China's ban on rare earth prices soared 210%, the U.S. military supply chain by the "neck" crisis

According to the latest news, rare earth metal prices have reached record highs in the weeks since China announced on April 4 that it would impose export controls on seven categories of medium- and heavy-rare earth-related items.

　　As of May 1, dysprosium prices in Europe had tripled since the beginning of April to $850 (about 6,180.6 yuan) per kilogram, Nikkei Asia reported.

　　Terbium prices, on the other hand, have risen to $3,000 (about CNY21,814.1) per kilogram from $965 (about CNY7,016.9) per kilogram, a cumulative increase of more than 210 percent.

　　According to data dating back to May 2015, both recorded the biggest monthly increases and highest prices.

　　According to CCTV, China now controls the manufacturing and processing of key minerals. China is the world's largest producer and exporter of rare earths.

　　Two days after Trump announced so-called “reciprocal tariffs” on trading partners at the White House on April 2, China announced that it had imposed export control measures on seven categories of medium- and heavy-earth-related items, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium.

　　The U.S. currently has zero domestic capacity to refine these seven medium-heavy categories of rare earths and is entirely dependent on imports.

　　At least four of these - gadolinium, terbium, yttrium, and dysprosium - are widely used in various subsystems and components of the U.S. military's advanced warplanes.

　　For example, Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth fighter, for example, its electronic warfare systems, targeting radar and rudder motors, each aircraft to consume about 417 kilograms of rare earth materials.

　　Statistics show that 87% of the supply chain of the 153 types of main battle equipment in the U.S. Army's active service and under research and development needs to go through the rare earth processing link.

Rare earth metals, known as “industrial vitamins”, are non-renewable and important strategic resources that are widely used in new energy, new materials, energy conservation and environmental protection, aerospace, military, electronic information and other fields.

　　The seven elements that China restricts exports of are categorized as the more rare medium-heavy rare earths, and most of the world's supply of medium-heavy rare earths comes from China.

　　The “preciousness” of rare earths lies not only in the irreplaceability of their physical properties, but also in their underlying supportive role for modern industry, national defense and security, and future science and technology, as well as in the high concentration and vulnerability of the global supply chain.