Latest news with #WhiteHouseNationalEconomicCouncil
Boston Globe
02-06-2025
- Automotive
- Boston Globe
US dependence on China for rare earth magnets is causing shortages
Now, American and European companies are running out of the magnets. American automakers are the hardest hit, with executives warning that production at factories across the Midwest and South could be cut back in the coming days and weeks. Carmakers need the magnets for the electric motors that run brakes, steering, and fuel injectors. The motors in a single luxury car seat, for example, use as many as 12 magnets. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Factory robots depend on rare earth magnets, too. Advertisement 'This is America's, and the world's, Achilles' heel, which China continuously exploits,' said Nazak Nikakhtar, who was assistant secretary of commerce overseeing export controls during Trump's first term. The Chinese government has said little lately about its rare earth export restrictions. Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said on ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday that Trump and China's leader, Xi Jinping, could speak about trade as soon as this week, though no date had been set. Advertisement After China stopped all exports, it said that future shipments would require separate export licenses. China's Ministry of Commerce has struggled since then to issue licenses. It gave a handful to European companies in mid-April and a few more for American companies last week, but world supplies are dwindling fast. China produces 90 percent of the world's nearly 200,000 tons a year of high-performance rare earth magnets. Japanese companies produce most of the rest in Japan and Vietnam, mainly for Japanese manufacturers. The United States produces practically none, although small factories will start full production this year in South Carolina and Texas. A succession of administrations has tried to restart the industry ever since China drew attention to its dominance by imposing a two-month embargo on shipments of rare earths to Japan during a territorial dispute in 2010. But little has happened because of a gritty reality: Making rare earth magnets requires considerable investments at every stage of production. Yet the sales and profits are tiny. Worldwide sales of mined rare earths total only $5 billion a year. That is minuscule compared with $300 billion industries such as copper mining or iron ore mining. China has a formidable competitive advantage. The state-owned industry has few environmental compliance costs for its mines and an almost unlimited government budget for building huge processing refineries and magnet factories. Processing rare earths is technically demanding, but China has developed new processes. Rare earth chemistry programs are offered in 39 universities across the country, while the United States has no similar programs. China refines more than 99 percent of the world's supply of so-called heavy rare earths, which are the least common kinds of rare earths. Heavy rare earths are essential for making magnets that can resist the high temperatures and electrical fields found in cars, semiconductors, and many other technologies. Advertisement The sole US rare earths mine, located in Mountain Pass, Calif., stopped producing in 1998 after traces of heavy metals and faintly radioactive material leaked from a desert pipeline. Chinese state-controlled companies tried three times without success to buy the defunct mine before it was acquired by US investors in 2008. A $1 billion Pentagon-backed investment program followed in 2010 to improve environmental compliance and expand the mine and its adjacent refinery. But the costly complex was unable to compete when it briefly reopened in 2014, and closed again the next year. MP Materials, a Chicago investor group that included a minority partner company partly owned by the Chinese government, bought the mine in 2017. The mine reopened the next year, but shipped its ore to China for the difficult task of separating the various kinds of rare earths. Only in recent months has the mine become able to chemically separate the rare earths in more than half its output. But this loses money because processing in China is so inexpensive. MP Materials built the new factory in Texas that will turn separated rare earths into magnets. A considerable bottleneck lies in transforming separated rare earths into chemically pure metal ingots that can be fed into the furnaces of magnet-making machines. A New England startup, Phoenix Tailings, is addressing that shortcoming, but its small scale underlines the challenge. Phoenix Tailings has taken over much of the staff and equipment of Infinium, a startup that had tried to do the same thing. Infinium ran out of money in 2020, when American policy makers were more focused on the COVID-19 pandemic than rare earths. Advertisement With Chinese rare earth minerals hard to get, Phoenix makes the metal from mine tailings: leftover material at mines that has been processed once to remove another material, like iron. Phoenix Tailings has four machines each the size of a small cottage at its factory in Burlington. Each one produces a 6.6-pound ingot every three hours around the clock. The operation's overall capacity is 40 tons a year, said Nick Myers, Phoenix's CEO. He declined to identify the buyer but said it was an automotive company. Phoenix is installing equipment at a larger site in Exeter, N.H., to produce metal at a rate of 200 tons a year — still tiny compared with Chinese factories that produce more than that in a month. Thomas Villalón Jr., Phoenix's chief technical officer, said that ramping up production quickly was important during a trade war: 'It's a race right now.' This article originally appeared in .
Miami Herald
02-06-2025
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
U.S. Dependence on China for Rare Earth Magnets Is Causing Shortages
BEIJING -- Two decades ago, factories in Indiana that turned rare earth metals into magnets moved production to China -- just as demand for the magnets was starting to soar for everything from cars and semiconductors to fighter jets and robots. The United States is now reckoning with the cost of losing that supply chain. The Chinese government abruptly halted exports of rare earth magnets to any country on April 4 as part of its trade war with the United States. U.S. officials had expected that China would relax its restrictions on the magnets as part of the trade truce the two countries reached in mid-May. But on Friday, President Donald Trump suggested that China had continued to limit access. Now, American and European companies are running out of the magnets. American automakers are the hardest hit, with executives warning that production at factories across the Midwest and South could be cut back in the coming days and weeks. Carmakers need the magnets for the electric motors that run brakes, steering and fuel injectors. The motors in a single luxury car seat, for example, use as many as 12 magnets. Factory robots depend on rare earth magnets, too. 'This is America's, and the world's, Achilles' heel, which China continuously exploits,' said Nazak Nikakhtar, who was assistant secretary of commerce overseeing export controls during Trump's first term. The Chinese government has said little lately about its rare earth export restrictions. Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said on ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday that Trump and China's leader, Xi Jinping, could speak about trade as soon as this week, though no date had been set. After China stopped all exports, it said that future shipments would require separate export licenses. China's Ministry of Commerce has struggled since then to issue licenses. It gave a handful to European companies in mid-April and a few more for American companies last week, but world supplies are dwindling fast. 'There are a few approvals coming through, but they are far from being sufficient to prevent imminent production halts,' said Jens Eskelund, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. 'We are still facing a major disruption of supply chains.' To make matters worse, some Chinese rare earth magnet makers have stopped producing while waiting for permission to resume exports. The weekslong gap in magnet production is moving through supply chains and may soon reach manufacturers. 'China could bring America's automotive assembly plants to a standstill,' said Michael Dunne, an automotive consultant specializing in China. China produces 90% of the world's nearly 200,000 tons a year of high-performance rare earth magnets. Japanese companies produce most of the rest in Japan and Vietnam, mainly for Japanese manufacturers. The United States produces practically none, although small factories will start full production this year in South Carolina and Texas. A succession of administrations has tried to restart the industry ever since China drew attention to its dominance by imposing a two-month embargo on shipments of rare earths to Japan during a territorial dispute in 2010. But little has happened because of a gritty reality: Making rare earth magnets requires considerable investments at every stage of production. Yet the sales and profits are tiny. Worldwide sales of mined rare earths total only $5 billion a year. That is minuscule compared with $300 billion industries such as copper mining or iron ore mining. China has a formidable competitive advantage. The state-owned industry has few environmental compliance costs for its mines and an almost unlimited government budget for building huge processing refineries and magnet factories. Processing rare earths is technically demanding, but China has developed new processes. Rare earth chemistry programs are offered in 39 universities across the country, while the United States has no similar programs. China refines more than 99% of the world's supply of so-called heavy rare earths, which are the least common kinds of rare earths. Heavy rare earths are essential for making magnets that can resist the high temperatures and electrical fields found in cars, semiconductors and many other technologies. The sole U.S. rare earths mine, located in Mountain Pass, California, stopped producing in 1998 after traces of heavy metals and faintly radioactive material leaked from a desert pipeline. Chinese state-controlled companies tried three times without success to buy the defunct mine before it was acquired by U.S. investors in 2008. A $1 billion Pentagon-backed investment program followed in 2010 to improve environmental compliance and expand the mine and its adjacent refinery. But the costly complex was unable to compete when it briefly reopened in 2014, and closed again the next year. MP Materials, a Chicago investor group that included a minority partner company partly owned by the Chinese government, bought the mine in 2017. The mine reopened the next year, but shipped its ore to China for the difficult task of separating the various kinds of rare earths. Only in recent months has the mine become able to chemically separate the rare earths in more than half its output. But this loses money because processing in China is so inexpensive. MP Materials built the new factory in Texas that will turn separated rare earths into magnets. A considerable bottleneck lies in transforming separated rare earths into chemically pure metal ingots that can be fed into the furnaces of magnet-making machines. A New England startup, Phoenix Tailings, is addressing that shortcoming, but its small scale underlines the challenge. Phoenix Tailings has taken over much of the staff and equipment of Infinium, a startup that had tried to do the same thing. Infinium ran out of money in 2020, when American policymakers were more focused on the COVID-19 pandemic than rare earths. With Chinese rare earth minerals hard to get, Phoenix makes the metal from mine tailings: leftover material at mines that has been processed once to remove another material, like iron. Phoenix Tailings has four machines each the size of a small cottage at its factory in Burlington, Massachusetts. Each one produces a 6.6-pound ingot every three hours around the clock. The operation's overall capacity is 40 tons a year, said Nick Myers, Phoenix's CEO. He declined to identify the buyer but said it was an automotive company. Phoenix is installing equipment at a larger site in Exeter, New Hampshire, to produce metal at a rate of 200 tons a year -- still tiny compared with Chinese factories that produce more than that in a month. Thomas Villalón Jr., Phoenix's chief technical officer, said that ramping up production quickly was important during a trade war: 'It's a race right now.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
Time of India
02-06-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
US dependence on China for rare earth magnets is causing shortages
Live Events Two decades ago, factories in Indiana that turned rare earth metals into magnets moved production to China -- just as demand for the magnets was starting to soar for everything from cars and semiconductors to fighter jets and United States is now reckoning with the cost of losing that supply chain. The Chinese government abruptly halted exports of rare earth magnets to any country on April 4 as part of its trade war with the United States.U.S. officials had expected that China would relax its restrictions on the magnets as part of the trade truce the two countries reached in mid-May. But on Friday, President Donald Trump suggested that China had continued to limit American and European companies are running out of the automakers are the hardest hit, with executives warning that production at factories across the Midwest and South could be cut back in the coming days and weeks. Carmakers need the magnets for the electric motors that run brakes, steering and fuel injectors. The motors in a single luxury car seat, for example, use as many as 12 robots depend on rare earth magnets, too."This is America's, and the world's, Achilles' heel, which China continuously exploits," said Nazak Nikakhtar, who was assistant secretary of commerce overseeing export controls during Trump's first Chinese government has said little lately about its rare earth export restrictions. Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that Trump and China's leader, Xi Jinping, could speak about trade as soon as this week, though no date had been China stopped all exports, it said that future shipments would require separate export licenses. China's Ministry of Commerce has struggled since then to issue licenses. It gave a handful to European companies in mid-April and a few more for American companies last week, but world supplies are dwindling fast."There are a few approvals coming through, but they are far from being sufficient to prevent imminent production halts," said Jens Eskelund, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. "We are still facing a major disruption of supply chains."To make matters worse, some Chinese rare earth magnet makers have stopped producing while waiting for permission to resume exports. The weekslong gap in magnet production is moving through supply chains and may soon reach manufacturers."China could bring America's automotive assembly plants to a standstill," said Michael Dunne, an automotive consultant specializing in produces 90% of the world's nearly 200,000 tons a year of high-performance rare earth magnets. Japanese companies produce most of the rest in Japan and Vietnam, mainly for Japanese United States produces practically none, although small factories will start full production this year in South Carolina and Texas. A succession of administrations has tried to restart the industry ever since China drew attention to its dominance by imposing a two-month embargo on shipments of rare earths to Japan during a territorial dispute in little has happened because of a gritty reality: Making rare earth magnets requires considerable investments at every stage of production. Yet the sales and profits are sales of mined rare earths total only $5 billion a year. That is minuscule compared with $300 billion industries such as copper mining or iron ore has a formidable competitive advantage. The state-owned industry has few environmental compliance costs for its mines and an almost unlimited government budget for building huge processing refineries and magnet rare earths is technically demanding, but China has developed new processes. Rare earth chemistry programs are offered in 39 universities across the country, while the United States has no similar refines more than 99% of the world's supply of so-called heavy rare earths, which are the least common kinds of rare earths. Heavy rare earths are essential for making magnets that can resist the high temperatures and electrical fields found in cars, semiconductors and many other sole U.S. rare earths mine, located in Mountain Pass, California, stopped producing in 1998 after traces of heavy metals and faintly radioactive material leaked from a desert pipeline. Chinese state-controlled companies tried three times without success to buy the defunct mine before it was acquired by U.S. investors in 2008.A $1 billion Pentagon-backed investment program followed in 2010 to improve environmental compliance and expand the mine and its adjacent refinery. But the costly complex was unable to compete when it briefly reopened in 2014, and closed again the next Materials, a Chicago investor group that included a minority partner company partly owned by the Chinese government, bought the mine in 2017. The mine reopened the next year, but shipped its ore to China for the difficult task of separating the various kinds of rare in recent months has the mine become able to chemically separate the rare earths in more than half its output. But this loses money because processing in China is so Materials built the new factory in Texas that will turn separated rare earths into magnets.A considerable bottleneck lies in transforming separated rare earths into chemically pure metal ingots that can be fed into the furnaces of magnet-making machines. A New England startup, Phoenix Tailings, is addressing that shortcoming, but its small scale underlines the Tailings has taken over much of the staff and equipment of Infinium, a startup that had tried to do the same thing. Infinium ran out of money in 2020, when American policymakers were more focused on the COVID-19 pandemic than rare Chinese rare earth minerals hard to get, Phoenix makes the metal from mine tailings: leftover material at mines that has been processed once to remove another material, like Tailings has four machines each the size of a small cottage at its factory in Burlington, Massachusetts. Each one produces a 6.6-pound ingot every three hours around the clock. The operation's overall capacity is 40 tons a year, said Nick Myers, Phoenix's CEO. He declined to identify the buyer but said it was an automotive is installing equipment at a larger site in Exeter, New Hampshire, to produce metal at a rate of 200 tons a year -- still tiny compared with Chinese factories that produce more than that in a Villalón Jr., Phoenix's chief technical officer, said that ramping up production quickly was important during a trade war: "It's a race right now."
Boston Globe
01-06-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Trump aides say tariffs will remain, even after court ruling
Asked about the future of the president's so-called reciprocal tariffs, first announced and quickly suspended in April, Lutnick added, 'I don't see today that an extension is coming.' Related : Advertisement The president's tariff strategy entered uncharted political and legal territory last week after a federal trade court ruled that Trump had misused an emergency economic powers law in trying to wage a global trade war. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The decision would have put a quick halt to those duties, which form the centerpiece of the president's strategy of pressuring other countries into trade talks. But an appeals court soon granted the government a brief administrative pause to sort out arguments in the case, which is expected to reach the Supreme Court. In previous legal filings, the administration had said that an adverse ruling against its tariffs would harm negotiations and undercut the president. Top White House officials once promised to strike 90 deals in 90 days, but they have since managed to announce only one framework for a possible deal, with Britain. Advertisement On Sunday, though, the commerce secretary dismissed the notion that Trump had suffered a new setback, saying it 'cost us a week, maybe.' He said the White House would ultimately reach 'first-class deals.' Related : The decision has not slowed down Trump, who attacked China on Friday for failing to adhere to an agreement brokered between Washington and Beijing in which the two nations lowered their once-withering tariff rates, pending a longer-term deal. The president also announced that day that he would double tariffs applied to imported steel, which would now be set at 50%, in a move that could result in higher prices for American consumers. Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, told ABC's 'This Week' that he expected Trump and China's leader, Xi Jinping, could speak about trade as soon as this week, though he later said that a conversation had not been scheduled or finalized. Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, separately reiterated that talks with China had stalled, citing the fact that Beijing is holding back its exports of rare earth minerals, which are critical for global industrial supply chains. 'Maybe it's a glitch in the Chinese system; maybe it's intentional,' Bessent said on CBS' 'Face the Nation.' Bessent also defended the steel tariffs as a means of protecting American steel jobs. He acknowledged that it was unclear how the new rates could affect the construction industry, which he characterized as a 'very complicated ecosystem.' This article originally appeared in
01-06-2025
- Business
Trump expected to talk trade negotiations ‘this week' with China's Xi: Hassett
ABC News' George Stephanopoulos interviews on White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on 'This Week.'
