China tightens its grip on rare earths

[onebyone]

mining for rare earth elements in china
China has tightened its grip on the rare earth metals needed to make cars and gadgets after combining three companies into one giant business.
The new entity, called China Rare Earths, will report directly to the Communist government in Beijing and have considerable global clout.
It will control more than a third of the country’s rare earth mineral operations and about 70pc of production, prompting state media to describe it as an “aircraft carrier”.

Analysts said the move would allow China to strengthen its market dominance at a time when other countries are trying to become less reliant on it.
A British foreign policy think tank warned on Thursday that Beijing could turn its stranglehold on rare earths into a “geopolitical weapon”.
The merger will combine three of China’s “big six” rare earth mineral miners, Aluminium Corporation of China, China Minmetals Corporation and Ganzhou Rare Earth Group, along with the research firms China Iron & Steel Research Institute and Grinm Group Corporation.
Daan de Jonge, a consultant at CRU Group, said: "This will mean that the pricing power of key rare earths, such as dysprosium and terbium, will be in the hands of one super group.”
There are abundant deposits of rare earths globally but they are difficult to process.
Heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium are used in defence, technology and electric vehicles, while light ones such as neodymium and praseodymium are critical for motors, turbines and medical devices.
China controls around 90pc the global rare earths processing sector, resulting in an uneasy reliance on its services by countries such as the US, UK and Australia.
That has prompted Washington to seek to develop its own supply chains but experts say the effort could take years and may not succeed.
The Global Times newspaper, a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, quoted an expert saying China would not weaponise its mineral resources “unless it is forced to”.
However, the paper noted they would give the country greater clout in showdowns with “bullying” western countries.
Sam Armstrong of the Henry Jackson Society said: "China has never hidden its ambition to dominate the rare earth metals industries and any doubt about its objectives is evaporating.
“China aims to develop a stranglehold over the resources of the future which it can use in much the same way Russia uses its control of European gas supplies: a geopolitical weapon.”

China tightens its grip on rare earths

China has tightened its grip on the rare earth metals needed to make cars and gadgets after combining three companies into one giant business.

finance.yahoo.com

 

[Apollon]

mining for rare earth elements in china
China has tightened its grip on the rare earth metals needed to make cars and gadgets after combining three companies into one giant business.
The new entity, called China Rare Earths, will report directly to the Communist government in Beijing and have considerable global clout.
It will control more than a third of the country’s rare earth mineral operations and about 70pc of production, prompting state media to describe it as an “aircraft carrier”.

Analysts said the move would allow China to strengthen its market dominance at a time when other countries are trying to become less reliant on it.
A British foreign policy think tank warned on Thursday that Beijing could turn its stranglehold on rare earths into a “geopolitical weapon”.
The merger will combine three of China’s “big six” rare earth mineral miners, Aluminium Corporation of China, China Minmetals Corporation and Ganzhou Rare Earth Group, along with the research firms China Iron & Steel Research Institute and Grinm Group Corporation.
Daan de Jonge, a consultant at CRU Group, said: "This will mean that the pricing power of key rare earths, such as dysprosium and terbium, will be in the hands of one super group.”
There are abundant deposits of rare earths globally but they are difficult to process.
Heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium are used in defence, technology and electric vehicles, while light ones such as neodymium and praseodymium are critical for motors, turbines and medical devices.
China controls around 90pc the global rare earths processing sector, resulting in an uneasy reliance on its services by countries such as the US, UK and Australia.
That has prompted Washington to seek to develop its own supply chains but experts say the effort could take years and may not succeed.
The Global Times newspaper, a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, quoted an expert saying China would not weaponise its mineral resources “unless it is forced to”.
However, the paper noted they would give the country greater clout in showdowns with “bullying” western countries.
Sam Armstrong of the Henry Jackson Society said: "China has never hidden its ambition to dominate the rare earth metals industries and any doubt about its objectives is evaporating.
“China aims to develop a stranglehold over the resources of the future which it can use in much the same way Russia uses its control of European gas supplies: a geopolitical weapon.”

China tightens its grip on rare earths

China has tightened its grip on the rare earth metals needed to make cars and gadgets after combining three companies into one giant business.

finance.yahoo.com

Pretty much bullshit, since rare earth metals are not rare, its just that onl china invested in its mining. Just as russia this does not work as weapon since Europe will simply mine itself. Norway for example has gigantic rare earth deposits. Germany too.

 

[MH.Yang]

Pretty much bullshit, since rare earth metals are not rare, its just that onl china invested in its mining. Just as russia this does not work as weapon since Europe will simply mine itself. Norway for example has gigantic rare earth deposits. Germany too.

Rare earth ore is not rare, but heavy rare earth is rare. You'd better google which country produces heavy rare earths.

 

[ozranger]

Pretty much bullshit, since rare earth metals are not rare, its just that onl china invested in its mining. Just as russia this does not work as weapon since Europe will simply mine itself. Norway for example has gigantic rare earth deposits. Germany too.

Rare earth is not rare. However only China possesses full technology to process and refine the ores, covering the entire upstream and downstream production, up to end products phase. That's why China is also the biggest rare earth importer in the world.

I don't think China will cut the supply to the US. However the prices will be pushed up significantly.

 

[ARMalik]

Pretty much bullshit, since rare earth metals are not rare, its just that onl china invested in its mining. Just as russia this does not work as weapon since Europe will simply mine itself. Norway for example has gigantic rare earth deposits. Germany too.

Hello Genius !

 

[Stranagor]

Pretty much bullshit, since rare earth metals are not rare, its just that onl china invested in its mining. Just as russia this does not work as weapon since Europe will simply mine itself. Norway for example has gigantic rare earth deposits. Germany too.

It is more about price control than embargoing altogether.

 

[Apollon]

Rare earth is not rare. However only China possesses full technology to process and refine the ores, covering the entire upstream and downstream production, up to end products phase. That's why China is also the biggest rare earth importer in the world.

I don't think China will cut the supply to the US. However the prices will be pushed up significantly.

This would change quickly when china tries to use this as leverage. Its always like this. Such tricks only work once

 

[Stranagor]

This would change quickly when china tries to use this as leverage. Its always like this. Such tricks only work once

Would not be quick enough not to hurt. Basically, all sanctions regimes eventually wears off. Europe does have its share of mindless sanctions, too.

 

[ARMalik]

China has control of 85% of Rare Earth production and by controlling the supply chain and pricing, it will "weaponize" rare earths, and choke the US and others. It will provide cheaper access to its Local industry, and much more expensive to overseas making foreign products many times more expensive.

 

[zhxy]

Rare earth is not rare, sure. Rare earth molecules are everywhere on earth. The problem is that rare earth mine is not much, where is the position, exploiting, how to refine? Finally, China's rare earth is large but not infinite, China's rare earth resources are declining, and can be exhausted in the future. Even without export, rare earth is not enough for China's needs.

 

[ozranger]

This would change quickly when china tries to use this as leverage. Its always like this. Such tricks only work once

From what I've read from Internet about the rare earth market, same trick has worked successfully many times in real lives. Historically western competitors were wiped out by their Chinese counterparts in global competition on a couple of pricing rallies. As a consequence, they lost almost all their skilled labours as, in western capitalism, no one would like to keep paying the workers if there is no business. That is the hardest part for them to reconstruct the supply chains as currently western education systems cannot rapidly generate substantial substitutes in that direction.

This kind of pricing competition is more than usual everywhere in global markets. Western companies are doing exactly the same thing if they have better positions in the market.

BTW the current merger in China was intended to resolve internal competition and build a highly unified pricing structure.

 

[zhxy]

From what I've read from Internet about the rare earth market, same trick has worked successfully many times in real lives. Historically western competitors were wiped out by their Chinese counterparts in global competition on a couple of pricing rallies. As a consequence, they lost almost all their skilled labours as, in western capitalism, no one would like to keep paying the workers if there is no business. That is the hardest part for them to reconstruct the supply chains as currently western education systems cannot rapidly generate substantial substitutes in that direction.

This kind of pricing competition is more than usual everywhere in global markets. Western companies are doing exactly the same thing if they have better positions in the market.

BTW the current merger in China was intended to resolve internal competition and build a highly unified pricing structure.

China also has similar mistakes in the 90s when cutting investment in semiconductor projects and lithography. They think it can easily buy in the west. Chinese companies and businesses are not motivated to research and invest in this field because it is too difficult and not profitable, unable to compete with the West, they give up it.

Currently, along with US sanctions against ZTE and Huawei, and China spends more than $ 300 billion to enter chips from abroad every year. China realized it was their strategic mistake and started to correct.

 

[lcloo]

China should process rare earth material in Xinjiang province. Since US just banned all import of products from Xinjiang, they automatically banned themselves from importing rare earth material from China.

And that also applies for all allies of US that follows US's Xinjiang ban.

 

[925boy]

"Rare earth metals arent rare"

THEN TELL US ANOTHER COUNTRY other than China that exports them!! damn. North Korea also has alot of REM, and China might get imports of REM from NK.

 

[Nan Yang]

This would change quickly when china tries to use this as leverage. Its always like this. Such tricks only work once

So what has changed since 2010 ?
It's been almost 12 years.

Quote
Dispute arose when the Chinese government reduced its export quotas by 40% in 2010, sending the rare earths prices in the markets outside China soaring