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China’s exports of a wide range of rare earth minerals and magnets, key to the semiconductor and automotive industries around the world, have shrieked amid the escalation of the trade war with the US.
Last week, the shipment of major minerals has been suspended, increasing the risk of a shortage of foreign companies in these industries, Reuters reported citing sources close to Beijing.
After President Donald Trump imposed sudden tariffs on Chinese goods, Beijing restricted the export of seven rare earths and related materials used in the automobile, defense and energy industries.
Sources say Chinese exporters are currently required to apply to the Ministry of Licensing.
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The overseas shipping of these key materials and magnets is essential for assembling cars, robots, and even drones and missiles, and was stopped on April 4 as businesses began long and uncertain waits for government licenses.
“When asked by a client when the freight can leave China, we give them an estimated time of 60 days, but in reality it may take longer than that,” one Chinese rare earth trader told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
China produces more than 90% of the world’s most important rare earth minerals, such as yttrium, dysprosium and terbium, and new export restrictions have cut off supply lines for users around the world.
Industry experts are concerned that if export halts last for more than two months, they could drain existing stockpiles of these minerals built by customers.
Meanwhile, Trump doubled his controversial trade policy, saying on Sunday that countries that are not exempt from tariffs on exports to the US are not exempt.
“No one is “off the hook” due to the unfair trade balances and non-monetary tariff barriers that other countries have used against us, not China. Trump said in a post about his true social platform.
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The president announced tariff rates on imported semiconductors next week, adding that some companies in the sector could have flexibility.
“We wanted to make chips, semiconductors, etc. in our country, so we didn’t want to combine it from a lot of other companies,” he said.
It remains unclear whether manufacturers of consumer products such as smartphones and laptops will see exceptions.
Trump said some of these products were only moved to another “tax bucket.”
“These products are subject to existing 20% fentanyl tariffs,” he said, referring to the long-standing accusations of Chinese companies supplying US groups involved in the creation of synthetic opioids.
Trump’s Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick explained that “special focus type tariffs” are expected to soon cover smartphones, computers and other electronic devices in a month or two.
“He says they are exempt from mutual tariffs, but those are included in semiconductor tariffs that will likely be coming in a month or two,” Rutnick told ABC News.
Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren criticised the Trump administration’s latest plan, calling it “no tariff policy,” but only “chaos and corruption.”
