Rare earths firm to halt some operations

Baotou Steel Rare-Earth (Group) Hi-Tech Co, China's top rare earths producer, will halt some of its smelting and separation operations for a month in an effort to stabilize slumping prices, it said on Tuesday.

Domestic prices of rare earths, a group of 17 metals which are used in products from smartphones and wind turbines to hybrid cars, have tumbled by around 50 percent since the start of the year as a global economic slowdown hits demand.

"Demand for rare earths has weakened in the second half on the back of the economic slowdown, causing a sustained fall in prices," Baotou, based in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.