Rare earth output

THE Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said reports that it reduced rare earth output in the second half of 2018 to a five-year low of 45,000 tons are “inconsistent with facts,” the Shanghai Securities News reported.

Citing data from Adamas Intelligence, some media reports said that China was limiting domestic production of rare earth minerals in the second half of the year, in a move likely to crimp exports and boost prices.

Nuclear power

THE country’s 40 commercially operating nuclear reactors delivered a total of 193.77 billion kilowatt-hours of power to the grid in the first nine months of the year, up 13.3 percent from a year earlier, an industry group said.

In a report published late Tuesday, the China Nuclear Energy Association said total nuclear power generation amounted to 4.1 percent of the national total over the three quarters. China had aimed to lift total capacity to 58 gigawatts by the end of 2020, and have another 30 GW under construction.

WH Group profit dives

WH Group Ltd. said Tuesday its third-quarter net profit plunged 31 percent to US$199 million, as lower prices amid higher supplies dented the world’s top pork producer’s income in the United States.

WH Group, which owns U.S.-based Smithfield Foods Inc., said average pork prices in the United States dropped 11.9 percent in the first nine months of the year due to higher supplies. The company’s third-quarter net profit came in at US$199 million, a sharp dive from US$287 million a year ago. Henan Shuanghui Investment and Development Co., the group’s Chinese business, reported a 1.6-percent rise in net profit for the quarter at 1.24 billion yuan (US$178.14 million).