THE country’s rare earth exports rose by 9 percent in June from May, customs data showed Friday, snapping two months of declines that had stoked worries over supply from the world’s top producer of the materials amid the Sino-U.S. trade dispute.

Exports of the group of 17 chemical elements used in everything from high-tech consumer electronics to military equipment came in at 3,966 tons last month, according to General Administration of Customs data.

That was up from 3,640 tons in May, which was down sharply from April. June’s figure was down 27.3 percent from a revised figure of 5,455 tons for June last year.

For the first half of 2019, exports totalled 23,232 tons, down 11.3 percent year on year, the data showed.

China has raised the prospect of limiting rare earth exports to the United States in retaliation for U.S. tariffs levied in a trade dispute between the two countries, but has not announced any restrictions.

“It indicates that global buyers are confident prices will not spike outside their comfort zones, otherwise we would have expected to see them stocking up as the recent price rally kicked off in March,” said Ryan Castilloux, managing director of consultancy Adamas Intelligence.

China’s rare earth export volumes tend to fluctuate considerably, having been as high as 5,421 tons as recently as December and as low as 2,886 tons in February.(SD-Agencies)