MOFCOM/GACC Announcement No. 33 of 2024 on export controls on antimony and related items

Announced 15 August 2024 and effective 15 September 2024, the measure placed antimony-related items — ore and raw materials, metal and products, oxides (99.99% and above), organic antimony compounds, hydrides, indium antimonide, and gold-antimony refining/separation technology — onto the dual-use export-control list, alongside superhard-materials equipment (six-sided presses with cylinder diameter of at least 500 mm or design pressure of at least 5 GPa, MPCVD equipment, and diamond window materials). Exporters must obtain MOFCOM licenses; it is a licensing regime, not an outright ban, and the announcement text names no specific country.

Extended China's dual-use licensing architecture to antimony — a metal critical to munitions, flame retardants and photovoltaics, where China holds a dominant mine-and-refining share — roughly four months before the 3 December 2024 measure singled out antimony (with gallium and germanium) for a ban on exports to the United States. USGS reporting attributes a near-doubling of the antimony metal price (July–November 2024) to the announcement. The announcement's justification clause is coded as a framing claim from the primary.