From Mining.com, February 28:
The impact of the coronavirus has been felt on a range of markets as well as the macroeconomic performance of the Chinese economy during early 2020. The rare earths industry has not been exempted from these factors, as many Chinese processing facilities have reported prolonged closures after the Chinese New Year holiday and there have been disruptions to both local and national transport networks, labour availability and enforced shutdowns at facilities, a new market report by Roskill found.....MORE
“While temporary closures are not uncommon around Chinese New Year celebrations, the widespread prolonged nature of the closure, compounded by disruption to distribution networks, has caused concerns over the supply of Chinese rare earths both domestically and internationally,” Roskill’s David Merriman wrote.
At the beginning of February 2020, 70–80% of capacity at rare earth processing facilities is estimated to have been suspended for a period, representing roughly 80-100ktpy REO of reported processing capacity for predominantly heavy rare earth products, the report found....
