China Limits Critical Mineral Supplies to Western Defense Manufacturers– legalinsurrection.com
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Excerpt:
Our amazing Leslie Eastman has been reporting on this subject since January:
Defense manufacturers must “stop buying rare-earth magnets that contain China-sourced minerals by 2027.”
Well…it looks like China will make that happen before 2027.
The Wall Street Journal reported that China is now limiting the flow of critical minerals to Western defense manufacturers:
Earlier this year, as U.S.-China trade tensions soared, Beijing tightened the controls it places on the export of rare earths. While Beijing allowed them to start flowing after the Trump administration agreed in June to a series of trade concessions, China has maintained a lock on critical minerals for defense purposes. China supplies around 90% of the world’s rare earths and dominates the production of many other critical minerals.
As a result, one drone-parts manufacturer that supplies the U.S. military was forced to delay orders by up to two months while it searched for a non-Chinese source of magnets, which are assembled from rare earths.
Certain materials needed by the defense industry now go for five or more times what was typical before China’s recent mineral restrictions, according to industry traders. One company said it was recently offered samarium—an element needed to make magnets that can withstand the extreme temperatures of a jet-fighter engine—for 60 times the standard price. That is already driving the cost of defense systems higher, say suppliers and defense executives.