species symbiosis or similar shape, easy to muddle through, which to the customs in the process of cracking down on rare earth smuggling increased difficulty.

"Because each kind of rare earth ore exists in different forms, the export of rare earth is mostly mixed in glass, diatomite, aluminum sulfate, iron ore and even marble, and so on, in the name of these goods to declare, so as to achieve fish and birds." A rare earth expert told reporters.

It is understood that as rare earth export quotas are getting smaller and fewer, enterprises with rare earth ore export qualification are also less and less. Most of the smuggling smuggling is through the way of fish, but smugglers are basically rare earth and trade experts. They are very familiar with the characteristics of rare earth and the customs declaration process. Although rare earth is a tax related commodity, it is an important strategic resource for the state to strictly control export. However, once it becomes a rare earth alloy and mixed with other substances, the customs will find it difficult to investigate and deal with it.

"In the trading companies in Baotou, as long as there are some rare earth relations, it is not difficult to smuggle rare earths, and it is very profitable." Baotou a foreign trade company official told reporters.

According to the source, he has now made some rare earth professionals and intends to increase the export business of rare earths. "It's hard to say that it's smuggling. Many people are mixing rare earth ores with other substances to export abroad. This customs is not easy to check."

The personage also introduces that many trade companies specializing in rare earth smuggling are in fact pure intermediaries. Intermediaries are responsible for purchasing rare earth ores from rare earth production places, and then paying higher agency fees to cooperative custom brokers company.

If we are familiar with some rare earth professionals in the industry, we can also recognize some customs personnel and directly export rare earth ores through the relationship. "But this year, as we get stricter and stricter, customs officers are becoming more cautious and less and less." The source said. {page_break}

　 Mining confusion, smuggling loopholes

In addition to being easily confused, there is another difficulty in smuggling rare earth smuggling, that is, there are still problems in source control, which provides unlimited possibilities for smuggling of rare earth elements.

Take Baotou as an example, although the area is the main source of rare earth, the local government has absorbed all the rare earth resources into Baotou Steel Rare Earth, but the phenomenon of overexploitation has never stopped.

"There is no way, there are always some small and medium-sized rare earth companies abusing chaos, and Baotou Iron and steel because of iron ore and rare earth ore symbiosis, with the exploitation of iron ore, synchronous mining of rare earth ore is also a lot of these rare earth mines in a variety of ways to lose to some small and medium-sized rare earth enterprises, and these enterprises low manufacturing costs, through simple processing into primary products, it has become the source of smuggling rare earth." The head of Baotou Steel Rare Earth factory told the China Times reporter.

This person believes that although Baotou and Jiangxi and other local governments have been cracking down on private mining rare earth resources in recent years and have lost a lot of them, the phenomenon of excessive exploitation still exists. In fact, mining rare earth resources in private is not easy to operate, because the mining work needs time and large equipment, and it is very difficult to operate if it is not collusion between inside and outside. The loss of Baotou Steel rare earth mine was mainly due to its limited capacity to handle rare earth minerals in the past few years, so it was sold to small and medium-sized rare earth enterprises at a low price. But in recent years, rare earth resources are becoming more and more intense, and the government management is becoming more and more severe. However, there is still a drain problem, which is the internal problem.

"The central government should pay more attention to the problem of rare earth private mining in the main producing areas of rare earth. We should send relevant departments in charge to supervise the local governments, thoroughly investigate the indiscriminate exploitation and eliminate the smuggling of rare earths from the source." This person thinks. {page_break}

　　 Overseas demand Impulse to smuggle

Behind the rare-earth smuggling impulse is the question of the limitation of China's rare earth export quotas.

This year, the Ministry of Commerce for the first time reduced the export quota of rare earths for the first time. According to the rare earth export quota document of 2010, the total quota of rare earth export this year is 30 thousand and 258 tons, which is nearly 40% less than that of 5.01451 tons in 2009.

"There are few enterprises that have export quotas, and now China's rare earths are basically prohibiting exports." Lin Donglu, Secretary General of the China Rare Earth Society, said that China, which owns rare earth resources, has been "cheated" because of its indiscriminate exploitation and market chaos. China has reduced the export quota of rare earth elements, and is also trying to integrate the chaos in the domestic rare earth industry.

The reduction of China's rare earth exports has led to an increase in demand for Japan's long-term reliance on Chinese rare earths, as well as in the United States and some European countries, which has provided the market for China's rare earth smuggling, in which Japan and South Korea are also large demand for rare earths.

According to Qingdao customs insider told reporters that the recent seizure of smuggled rare earth is mostly smuggled to Japan.

Baotou Iron and steel insiders told reporters that in fact, many Japanese and Japanese enterprises, especially Japanese enterprises, have been in recent years through the way of cooperation with Chinese enterprises, in China, the rare earth raw ore has been processed into semi finished products through simple processing, and then imported to Japan to extract rare earth elements. In this way, Japanese enterprises not only left the pollution of rare earth ore processing in China but also imported rare earth elements cheap.

"In recent years, the Chinese government has discovered the way to manage the rare earth mines and related joint ventures seriously after the discovery of the Japanese and Korean enterprises. At present, it is not easy for Japanese and Japanese enterprises to get rare earth semi finished products, but there is still a large demand for rare earth resources, thus increasing the import price is also the driving force for the smuggling of rare earth." The Baotou Steel Rare Earth people said.

However, according to a person in charge of Baotou Iron and steel company, China has not yet restricted the export of rare earth alloys, and has processed rare earth raw materials into rare earth alloys and exported them to foreign countries. The countries with advanced rare earth separation technologies such as Japan can also extract rare earth elements, which is also a way of losing rare earth resources.

A few days ago, the reporter learned from the Ministry of industry and information that the government attaches great importance to the issue of rare earth exports and smuggling, and is studying the relevant policies to deal with rare earth smuggling, and will require more ministries to cooperate with customs operations. Among them, the government will further integrate the elimination of some small and medium-sized rare earth mines, and will further strengthen the qualification of rare earth export enterprises.