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Well, that’s a good thing in a way; china was previously selling at a loss to put the competition out of business. Now the other refineries have a reason to start back up again.
... Do you have a source for that, because it kinda seems like you made it up.
Really?
Here’s a good summary:
https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2021/9/8/china-maintains-dominance-in-rare-earth-production
I lived through it while it was happening. Where were you?
That never actually says they're selling at a loss, just that they're not using the same market based pricing structure as American businesses.
Looking at some other sources, it looks like they overproduced materials to keep prices low, since their primary potential competition refuses to use state money to fund production of critical resources.
It's manipulative, but it's not selling at a loss.
It's difficult to feel sympathetic towards us when we refused to invest in the industry and shutdown the people responsible for helping develop the industry.
If it was that critical we should have just spent to money to develop the industries domestically, which would have made lower prices moot.
Being upset that a country that calls itself Communist doesn't follow free market ideology seems foolish.
Alright, but that's not what the article says. I even went back and the read the first of the three-parter, where the businesses they interviewed confidently stated
The closest thing to what you claimed was a snippet from the 100-day government review stating that “China does not operate on market principles of cost or pricing structure.” According to your own source, they never drove anyone out of business or sold at loss, they just happened to be the first to invest in rare earth production and processing, and nobody else wanted to build the facilities for it. At worst they provided subsidies, just like the US which also ignored market principles of cost or pricing structure, and allocated 400 million (Defense Production Act) to develop local mines and refineries.
More than anything your article series blames a 1980 government regulation that requires US mines to seal mine leavings or risk liability for mishandling thorium.
You do realize that it takes time and know-how to do that processing right? Know-how that the US does not have.
https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20250416183/why-its-nearly-impossible-for-america-to-meet-its-rare-earth-needs-after-chinas-export-restrictions
Not to mention just trying to find these deposit in America.
Also, did you know that under Biden, we were working with other countries like Canada and Australia to expand mining REE to decrease reliance on China?
Remind me who pissed off or allies recently with some stupid ass trade war?
This is a not 4d chess here and no good will come from this other than weakening America with such a no intelligence plan and no prep work.
First off, I’m Canadian, and yeah, you’ve pissed us off.
Secondly, read the lnk I linked; before Trump did this whole trade war thing, there was already almost a decade of work going into rebuilding the knowhow and supply chains needed. It takes time, but there are already companies who have been ramping up over the past 5-10 years — they just haven’t been able to compete with China on price or quality.
But now they’ll get their chance, as the US is running out of other options.
Meanwhile, the rest of us will hopefully also wean ourselves off of Chinese rare earths too, now that we’ve seen them actually weaponize them against the US.
Then again, rare earths processing is very environmentally destructive; there’s a reason China is doing it in Jilin and Mongolia.