How China took over the world's rare-earths industry

Beijing used bare-knuckle tactics in multidecade effort to consolidate control over supplies

- Jon Emont [e-mail]

Workers use machinery to dig at a rare earth mine in Ganxian county in central China's jiangxi province.

When China tightened restrictions on rare-earth exportsthismonth, stunning the White House, it was the latest reminder of Beijing’s control over an industry vital to the world economy.

Its dominance was decades in the making.

Since the 1990s, China has used aggressive tactics to build up and maintain its lock overrare-earth minerals, which are essential to making magnets needed for cars, wind turbines, jet fighters and other products.

Beijing provided financial support to the country’s leading companies, encouraged them to snap up rareearth assets abroad, and passed laws preventing foreign companies from buying rare-earth mines in China. It eventually consolidated its domestic industry from hundreds of businesses intoa few giant players, giving it further leverage over prices.

When the U.S. tried to engineer a revival of its domestic industry afew years ago, China flooded the market with supply, throwing Western producers into a tailspin. As Western rare-earth companies valuations collapsed from the low prices caused by soaring Chinese production, they were forced to slow their expansions, and in some cases, sell their mines to Chinese buyers.

Beijing’s methodical approach to dominating the industry—it now produces around 90% of global refined supply—reflects China’sability to use state control over the economy to achieve goals that often elude the US., where policymaking is more erratic.

It also suggests that fresh U.S. efforts to resurrect its domestic rareearths industry could prove difficult tosustain. Washington has committed to spending billions of dollars investing in a major U.S. producer and purchasing its output, among other steps. But China is likely to do everything it can to ensure it doesn’t lose its rare-earth leverage.