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

Stock Synopsis: With a new Python program, we use, adapt, apply, and leverage each of the mainstream Gemini Gen AI models to conduct this comprehensive fundamental analysis of Cisco Systems (U.S. stock symbol: $CSCO).

Joseph Corr

2025-10-07 10:30:00 Tuesday ET

Stock Synopsis: With a new Python program, we use, adapt, apply, and leverage each of the mainstream Gemini Gen AI models to conduct this comprehensive fundamental analysis of Cisco Systems (U.S. stock symbol: $CSCO).

Stock Synopsis: With a new Python program, we use, adapt, apply, and leverage each of the mainstream Gemini Gen AI models to conduct this comprehensive fund

+See More

President Trump signs an executive order to freeze federal employee pay in early-2019.

Rose Prince

2019-01-06 08:39:00 Sunday ET

President Trump signs an executive order to freeze federal employee pay in early-2019.

President Trump signs an executive order to freeze federal employee pay in early-2019. Federal employees face furlough or work without pay due to the govern

+See More

San Francisco Fed CEO Mary Daly suggests that trade escalation is not the only risk in the global economy.

Rose Prince

2019-06-19 09:27:00 Wednesday ET

San Francisco Fed CEO Mary Daly suggests that trade escalation is not the only risk in the global economy.

San Francisco Fed CEO Mary Daly suggests that trade escalation is not the only risk in the global economy. Due to the current Sino-U.S. trade tension, the g

+See More

Smart firms and customers connect the continuous flow of lean production to the lean consumption of cost-effective minimum viable products.

Olivia London

2020-07-26 15:29:00 Sunday ET

Smart firms and customers connect the continuous flow of lean production to the lean consumption of cost-effective minimum viable products.

Firms and customers create value and wealth together by joining the continual flow of small batches of lean production to the lean consumption of cost-effec

+See More

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink suggests that corporations should make a positive contribution to society apart from boosting the bottomline.

Olivia London

2018-01-09 08:33:00 Tuesday ET

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink suggests that corporations should make a positive contribution to society apart from boosting the bottomline.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink emphasizes his key conviction that public corporations should make a positive contribution to society apart from boosting the botto

+See More

World Economic Forum warns that artificial intelligence may destabilize the financial system.

Jonah Whanau

2018-08-19 10:34:00 Sunday ET

World Economic Forum warns that artificial intelligence may destabilize the financial system.

The World Economic Forum warns that artificial intelligence may destabilize the financial system. Artificial intelligence poses at least a trifecta of major

+See More