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

CNBC news anchor Becky Quick interviews Warren Buffett in light of the recent stock market gyrations and movements.

Becky Berkman

2018-04-05 07:42:00 Thursday ET

CNBC news anchor Becky Quick interviews Warren Buffett in light of the recent stock market gyrations and movements.

CNBC news anchor Becky Quick interviews Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett in light of the recent stock market gyrations and movements. Warren Buffett

+See More

Brent crude oil prices spike to $70-$75 per barrel after the Trump administration stops waiving economic sanctions on Iran.

Jacob Miramar

2019-05-13 12:38:00 Monday ET

Brent crude oil prices spike to $70-$75 per barrel after the Trump administration stops waiving economic sanctions on Iran.

Brent crude oil prices spike to $70-$75 per barrel after the Trump administration stops waiving economic sanctions on Iranian oil exports. U.S. State Secret

+See More

Buffett discusses Berkshire's cash ambition, its reinsurance business, and his succession plan.

Becky Berkman

2018-02-23 09:35:00 Friday ET

Buffett discusses Berkshire's cash ambition, its reinsurance business, and his succession plan.

Warren Buffett releases his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders as of February 2018. Buffett discusses Berkshire's core cash ambition, its

+See More

U.S. yield curve inversion can be a sign but not a root cause of the next economic recession.

Dan Rochefort

2019-09-19 15:30:00 Thursday ET

U.S. yield curve inversion can be a sign but not a root cause of the next economic recession.

U.S. yield curve inversion can be a sign but not a root cause of the next economic recession. Treasury yield curve inversion helps predict each of the U.S.

+See More

The Economist suggests that the world has learned few lessons of the global financial crisis from 2008 to 2009.

Becky Berkman

2018-09-07 07:33:00 Friday ET

The Economist suggests that the world has learned few lessons of the global financial crisis from 2008 to 2009.

The Economist re-evaluates the realistic scenario that the world has learned few lessons of the global financial crisis from 2008 to 2009 over the past deca

+See More

Warren Buffett invests in American stocks across energy, transport, and finance etc.

Daphne Basel

2017-07-07 10:33:00 Friday ET

Warren Buffett invests in American stocks across energy, transport, and finance etc.

Warren Buffett invests in American stocks across numerous industries such as energy, air transport, finance, technology, retail provision, and so forth.

+See More