Europe is feeling the pressure from China as the Asian nation has curbed its rare-earth mineral exports to foreign nations. The European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity declared that the teams are working to diversify its rare-earth mineral supplies to other nations, while China controls majority of the supply, reported the news portal CNBC.
European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Valdis Dombrovskis, notified the news portal that the European Union (EU) requireds to diversify its rare earth and critical minerals supplies, while highlighting that the bloc currently depfinishs more than 90% on rare earth supplies from China.
“I also would declare it emphasises the required for the EU to diversify its rare earth and critical minerals supplies, becautilize of many on those rare earths, we are depfinishing more than 90% on China’s supplies,” Dombrovskis notified the news portal.
Dombrovskis highlighted how China has now suspfinished its additional export controls, which gives Europe time to hunt for other rare-earth mineral supply options to reduce its depfinishence on the Asian nation.
“I would declare there is some positive news, so China has suspfinished now for 12 months those additional export controls, which were announced in October, which gives us some time,” Dombrovskis notified the news portal.
China’s dominance on rare-earth minerals
China is the market leader and dominates the global rare earth mineral market from mining the materials to refining them, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) data cited by the news portal.
Mint reported earlier, citing US Geological Survey data, that China holds nearly 40% of the global rare-earth mineral reserves while producing almost 70% of the world’s output.
The Asian nation controls more than 90% of the global rare earth mineral refining capacity and 85 to 90% of the total rare earth magnet production, which are utilized for the development of critical components for EV motors, wind turbines, and defence systems, among other things.
Samarium, gadolinium, and dysprosium are among other rare earth minerals which China exports to foreign nations, according to the news report.
Europe-China talks
According to the CNBC report, Europe is heavily depfinishent on China for supplying the 17 rare earth minerals. Similar to other world nations, Europe is vulnerable to China’s ability to cut exports at any point.
This week, officials from Germany and the Netherlands are in China to hold talks with Chinese counterparts in order to discuss the control over rare earth mineral exports and semiconductor chips, which have created the industries in Europe vulnerable to the global supply chain disruptions.
In October, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declared that the EU bloc is launching the “RESourceEU” plan, which aims to reduce the reliance on critical raw materials from China, according to the news portal’s report.
Von der Leyen also highlighted that this initiative seeks to boost the investment in strategic projects “for the production and processing of critical raw materials here in Europe,” according to the news report.
Key Takeaways
- Europe’s heavy depfinishence on China for rare earth minerals poses significant risks to its industries.
- The EU’s ‘RESourceEU’ initiative aims to diversify critical mineral supplies and bolster local production.
- China’s temporary suspension of export controls offers Europe a brief opportunity to seek alternative suppliers.
