How can China close car factories around the world

China’s dominance of the global supply chain began to harm the automobile companies.

On April 4, the country cut off a category of minerals called “rare heavy land elements”, and sent the global auto industry into a state of panic.

Rare Class of 17 elements That has become indispensable in all types of applications – everything from combat aircraft and submarines, to smartphones and devices. You can Even finding them in sports equipment, such as tennis rackets and baseball.

They also, of course, are necessary for modern cars. Gas burning cars use it to filter pollution through the motor transformer of the car. Electric cars are used in engines and batteries.

“The rare land is very important, not only for electric cars,” said Grassillin Baskran, director of the critical metal security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “They are in your seat belt, your router wheels, and different parts of your electric components. You will not make a car without rare lands.”

The rare land is divided into other categories, based on its atomic weight. Light rare land is easier in the source. It is medium and heavy that has completely intensified China. China controls about 70 % of the world’s rare Earth mines. But where it really dominates is in treatment.

The name “rare earth elements” is a little misleading – the elements themselves are not rare in nature. What makes them “rare” is the complex and difficult process to separate from the rocks in which they are included, and from each other. China controls about 90 % of the world’s rare land treatment, and He has a complete monopoly to treat a rare heavy land.

At least 2023, China has tightened its grip on many of the main critical minerals it provides to the world, Paskran said.

However, export restrictions were shocked on April 4, the world of cars.

“He came out of anywhere,” said Dan Hersh, Managing Director of Alixpartners. “No one had any time to respond to it. I mean, within weeks, all the materials in the pipeline had come out.”

European auto manufacturers Close the factories. Ford I had to Lethargy From the famous Explorer Suv.

China has started this month to allow some access to companies that provide spare parts for some car manufacturers. The Trump administration said this week I have reached a deal to accelerate the rare land and magnetic shipments to the United States

It is still unclear how accurate these deals are.

“We haven’t come out of the forest yet,” Paskran said. “There are a lot of fluctuations in the relationship between the United States and China between definitions and metal restrictions. We have seen China rising restrictions over two years. The rare land is the latest.”

There are long -term solutions if China cuts access again: recycling, developing other sources and innovation, for example. This crisis may stimulate the industry to take measures that reduce dependence on China.

But this rare Earth crisis is the latest in a series of display disorders over the past few years. Hersche said it is possible to get worse.

“Today, it is a rare land,” Hersk said. “But tomorrow can be something else that we may not think about, and perhaps this matter is not of value and suddenly.”

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