Rare Earths in the Trade Dispute Between the US and China: A Déjà Vu

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.The trade dispute between the US and China has reached a point where export restrictions on rare earths have become a possible means for sanction. This contribution provides a succinct analysis of the current dependency of the US on rare earths from China and draws parallels to the events during the rare earth crisis of 2010 and 2011, which was caused by geopolitical tensions between Japan and China. Respective risks associated with restrictions on the trade of rare earths are considered. Findings suggest that Europe could be affected as well and should be better prepared to mitigate supply disruptions in rare earth trade. Potential mitigation strategies and consequences of the current developments for Europe are also discussed.

The Revised German Raw Materials Strategy in the Light of Global Political and Market Developments

“…In recent years, the United States has also intensified its activities under the Trump administration. Whereas the United States traditionally runs a—primarily militarily driven—strategic stockpiling program (National Research Council, 2008), the current U.S. administration seems to be willing to actively engage also in CRM production (Schmid, 2019b). The country is working on securing supply and decreasing dependency from imports, especially from China.…”

“…Current legislation puts an extensive focus on strengthening the supply chain of some of the most critical raw materials (Scheyder, 2019b). The United States has also re‐started its domestic rare earth production (Schmid, 2019b) and already is an important producer of some CRMs like beryllium (Lederer, Foley, Jaskula, & Ayuso, 2016). The U.S. government's Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) recently investigated possibilities of investing in United Kingdom's TechMet, a mining business company, and in a Tanzanian rare earth project (Chowdhury, 2019; Peak Resources, 2019).…”

Challenges to the European automotive industry in securing critical raw materials for electric mobility: the case of rare earths

“…Supply disruptions and price increases of several hundred percent were the consequences, causing insecurity in the global market. Consumers of REE s worldwide, in addition to bearing the high costs, were concerned that their supply could become endangered as well and were unsure, whether they could maintain production (Schmid, 2019a, 2020).…”

Concentration and Recovery of Valuable Heavy Minerals from Dredged Fine Aggregate Waste

“…That is why, some minerals as monazite, xenotime, rutile, ilmenite, etc., are considered valuable heavy minerals. For example, in 2018 the U.S. imported 18,500 t of total rare earth elements (TREE), represented $165 million [2], but China produced 70.59% of TREE in this year [3]. That makes TREE are considered critical metals for the European Union and U.S. Government [4,5].…”