{"id":329039,"date":"2025-12-04T00:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T00:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/329039\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T00:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T00:58:09","slug":"eu-frees-billions-in-bid-to-reduce-china-rare-earth-reliance-dw-12-03-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/329039\/","title":{"rendered":"EU frees billions in bid to reduce China rare earth reliance \u2013 DW \u2013 12\/03\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The EU’s executive on Wednesday announced new policies looking to coordinate the purchase and stockpiling of raw materials like the rare earth minerals crucial for the automotive, electronics and defense industries<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The European Commission<\/a> also said it would employ tougher economic policies with trade partners to better secure rare earths<\/a> supplies.<\/p>\n

“The EU will also be more strategic in leveraging its economic weight and the access to its Single Market,” the Commission said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Existing measures the Commission plans to use independently of their original purpose to strengthen economic security could include anti-dumping duties, measures against takeovers of European companies from abroad or the exclusion of companies from third countries from public contracts.<\/p>\n

EU seeks to reduce dependencies amid US-China trade war<\/p>\n

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video<\/a><\/p>\n

China tightens screws\u00a0<\/p>\n

China, the world’s main supplier of rare earths<\/a> responsible for more than two-thirds of production as of 2023, announced new controls on exports in October.<\/p>\n

This rattled\u00a0markets and disrupted\u00a0supply chains until Beijing<\/a> later said it would suspend the measures for one year. It had already imposed stricter export licenses for certain materials\u00a0in April.<\/p>\n

The European-Chinese dispute over the chip manufacturer Nexperia<\/a> also caused concern in German industry, as it affected the country’s key automobile sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Europe is responding to the new global geopolitical reality,” EU<\/a> industry chief Stephane Sejourne said of the plans aimed at countering what he has likened to a raw earths “racket” run by Beijing.<\/p>\n

\"ConcentratedMaterials like bauxite and its byproducts\u00a0are required to make the semiconductors essential in the production of electronics and defense equipment, as well as electric car batteries Image: CFOTO\/picture alliance<\/p>\n

US secures supplies, other options limited<\/p>\n

The Trump administration \u2014\u00a0pushing to secure its own supplies with a series of bilateral trade deals, with demand far outstripping production despite the US being the second-largest producer worldwide \u2014\u00a0has put further strain on European acquisitions.<\/p>\n

Other major producers like Myanmar, Australia, India, Russia, Brazil and Vietnam\u00a0tend to be far removed from Europe, to have difficult relations with the EU, or both.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Economic security is fundamental to Europe’s security. When access to the critical raw materials we need for our defence is cut off, over-dependencies become physically dangerous,” the EU’s foreign policy commissioner Kaja Kallas said. “Today we adopt a new strategy to reduce these dependencies by diversifying our supply chains while remaining open to trade with partners.”<\/p>\n

\"Kiruna,Some promising sites for exploration have been identified within the EU, including around this massive iron ore mine above the Arctic Circle in Kiruna, SwedenImage: Alexander Farnsworth\/picture alliance<\/p>\n

EU also looking to locate reserves and increase its own production<\/p>\n

The European Commission said the strategic fund of nearly \u20ac3 billion (roughly $3.5 billion) would also help fund strategic projects in mining, refining and recycling of the vital minerals and metals \u2014\u00a0both within Europe and in partner countries.<\/p>\n

The fund is separate from money spent by individual member states, with Germany for instance earmarking \u20ac1 billion for rare earth projects between 2024 and 2028<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rare earth deposits, or at least promising sites for exploration, have been identified in several parts of Europe, not least in remote and sparsely populated Scandinavia, for instance around the vast iron ore mine in Kiruna in Sweden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rare earths \u2014 the new gold?<\/p>\n

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video<\/a><\/p>\n

Edited by Sean Sinico\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The EU’s executive on Wednesday announced new policies looking to coordinate the purchase and stockpiling of raw materials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-329039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}