3 ms·

What was China's rare earths play?

• logfromblammo 11y ago
  After China became practically the sole supplier of rare earth elements to the entire world, they restricted exports in 2011, creating shortages everywhere outside of China. It caused a lot of companies to reexamine their supply chains, this time considering factors other than just price per ton. Several nations started subsidizing domestic production from mothballed facilities for strategic economic reasons. China went from 95% share of that market to less than 80%. Essentially, they were expecting to get higher prices by restricting output as a monopoly supplier, but it blew up in their faces.