Harz

Authorities said that a 46-year-old woman was fatally injured by a falling tree in the Harz mountains in northern Germany.

Harz said his Chinese suppliers were providing authorities with data needed to obtain export licences.

"My clients are not relaxed about this at all. There's now a burst of orders being placed to increase inventory levels. The industry is very much on edge," chief executive Michael Harz told Reuters.

The group, which traces its roots to a state-owned electronics factory in the former East Germany, has several months' worth of gallium in stock because it had long anticipated some form of trade crisis and has little else it can do to react, Harz said.

Harz does not believe that China will disrupt gallium trade flows over the next few years because that would quickly damage its own electronics industry.