China's Ministry of Finance said Monday the country's export tax on indium will be lowered to 2% in 2014 from the current 5%.
The cut follows years of lobbying by Chinese producers, who claim the tax has encouraged smuggling.
China imposed a 15% export tax on indium exports in January 2007, then lowered it to 5% in July 2009 in a bid to encourage indium exports after volumes were impacted by the global financial crisis.
The latest cut is unlikely to prompt a rise in indium exports, as China's domestic indium prices have been $50-200/kg higher than export prices in 2013.
The ministry also announced Monday that export tariffs for Chinese ferroalloys would remain unchanged in 2014 from the 2013 level.
Chinese ferrosilicon exports will continue to be taxed at 25%, while the export tax for other ferraolloys including ferromanganese, silicomanganese, ferrochrome, ferrotungsten and ferromoly will remain at 20%.
Chinese ferroalloy market sources had not been expecting a reduction as as the Chinese government does not encourage the export of heavy-polluting commodities and had earlier indicated it would continue to impose high taxes on major ferroalloys due to environmental concerns.
China has imposed taxes of 20-25% on exports of ferroalloy products since January 2008 as part of efforts to discourage exports of power-intensive, high polluting commodities.
The country's import and export tariffs on copper and aluminum products will also remain unchanged in 2014.
