BEIJING - China's exports of rare earths in June reached 5,009 metric tons, up 17% from a year earlier, customs data showed on Thursday, its highest shipments since 5,551 metric tons in March 2020.

The figure comes after the world's top producer of rare earths raised this year's first batch of quotas for the minerals by 19% from last year.

Exports of the group of 17 minerals during the first six months of 2023 were the same as last year, at 26,236 metric tons, the data showed.

(Reporting by Dominique Patton; Additional reporting by Ningwei Qin; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Clarence Fernandez)