General

In terms of rare earths, netizens usually hold the view that China has the world's largest rare earth reserves, the world's largest rare earth production, and the world's largest rare earth export volume. From the data released by the General Administration of Customs of China, this statement may be outdated!

According to customs data, taking 2022 as an example, the quantity of rare earths exported by China is approximately 48700 tons. But the quantity of imported rare earths is close to 121500 tons. According to customs data, the import volume of rare earths in China is almost 2.5 times that of rare earth exports. The net import status has been ongoing for several years.

The United States has become the primary channel for rare earth imports in China

Customs data shows that China imported nearly 121500 tons of rare earths in 2022. According to customs data, the quantity of rare earths imported from the United States is close to 83800 tons, approximately 69% of China's total rare earth imports.

Even without considering the rare earth exports from the United States to other countries and regions, just calculating the amount of rare earth transported by the United States to China in 2022 indicates that the United States may have surpassed China and become the world's largest 'rare earth exporter'.

At present, China's rare earth reserves still rank first in the world, with the highest rare earth production and consumption among countries around the world. But the top spot in rare earth exports seems to have been successfully taken away by the United States.

Unlike China, which only exports rare earth metals and rare earth oxides and no longer exports rare earth minerals, the core of rare earth exports in the United States is rare earth minerals.

According to customs data, taking 2022 as an example, China imported 7014.467 tons of rare earth permanent magnets, fluorinated rare earth metals, unnamed rare earth metals, and mixtures from the United States, accounting for 8.37% of China's total rare earth imports from the United States; The quantity of rare earth minerals imported from the United States is 76750.831 tons, accounting for 91.63%.

At present, China and the United States are in a state of "mutual import and export" of rare earths

The China Rare Earth Products Exchange located in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, recently released the "2022 Rare Earth Industry Analysis Report", which cited the content of the "United States Geological Survey, Mineral Summary" and pointed out that "the proportion of rare earth products imported by the United States in 2022 from China has decreased to 74%".

According to information released by the General Administration of Customs of China, the proportion of rare earth products imported from the United States in 2022 is close to 70%. This means that the rare earth trade between China and the United States is in a state of "mutual import and export", and both countries are highly dependent on each other.

The main reason is that Chinese enterprises have globally leading rare earth separation capacity and patents, while the rare earth industry chain in the United States is incomplete. Currently, various rare earth compounds and metals required are highly dependent on imports - the rare earth concentrate extracted by the American company Pashan Materials needs to be transported to China for smelting and separation.

Another outdated viewpoint: the United States does not have rare earth separation capabilities

In previous articles, Nan Sheng repeatedly cited the viewpoint in the rare earth report, which stated that "the United States does not have the ability to separate rare earth minerals and needs to export all the extracted rare earth minerals to China.

However, based on the data of over 7000 tons of rare earth permanent magnets, rare earth fluoride, unnamed rare earth metals and mixtures imported from the United States in 2022, it can be seen that the United States has the ability to separate some rare earth minerals. The previous viewpoint is outdated and needs to be corrected in a timely manner.

The current United States is actively building a rare earth industry chain, fearing that China will use rare earths as a tool for anti US sanctions and attempt to weaken China's competitive advantage in the rare earth industry chain.

In this context, the United States seeks to increase its influence in rare earth mining, processing, production, and trade, especially in 2021 when the United States builds two heavy and light rare earth separation and processing plants in Texas. Rumors have it that there are plans to build more factories.

If the rare earth minerals extracted by the United States in the future do not need to be transported in large quantities to China for smelting and processing, it may have a direct impact on the economic benefits of Chinese enterprises in the middle and lower stages of the rare earth supply chain, although these impacts are controllable.

In the next decade, there may be two global rare earth supply chains

At present, China is still an important supplier of rare earths globally, especially with rare earth separation and smelting capacity accounting for nearly 90% of the global total. In addition, China's rare earth consumption is also the largest in the world, and the market demand is huge, to the extent that the United States has to transport a large amount of its mined rare earth minerals to China.

But it is also necessary to see the continuous improvement of overseas rare earth separation capacity. The United States is collaborating with Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and other countries to layout, research and development, and production bases, actively promoting the establishment of another "non dependent" rare earth industry chain in China.

For example, Australian company Linus has invested in the construction of a rare earth separation plant in Kuantan, Malaysia, American company Molycorp has invested $1.6 billion in the preparation of light rare earth processing facilities, and the US Department of Defense has provided $35 million to Pashan Materials for heavy rare earth separation processing

Although Chinese enterprises still dominate the global rare earth industry chain and hold the largest number of patents. But after years of planning and layout, the United States has indeed made significant progress in rebuilding the rare earth industry chain, seeking to "decouple" from China's rare earth industry.