Beijing (CNS) -- The General Administration of Customs of China (GACA) reinforced its crack-down on rare earth smuggling in the face of disturbing recent trends noted by Chinese and foreign customs, the agency announced Wednesday.
In several coastal provinces especially, the crack-down has made some progress. Shandong Province in east China ferreted out three cases of smuggling worth more than 200 million yuan (31.36 million USD) in 2011; Guangdong Province in the south recorded six worth 1.18 million yuan in the first 10 months; and Jiangsu Province in the east hunted down two involving 4.5 million yuan. In addition, administrative penalties of 19.31 million yuan were applied, said an official at the authority.
A blackmarket in rare earth exploitation and purchases have been spurred by rare earth prices that have jumped about three to four times on the international market, and so far seems more active in some southern provinces with rich resource reserves. A simple comparison between Chinese rare earth exports and foreign imports reached the conclusion that a strike against smuggling operations in China must be placed higher on the agenda.
