Mining of rare earths is conducted in Baiyunebo, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on July 16, 2011. File photo: VCG

Stocks of China's rare-earth companies rallied on Thursday after recent statistics showed a decrease of over one fifth in rare-earth magnets exports to the US in November. 

Stocks of rare-earth magnets companies opened high on Thursday with more than twenty companies' stocks rising. Ningbo Yunsheng Co and Rising Nonferrous Metal Shares Co, both saw their share prices increase by over 10 percent on Thursday morning. 

China's exports of rare-earth magnets to the US were down 21.2 percent month-on-month in November. This also represents a 3.2 percent drop year-on-year, according to statistics from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) on Wednesday.

China is currently the world's biggest producer and exporter of rare-earth magnets. Its total exports reached 2,891 tons in November, dropping 6.5 percent from October's 3,091 tons, according to GAC.

Half of China's demand for mid to heavy rare-metal material was met by imports from Myanmar in 2018, due to China's environmental concerns, according to a report by stcn.com. The port between China and Myanmar was shut down in December, after a shutdown in May which was followed by a sharp plummet in imports in some mixed rare-earth materials, the report said.

However, the authorities have raised the quota for domestic production for 2019, allowing 132,000 tons of rare-earth elements for exploration and 127,000 tons for extraction, reaching a historical high, according to a statement jointly released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Natural Resources

Rare earths include a total of 18 elements, and are widely used in the production of electronic devices and military equipment.