Rare-earths cut-off panics auto firms

Is Chinese curb next global supply crisis?

- CHRISTINA AMANN NICK CAREY KALEA HALL

Frank Eckard, CEO of a German magnet maker, has been fielding a flood of calls in recent weeks. Exasperated automakers and parts suppliers have been desperate to find alternative sources of magnets, which are in short supply due to Chinese export curbs.

Some told Mr Eckard their factories could be idled by mid-July without backup magnet supplies. “The whole car industry is in full panic,” said Mr Eckard, CEO of Magnosphere, based in Troisdorf, Germany. “They are willing to pay any price.”

Car executives have once again been driven into their war rooms, concerned that China's tight export controls on rare-earth magnets — crucially needed to make cars — could cripple production. US President Donald Trump said Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to let rare earths minerals and magnets flow to the United States. A US trade team was to meet Chinese counterparts for talks in London yesterday.

The industry worries that the rare-earths situation could cascade into the third massive supply chain shock in five years. A semiconductor shortage wiped away millions of cars from automakers’ production plans, from roughly 2021 to 2023. Before that, the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 shut factories for weeks.

Those crises prompted the industry to fortify supply chain strategies. Executives have prioritised backup supplies for key components and reexamined the use of just-in-time inventories, which save money but can leave them without stockpiles when a crisis unfurls.

Judging from Mr Eckard’s inbound calls, though, “nobody has learned from the past,” he said.