China Tightens Heavy Rare Earth Exports as Europe Prices Top China by More Than 4 Times
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jun 1
China Tightens Heavy Rare Earth Exports as Europe Prices Top China by More Than 4 Times
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jun 1
Beijing has already shut heavy rare earth supplies to Western defense companies and, last fall, cut terbium sales to private investors, signaling a broader retreat from raw-material exports.
Price gaps show the squeeze: dysprosium oxide was about $270 a kilogram in China versus $1,100 in Europe, while terbium traded at $1,145 in China and $4,250 in Europe.
China is keeping dysprosium and terbium for domestic factories because higher-value products—from roughly $40,000 EVs to turbines and robots—create far more jobs than exporting oxides, fitting its Made in China 2025 push.
The strategy is reinforced by scarcity: China holds roughly a third of global rare earth reserves, but its heavy rare earth deposits have thinned for years and imports from Myanmar are also fading.
That leaves Western EV, aerospace and weapons supply chains exposed, helping drive U.S. and European efforts to build mine-to-magnet capacity and the Pentagon’s 2027 ban on Chinese magnets in U.S. weapons.
As China weaponizes rare earths, can the West build a secure supply chain before its defense and tech industries stall?
To escape China's mineral monopoly, is the West ready for the environmental cost of reshoring the world's most toxic industry?
Could a breakthrough in magnet technology completely sidestep the geopolitical rare earth crisis with China?