Key takeaways

China’s export restrictions on yttrium continue to significantly limit global yttrium supply. While there was some improvement in Chinese exports in late 2025, the more stringent restrictions on shipments to Japan (introduced in early 2026) led to a renewed curtailment in global trade flows. The most consistent post-export control shipment volumes were to the European Union and Korea, though exports to those destinations were not enough to offset the decline in shipments to other regions.

Introduction

China’s exports of rare earth compounds and metals subject to export controls fell substantially following the implementation of China’s export controls in April 2025 and remain low by historical standards, as detailed by Silverado in its monthly rare earth dashboard . Yttrium exports accounted for the largest volume of exports (in Chinese tariff lines fully covered by export controls) prior to April 2025 and were significantly impacted by Chinese export controls. This post, a supplement to the monthly rare earth dashboard, provides additional analysis on China’s yttrium exports.

The data in this post differs from the monthly rare earth dashboard in a few ways:

• The dashboard provides more long-term historical data.
• The data are aggregated on a quarterly basis, making it easier to identify long-term trends.
• Unlike the Silverado rare earth dashboard, all data are also converted to yttrium oxide equivalent, allowing for comparison of the yttrium content of exported products (see note below).
• One additional yttrium product, other yttrium compounds, is included in the data here, but is not included in the yttrium breakout in the monthly dashboard since it is only partially covered by export controls. (There is only a small volume of trade in this product.)

Note: Rare earths are produced and sold in various forms, such as metals, oxides, and carbonates, as well as combined with other rare earths or chemical compounds. These different forms have varying concentrations of the specific rare earth element. For example, yttrium accounts for 79 percent of the weight of yttrium oxide, but only 50 percent of the weight of yttrium carbonate. In order to measure mineral volumes on a comparable basis, therefore, they are often converted to the rare earth oxide equivalent (in this case yttrium oxide equivalent). While it is not possible to do this conversion in Silverado’s monthly dashboard due to basket categories that contain more than one product, for this yttrium-specific analysis the data are converted to yttrium oxide equivalent to better compared the amount of yttrium traded.

Export trend

China’s yttrium exports—as measured by metric tons of yttrium oxide equivalent—significantly declined following China’s implementation of export controls in April 2025 (figure 1). China’s yttrium exports increased from Q2 2025 to close to typical historical levels by Q4 2025. ¹ In early 2026, however, China imposed additional restrictions on exports of dual-use goods to Japan and reportedly slowed approvals of new export licenses. ² This led to a sharp decline in exports to Japan and a fall in overall exports, since Japan was the largest export destination in the second half of 2025. ³

Figure 1: China’s yttrium exports, by destination, metric tons of yttrium oxide equivalent

Exports by country

China’s yttrium exports historically went primarily to four destinations: Japan, the United States, the European Union, and Korea (figures 1 and 2). After April 2025, shipments to the United States were very limited, while there was significant recovery in the supply to the other three major partners in the third and fourth quarters of 2025. In 2026, with the implementation of more stringent controls on exports to Japan, shipments to Japan fell sharply. Exports to the United States also remained low in the first half of 2026, with the exception of a brief one-month uptick in exports in March 2026. On the other hand, the European Union and Korea received the most volume in the first half of 2026. In the second quarter of 2026, there was also an increase in exports to Vietnam and Russia. ⁴

Figure 2: China’s yttrium exports to top pre-export control destinations, metric tons of yttrium oxide equivalent

Exports by product

Yttrium oxide historically accounted for the largest share of yttrium exports, followed by yttrium carbonate (figure 3). Following the implementation of export controls, China primarily exported yttrium oxide, with unalloyed yttrium metal accounting for the second largest volume of yttrium exports. China only exported a minimal amount of yttrium carbonate following the implementation of export controls. ⁵

Figure 3: China’s yttrium exports, metric tons of yttrium oxide equivalent

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