China will lift restrictions a variety of products in the metal industry to foreign investment, including antimony, tungsten, molybdenum and tin.

On the second day after Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump agreed to restart stalled trade negotiations, new changes will take effect on July 30. The United States has been pushing China to allow more foreign investment and reduce state support for industry.

The move could encourage foreign companies to develop antimony resources in China. Foreign investment will help mines in Guangxi and other provinces to improve their mining technology, because the deposits in these areas are difficult to mine and extract because of their low metal grade and high impurity content.

The barrier to foreign investment in mining, tungsten exploration and concentration sector, but foreign investors will allowed to engage in production about higher value added materials, for example high-temperature resistance tungsten wires and other highly-processed products.

Restriction of exploration and mining for tin and molybdenum will be lifted. As the largest molybdenum producer in the world, the production in China accounts for 30-40% of globally.

China will keeping restrict mining of rare earth to the six large state-controlled companies, but will encourage foreign investment in high-end applications using rare earth as raw materials. Beijing opened the rare earth separation and smelting to foreign investment without any limits.

China has also expected new energy vehicles and intelligent vehicles to attract foreign funds. These productions use a lot of rare earths and battery metals, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese as feedstock.

China has decided to control the rare earth exports stricter and banned illegal trade. Tracking systems could be introduced into the rare earth industry to ensure compliance, an official said.

Wu Chenhui, an independent analyst of rare earth in Beijing said, China as the largest rare earth resources holder and producer, will keep supply for reasonable demand of the world market. "Besides, promoting the development of the rare-earth sector has been China's consistent policy, and further enhancing the supervision of the whole industry chain is needed, including producers and end users," he said. For tracking both sides, information might needs to be submitted.

Wu said the deposits constitute a strategic resource of special value that could be used by China as a countermeasure in the trade war with the United States.

Us defense companies are likely to be the first listed buyers to face a ban by China on rare earth exports, given the tough terms China faces, according to industry insiders.

Firmly opposes any attempts by any country to use products made with China's rare-earth resources to curb the nation's development, Meng Wei, spokesperson of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner said

To promote the development of the rare-earth industry, China will deploy effective methods including export restrictions and establishing a tracking mechanism, she noted.

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.