China’s king-of-the-hill status shaky as offshore exploration diversifies rare earth supply chain
- As more countries find caches of rare earth minerals, China’s status as the world’s top exporter is being challenged
- The metals are essential raw materials for tech, and demand is growing – but China’s share of the global share is getting smaller as countries diversify
Countries such as Australia, the United States and Myanmar are unearthing enough of the valuable minerals that the world’s buyers need not rely solely on China, analysts said. Laos, Malaysia and Vietnam are starting to explore their own stores, as well.
“Foreign resource exploration and industrial development have accelerated,” China Northern Rare Earth Group, the country’s largest rare earth producer, said in its annual report released on Friday.
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“A complete industrial supply chain independent of China has begun to take shape,” said the Shanghai-listed firm, whose 2023 net profit plunged 62.6 per cent from the year before.
In contrast, China had exported 48,900 tons of rare earth products in 2021, up 38 per cent over the previous year per statistics from China Rare Earth Society. Those exports flatlined in 2022.
China’s share of total rare earth exports has dropped from about 90 per cent a decade ago to roughly 70 per cent in 2022, the US Geological Survey said.
