How China could turn off a car factory around the world

China is the dominance of the global supply chain that has been hurting automobiles.

On April 4, the country cut off the exports of mineral class called “strong hard elements on earth and turned the global car industry.

They are rare lands 17 items class They have become essential in all types of applications – fighters and submarines, smartphones and apparatus. You can Also found in sports equipment, like tennis rackets and baseball bats.

They are also essential for modern car. Cars smoking cars use pollution to filter through the catalytic converter of the vehicle. Electric vehicles use them in engines and batteries.

“Rare lands are very critical, not only for electric vehicles,” Gracelin Baskaran said, director of the Mineral Critical Security Safety Program at the Center for Strategic and International Center. “Your seat belt, your steering wheels, there are several sections of your electrical components. You will not manufacture a car without land.”

Rare land are divided into more categories based on their atomic weight. Lightweight ground are easier source. China are completely monopolized medium and heavy. China controls about 70% of the world’s land cancer. But it really dominates processing.

The name “rare elements of the earth” is incorrect. Items are not very rare in nature. What makes “strange” is a complex and difficult process to separate them from the rock, and from each other. China controls about 90% of the world’s rare processing of the world The heavy road has a complete processing monopoly.

At least 2023. Since the year, China is tightening the most important minerals of the key critical minerals that give the world, Baskaran said.

However, April 4 export restrictions shocked the world of automotive industry.

“It came out of nowhere,” said Dan Healsch, Director General of Alixpartner. “No one had any time to react to that. I mean, after a few weeks, all the pipeline material came out.”

European automobiles Turn off workshops. Ford he had Inactive production SUV familiar explorer.

This month, China began access to companies that supply part of the car. And this week the Trump administration said Rare ground and magnet shipping reached the US agreement

There is still no light and durability that will be.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” said Baskaran. “There is a US-China relationship among ratios between tariffs and minerals in the US-China relationship. We have seen reductions for more than two years. The rare lands are single.”

There are long-term solutions if China reduces access to: Recycling, other sources and innovation, for example. This crisis can encourage the industry to take steps that reduce dependency in China.

This strange ground, however, is the most recent supply of supply in recent years. Hearsch said he will probably get worse.

“Today they are rare lands,” Enharsch said. “But tomorrow will be something else, maybe what we don’t think, maybe it’s not all that will be and it will suddenly be.”

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