The China Tungsten Industry Association announced on Wednesday that the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has issued the first batch of tungsten product export quotas to domestic companies for this year, allocating 10785.55 tonnes of tungsten metal content in a variety of forms, down 10.2% when compared with last year's first batch of quotas. 

Over 51% of the export quotas released as part of the first batch concerns tungsten trioxide and blue tungsten oxide. Other forms of tungsten exports that make up the first batch of quotas include ammonium paratungstate (APT) and ammonium metatungstate (AMT), which together make up 21.27% of the total tonnage, tungstenic acid and tungstate, accounting for 11.05%, while tungsten concentrate and tungsten products make up 16.42%.

MOFCOM announced on Thursday that the quotas were calculated and split among domestic companies based on outputs of tungsten precursors, derivatives and products between 2004 and 2006 and export volumes and values from 2005 to October 2007. 

"Though the quotas for tungsten exports in the first batch have dipped by more than 10% year-on-year, the quota for the whole year is set at 14,900 tonnes, only 2.6% down from that of 2007. China is gradually reducing its trade surplus and excessive exports of various resources," Yang Zhaohui, an analyst with Beijing Antaike Information, said.

"The second batch of export quotas for tungsten will be released, as usual, later in the year, around October," he said.

Domestic companies granted the right to export tungsten precursors, derivatives and products include tungsten producers like Jiangxi Tungsten Group, Zhuzhou Cemented Carbide Group, Xiamen Tungsten, Sichuan Zigong Cemented Carbide Group as well as tungsten exporters China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Co. Ltd. and Sinochem International Corp. 

In June 2007, China made plans to increase the export tax on tungsten products in an attempt to combat illegal mining and protect scarce mineral resource.

The market digested increases in export taxes on ammonium paratungstate (APT), tungsten oxide, tungsten powder and unwrought tungsten products from a current 5% to 10% and increase the tax on ferrotungsten exports from a current 10% to 15%.

China imposed export taxes varying from 5% to 15% on primary tungsten products on Jan. 1 this year, including APT, tungsten carbonate, tungsten powder, ferrotungsten and scrap tungsten.

The government has also cancelled export tax rebates on tungsten products and banned tungsten concentrate tolling.

China is the world's largest tungsten producer and exporter.