The Global Rare Earth Industry Association (REIA) was established at the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) raw materials organization headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. REIA is a Brussels-based international rare earth association that provides an interoperable platform for rare earth-related companies to mitigate business risks in the rare earth value chain and provides members with assistance in the environment, technology and market dynamics related to rare earth.

Three India state-owned companies are planning a joint venture to secure rare earth and minor metals such as lithium and cobalt that could promote the plan of electric vehicles by 2030 in India.

For mass adoption of EVs, Indian companies National Aluminum, Hindustan Copper and Mineral Exploration Corp. plan to mine metals used in EV batteries in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and other countries, and to build strategic reserves of tungsten, nickel and rare earths.

Experts say India's efforts to secure supplies of minor metals are crucial as China threatens to restrict rare earth exports as part of its escalating trade war with the United States.

Seventeen rare earth metals, including neodymium and dysprosium, are used in everything from drones to hard disk drives and electric motors to home appliances. Protecting these metals is crucial for India as it expands its use and manufacturing, which will eventually include mass production of EVs.

India purpose to have EVs as 30% of its new vehicle in 2030.

At present, India imports most of the finished rare earths as electric car manufacturing is still in its infancy. Total consumption in the fiscal year ending March 2016 was 31.9 tons, according to the bureau of mines.

India's total rare-earth imports by 2016 are estimated at $3.4m, of which $3.3m came from China, followed by Hong Kong and South Africa.

MIT's recent press release describes MIT and Chinese researchers’ efforts to develop a new version of the molybdenum-sulfur cathode. All three components of lithium-ion batteries have been thoroughly studied to find ways to increase not only the energy output per pound (weight energy density), but also the energy density per liter (volume energy density). These two goals are often difficult to achieve at the same time. Nevertheless, in the announcement, the team described their concept as a "hybrid" cathode. This is because it combines the aspects of two different methods to increase the energy density of weight and volume. The new cathode incorporates both a type of molybdenum sulfide called Chevrel-phase, and pure sulfur, and the results suggest in both gravimetric and volumetric energy densities can be achieved.

The new hybrid cathode provides encouraging results. According to news reports, "today's commercial lithium-ion batteries have energy densities of about 250 Watt hours per kilogram and 700 watt hours per liter, while lithium-sulfur batteries can reach up to 400 watt hours per kilogram, but are limited to 400 watt hours per liter. The researcher Li said that the initial version of the new version has not yet through the optimization process and has reached more than 360 watt-hours per kilogram and 581 watt-hours per liter. In terms of the combination of these energy densities, it can defeat lithium-ion batteries and lithium-sulfur batteries.

With further work, Li said, "We think we can reach 400 watt-hours per kilogram and 700 watt-hours per liter." The latter figure is comparable to that of lithium ions. One reason the results look promising is the way they are studied. Instead of testing small button batteries with a capacity of just a few milliamp-hours, the team produced three-layer bag batteries with a capacity of more than 1,000 milliamp-hours. By building test batteries comparable to some commercial batteries, such as those used in electric vehicles, they can better evaluate the performance of new hybrid cathodes. Further work will include improving the number of charge-discharge cycles that batteries can experience before losing too much power. "It's not a cathode problem," Li said; it's related to the overall battery design, and we're working on it. 

Recently, a team of materials scientists at the University of Connecticut has stretched nano tungsten selenide to improve its performance by special methods. This research will prove that nano tungsten selenide can be used in flexible electronic devices and optical sensors.

Dark trions in an ultraclean single-layer tungsten diselenide (WSe2) semiconductor could increase the capacity and alter the form of information transmission, a feat that has been developed by a research team led by physicists at the University of California, Riverside.

Analysis of latest tungsten market from Chinatungsten Online

The ferro tungsten and tungsten ammonium paratungstate(APT) prices in China are unchanged from the previous trading day mainly because of deadlocked supply and demand, and low trading activity in the market. 

Rare earth market quotation in China: the latest prices of praseodymium oxide, neodymium oxide drop slightly while cerium oxide price remains unchanged. At the beginning of this week, the listing prices in the South Rare Earth has been slightly weakened, which fits the current mentality of the spot market.

Chinese molybdenum market remained stable with the support of firm prices of molybdenum concentrate and active inquiry for ferro molybdenum. Sellers now have strong rised mentality while downstream still is cautious. As a result, transactions are hardly concluded at high prices. 

Global molybdenum production remained unchanged in the first quarter of 2019 compared with the same period last year, while global use fell 7%, according to data released July 10 by the International Molybdenum Association (IMOA). Global production was 137.9 million pounds in the first quarter, down 12% from the previous quarter.

China remains the largest producer of molybdenum, with production of 51.5 million pounds. That's up 11% from the same quarter in 2018, but down 13% from the previous quarter. South America is the second largest producer, producing 43.3 million pounds, down 10% from the same period in 2018 and 15% from the previous quarter. North American production increased 1 percent to 33.4 million pounds from a year earlier, although it was down 9% from the previous quarter. Production in other countries held steady at 9.7 million pounds compared with the previous quarter, although it was down 4% from the same period last year.

Global usage fell 7% to 136.6 million pounds from the same period last year, and 1% from the previous quarter. China is still the biggest user at £44.5m, although it was down 18% on the same period last year and down 6% in the previous quarter. Europe was the second largest user at 37.3 million pounds, up 2% from the same period last year and 5% from the previous quarter. Japan used 13.7 million pounds, down 2% from the same period last year but up 1% from the previous quarter. Usage in the United States fell 9% to 13.5 million pounds from the same period last year and was down 10% from the previous quarter. Compared with the same period last year, CIS countries saw the largest increase in usage, with 9% to 5.6 million pounds, up 7% from the previous quarter. Other countries used 21.9 million pounds. That was down 1% from a year earlier, but up 2% from the previous quarter.

From May to June, China’s rare earth exports rose by 9%, According to customs data on last Friday. Amid Sino-US trade disputes, a two-month decline has raised concerns about supplies from the world's largest producer of materials.

According to the data from general administration of customs. 3,966 tons of products containing 17 chemical elements, from high-tech consumer electronics to military equipment, were exported last month.

Figure of June was down 27.3% from a revised figure of 5455 tons for June last year. That was still up from 3640 in May, which was down sharply from April. Exports down 11.3% year-on-year by totaled 23232 tons, for the first half of 2019, the data showed.

China's rare earth exports have fluctuated sharply, recently reaching 5,421 tons in December and as low as 2,886 tons in February.

China has raised the prospect of restricting rare earth exports to the United States in retaliation for U.S. tariffs imposed in the tit-for-tat trade war, but has not publicly announced any restrictions.