Chinese Rare Earths Monopoly

[Post To The Left]

While China doesn't have a monopoly on Rare Earths the media sure seems to think it does. Recently China has started restricting Rare Earth exports which has the media abuzz about Japan and Germany protests. Is this all media hype or are Rare Earth supply the next resource to start wars over?

[ToadBrother]

While China doesn't have a monopoly on Rare Earths the media sure seems to think it does. Recently China has started restricting Rare Earth exports which has the media abuzz about Japan and Germany protests. Is this all media hype or are Rare Earth supply the next resource to start wars over?

China may have a good share of the rare earths market, but it has its own lack of resources. This isn't so much a resource war, but a tit-for-tat with the US over long-standing trade barrier issues. I'm sure it will be resolved; the US will get needed rare earths, and even more Walmarts will be built.

[Bonam]

China is a major producer of rare earths right now. Doesn't mean these materials don't exist elsewhere. The total quantities of these elements used compared to more commonly used materials are so tiny that as long as there are one or two reliable sources of supply it's not profitable for others to carry out prospecting, research, and construction to compete for such a tiny market. But if China were to try something, there are plenty of other deposits elsewhere that could be exploited.

Really, nothing to worry about here.

[bjre]

Western country should stop robber China's Rare Earths, US has a lot of those resources, and many other countries have too, they should use their own to break the "Monopoly".

[bill_barilko]

Is this all media hype

Yup.

[TimG]

Really, nothing to worry about here.

Actually, there is a subtext worth thinking about. Rare earth production is expensive and extremely polluting. China was able to corner the market by undercutting suppliers who operated in countries with environmental regulations. One by one these suppliers shut down because they could not compete on cost. Now that we know it is an issue it could take 10-15 years to rebuild the industry outside of China.

The lesson is we should not become dependent on a single supplier for critical industries and technologies.

[Machjo]

China may have a good share of the rare earths market, but it has its own lack of resources. This isn't so much a resource war, but a tit-for-tat with the US over long-standing trade barrier issues. I'm sure it will be resolved; the US will get needed rare earths, and even more Walmarts will be built.

And Canada can definitely learn from China's example here. When the US trades unfairly with us, rather than place a tariff on the import of US products, why not place an export tax on Canada's material resources. It's a kind of tai chi whereby when the opponent pushes, instead of pushing back, we pull and thus throw him off balance because he would not have expected that. If the US introduces various rules to make it harder for Canada to export to the US, then let' conclude that the US doesn't want to import our goods and so we'll do the US a favour by reducing our export of material resources to them too.

I'm sure they'd change their mind quickly enough.