[Hardware] China has a plan to assert its dominance of rare earths

[ぁ Ꭷbito-]

China currently produces 70% of rare earths and controls 90% of the processing industry.
The US and its allies have launched a plan to reduce their dependence on the country led by Xi Jinping. China dominates the rare earths industry with indisputable force. According to the US Geological Survey, for many years it has produced more than 90% of this valuable resource. In 2022 its market share was reduced to 70%, but it was not due to a decrease in production; This drop had its origin in the increase in the production quota of rare earths experienced by Australia, Vietnam and Myanmar, among other countries. To this peculiar group of chemical elements belong some metals that are as elusive and have names as suggestive as neodymium, promethium, gadolinium, yttrium or scandium, among others. Some of them are relatively rare, and, furthermore, they are not usually found in pure form in nature, but what makes them so special are their physicochemical properties.

Its characteristics are outside the reach of the other elements of the periodic table, which has caused it to consolidate in recent decades as a very valuable resource in numerous industries, but especially in electronics and renewable energies. And they are involved, for example, in the manufacture of hybrid and electric car engines, batteries, catalysts, lasers, fiber optics, LCD panels, and even wind turbines. China's rare earth production quota during 2023 is likely to be similar to that of 2022, putting this Asian country in a very comfortable position. And it is evident that with a production of 70% of the global market and a control of 90% of the rare earth processing industry, China has this market absolutely controlled. On December 21, the Administration led by Xi Jinping decided to restrict the export of some of its rare earth processing technologies, giving shape to a clear maneuver that seeks to defend its strategic interests in the midst of confrontation with the United States and its allies.

In the current situation, the US, Europe, Japan or Australia do not seem willing to sustain this dependence on China much longer. One of the strategies on the table is to reduce the use of rare earths as much as possible by replacing them with other raw materials. It is not easy to carry out, but in some use scenarios it is possible, although it usually requires investing a lot of resources in R&D. Tesla, for example, has confirmed that its next generation of electric motors will incorporate magnets in which rare earth elements will not be present (although we still do not know how it has managed to do without them).

 

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