The Chinese Xi administration may choose to leverage its state dominance of rare-earth elements to better balance the current Sino-U.S. trade war.

Dan Rochefort

2019-06-13 10:26:00 Thu ET

The Chinese Xi administration may choose to leverage its state dominance of rare-earth elements to better balance the current Sino-U.S. trade war. In recent times, President Xi visits a Jiangxi hardware factory that spins rare earth elements into permanent magnets in iPhones, electric cars, wind turbines, and military missiles. China monopolizes 80% of the strenuous extraction of 17 vital rare-earth elements for ubiquitous applications from consumer electronic technology to military defense. Although the raw ores are as common as copper and lead, rare-earth ores oxidize quickly and their extraction can cause severe pollution. With its low labor costs and lax environmental regulations, China has become the dominant force in the rare-earth market since the 1980s. With almost half of global rare-earth deposits, China produces 120,000 metric tons of rare-earth per annum, or about 80% of the global supply. Australia is the second largest supplier of only 20,000 metric tons of rare-earth per year.

The Chinese Xi administration has a strategic incentive to reduce the quota of rare-earth elements for better environmental protection. The next quota reset is due in June 2019, and this reset can indicate whether China intends to leverage its rare-earth quasi-monopoly to counteract the Trump tariff tactic.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

The financial services industry needs fewer banks worldwide.

Daphne Basel

2022-08-30 10:32:00 Tuesday ET

The financial services industry needs fewer banks worldwide.

The financial services industry needs fewer banks worldwide. As long as banks have existed in human history, their managers have realized how not all dep

+See More

American China-specialists champion the key notion of *strategic engagement* with the Xi administration.

James Campbell

2018-12-11 10:34:06 Tuesday ET

American China-specialists champion the key notion of *strategic engagement* with the Xi administration.

Several eminent American China-specialists champion the key notion of *strategic engagement* with the Xi administration. From the Hoover Institution at Stan

+See More

Apple files an appeal to overturn the recent iPhone sales ban in China due to its patent infringement of Qualcomm proprietary technology.

Jonah Whanau

2018-12-17 08:43:00 Monday ET

Apple files an appeal to overturn the recent iPhone sales ban in China due to its patent infringement of Qualcomm proprietary technology.

Apple files an appeal to overturn the recent iPhone sales ban in China due to its patent infringement of Qualcomm proprietary technology. This recent ban of

+See More

Platform enterprises leverage network effects, scale economies, and information cascades to boost exponential user growth.

Fiona Sydney

2020-05-28 15:37:00 Thursday ET

Platform enterprises leverage network effects, scale economies, and information cascades to boost exponential user growth.

Platform enterprises leverage network effects, scale economies, and information cascades to boost exponential business growth. Laure Reillier and Benoit

+See More

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin indicates that the Trump team puts the trade war with China on hold.

Olivia London

2018-05-19 09:29:00 Saturday ET

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin indicates that the Trump team puts the trade war with China on hold.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin indicates that the Trump team puts the trade war with China on hold. The interim suspension of U.S. tariffs should offer in

+See More

Conor McGregor learns a major money lesson from LeBron James.

Daisy Harvey

2019-08-07 12:33:00 Wednesday ET

Conor McGregor learns a major money lesson from LeBron James.

Conor McGregor learns a major money lesson from LeBron James. This lesson suggests that James spends about $1.5 million on his own body each year. The $1.5

+See More