Rare earth resources are an important factor affecting international relations and the situation. A few months ago, China announced export restrictions on seventeen rare earth elements, which attracted the world's attention. Recently, Malaysia has also announced a policy of "banning the export of rare earths to prevent the loss of minerals", although it is not clear when the specific implementation time will be, but it has undoubtedly brought great pressure to some countries that rely on rare earth imports, especially the United States.
Why do countries need to tighten control over rare earth resources?What impact will this have on the United States?
Rare earth resources are valued by countries Malaysia's move is based on an economic plan submitted by the lower house of parliament for the next two years, which sets out the principles of protecting the country's minerals, achieving sustainable development, promoting the long-term development of the mineral industry, and calls for the regulation of mineral mining in protected forest areas and environmentally sensitive areas. Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim accepted the proposal and announced a policy to ban the export of rare earths to prevent losses from the uncontrolled mining and export of rare earth minerals.
Malaysia is not the only country protecting its rare earth resources, Indonesia began restricting mineral exports a few years ago, Myanmar has closed its largest rare earth producer, and the Philippines is considering measures for mineral resources.
China, a major producer and exporter of rare earth resources, also issued a clear notice a few months ago, stipulating that from August, export restrictions on 17 rare earth elements will be imposed, and only companies with licenses and quotas will be allowed to export. This policy has had a big impact on the high-tech manufacturing industry in the United States, and Dai Qi, the representative of the United States, directly blamed China at the time: "China's dominant position in the rare earth market makes the United States passive, and also makes the American industrial chain 'very fragile'." ”
Will Malaysia's policies make the U.S. industrial chain more "unbearable"?
The important role of rare earth resources With the progress of society and the development of science and technology, rare earth resources have become the object of competition among countries.
Rare earth resources have a wide range of uses, the amount is very small, but the effect is great, it is used in metallurgy, military, petrochemical, agriculture and new materials and other fields, improve the performance and efficiency of these fields, but also enhance the strategic position of rare earth resources, so that the international market demand for rare earth resources continues to grow.
Due to the information asymmetry of various countries in terms of science and technology and resources, some developed countries have not developed their own rare earth resources, but turned to some backward countries to import rare earth resources.
However, the move of Southeast Asian countries to "control rare earth resources" shows that this information asymmetry is gradually shrinking, and also shows that the important role of rare earth resources is being recognized and valued by more and more countries, and these countries have also begun to protect their rare earth resources and control their development.
Malaysia's rare earth resources are not much, with only 30,000 tons of reserves.
According to the current rare earth market, the ** of rare earths per ton is between 20,000 and 40,000, and according to the unit price of 40,000, the total price of all rare earths in Malaysia is only 1.2 billion yuan.
However, according to the detailed mapping of rare earth elements in Malaysia, after a series of rare earth processing and production such as "mining, processing and export", the effect of "stone becomes **" will be obtained.
From the perspective of Malaysia's national interests, if this model continues, the rare earth industry will contribute 1481.2 billion RMB, this total value has increased 12 times!It will also create nearly 7,000 jobs in Malaysia.
In the face of such huge interests and benefits, Malaysia is certainly not willing to give away rare earth resources for nothing.
The United States is completely dependent on imports of rare earths Malaysia's move has caused heated discussions in various countries, among them, Reuters immediately commented on Malaysia's policy and hyped "This is because Malaysia wants to keep its key ** chain away from China's reaction!".”
For such a creation out of nothing, China ignores it, because Malaysia's rare earth reserves are only 30,000 tons, while China's rare earth reserves have 44 million tons, from the first half of this year, China accounts for 8% of Malaysia's total rare earth imports, while the United States has been relying on overseas rare earths "survival".
According to the "U.S. Rare Earth Market In-depth Research and Analysis Report", in 2022, the rare earth resource reserves in the United States will reach 2.3 million tons, accounting for 2% of the global rare earth reserves, but the output is only 260,000 tons, such a development is far from enough.
Therefore, the United States needs to import a large number of rare earths to maintain the stability of its own demand chain, and it is shocking that, according to the analysis of relevant data, the United States is as dependent on rare earths as high as 100%!
80% of the world's rare earth imports from the United States come from China, followed by 6% from Estonia, and 8% of the dependence on rare earths in Southeast Asia, so the ban and control of rare earth resources in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia will seriously affect the demand market in the United States.
But the United States does not have a lot of rare earth reserves, so why should it continue to rely on imports?
The reason is very simple, on the one hand, because the United States does not have advanced rare earth processing technology in technology, many years ago, the United States' neglect of rare earth resources led to the collapse of many domestic rare earth developers, and at the same time, China exports rare earth resources to the outside world at a very low level, making the American market uncompetitive.
On the other hand, because the United States feels that the consumption of rare earth resources is large and the profits are small, there is no need to spend a lot of resources on development, but chooses to buy rare earth resources with money.
Such thinking has led to the United States has been shelving the development and production of rare earth resources, and various countries have begun to pay attention to the development of rare earth resources, and the United States will fall into a more passive situation.
If the United States does not strengthen the development of rare earth resources and only relies on imports, the consequences can be imagined: the restrictions on the export of rare earth resources by various countries will lead to the rupture of the United States' first chain, the stagnation of the production of industrial products containing rare earths, and even affect the development of the United States and shake the international status of the United States.
Conclusion It is still very difficult for the United States to establish its own rare earth resource industry chain, conceit and pride are the main reasons for the current predicament of the United States.