Industry frontier news, rare earth elements are indispensable for high-tech development such as new energy and new materials. They are especially valuable in aerospace, national defense and military industry. The results of modern war show that rare earth weapons dominate the war situation, the technical advantage of rare earth represents the advantage of military technology, and the possession of resources is guaranteed.
Therefore, rare earth has also become a strategic resource for the world's major economies, and the strategy of key raw materials such as rare earth often rises to the national strategy. Countries and regions such as Europe, Japan and the United States pay more attention to rare earth and other key materials. In 2008, rare earth materials were listed as the "key material strategy" by the U.S. Department of energy; At the beginning of 2010, the EU announced the establishment of rare earth strategic reserve; In 2007, Japan's Ministry of education, culture, science, economy and industry put forward the "element strategic plan" and the "rare metal alternative materials" plan. They have taken continuous measures and policies in terms of resource reserve, technological progress, resource acquisition, alternative materials seeking, etc.
european union
2008
The EU has issued a comprehensive policy, the EU raw material plan (RMI), which strives to ensure the supply of raw materials in third countries (cooperate with resource countries such as China and countries with high dependence on resource imports such as the United States and Japan to gradually eliminate trade barriers and export barriers) and EU countries (establish a good communication mechanism and carry out cooperative research), Improve resource utilization and recycling
2009
EU appeals to WTO on China's export restrictions on raw materials
In May 2009, the EU industry minister supported RMI, called on the EU to carry out "diplomacy" on raw materials, and requested the European Commission to draw up a list of scarce raw materials.
In November 2009, the EU began to test the shortage of raw materials. At the invitation of the EU Minister of industry, the European Commission established an expert group to delineate the framework list of shortage of raw materials.
In December 2009, 19 substances were preliminarily delineated, increasing the shortage of minerals to 39. Experts identified three risks: 1) import risk: raw materials are mainly imported from politically unstable regions or from countries where the market economy does not work; 2) Production risk; 3) Environmental risk
2010
In early 2010, the EU announced the establishment of a strategic reserve of rare earths. According to the "raw material integration strategy" issued by the European Commission in November 2008, the EU will seek to establish better and less vulnerable raw material acquisition channels in the global market, and strengthen the exploration and exploitation of raw materials in Europe. At the same time, the EU will also improve the utilization efficiency of raw materials and shorten the recycling cycle, so as to reduce the demand for raw materials in the EU.
In March 2010, the General Department of enterprise and industry of the European Commission of the European Union and Japan reached an agreement on the stable supply of rare earth, indicating that the EU is willing to take a consistent step with Japan in international negotiations on the development of new rare earth technologies and the deployment of rare earth. The EU said that in order to effectively solve the shortage of rare earth supply, in addition to seeking China to improve rare earth exports in diplomacy, Japan and Europe should also strengthen cooperation in the research and development of new rare earth recycling technologies and accelerate the development of rare earth substitute elements.
On June 17, 2010, the EU official in charge of raw material policy said that Europe needs to import about 40 kinds of rare raw materials to ensure the production of high-tech products. Among them, 14 kinds of raw materials will soon face supply shortage. These 14 kinds of raw materials (including antimony, cobalt, indium, tungsten, gallium, platinum family and rare earths) are only mined in a few countries such as China, In particular, almost 100% of rare earth materials come from China.
In June 2010, the EU released a report saying that as raw materials such as rare earths are "of great significance to the economic development of the EU", the pressure on relevant industries will continue to increase due to the sharp decline in China's rare earth exports. Some European economists said that China could be threatened by raising restrictions on imports of Chinese products.
From July 12 to 13, 2010, EU environment ministers discussed the initiative of the Belgian EU presidency on "sustainable material management".
On November 9, 2010, the European Commission issued a new trade strategy document entitled "trade, growth and world affairs", with special emphasis on intellectual property protection, raw material supply, energy supply and other issues, advocating a tougher strategy to open the external market for EU enterprises.
Issue the report on EU key raw materials, propose to update the list of EU key raw materials every five years, and expand the scope of risk assessment; Formulate policies to obtain more major resources and improve the recycling efficiency of raw materials and products containing raw materials; Encourage the substitution of specific raw materials, especially promote the substitution research of key raw materials; Improve the overall material efficiency of key raw materials.
In November 2010, the EU published a long-term strategy document to ensure the import of raw materials, so as to better ensure the supply of raw materials for high-tech products.
2011
The EU discussed and solved the challenges of commodity market and raw materials, proposed to determine key raw materials, and determined comprehensive measures to ensure the sustainable supply of raw materials from domestic and global markets to the EU. It also stressed the role of trade policy in this field. It will promote mining, recycling, research, innovation and substitution within the EU, and finally improve the consistency of EU raw materials and external policies.
On June 22, 2011, the EU general trade department and his delegation visited China to exchange information on Rare Earths with the Department of raw materials industry (rare earth office). The two sides had an understanding and exchange on China's problems in the rare earth industry and the special rectification plan. China said it would effectively manage rare earth exports in accordance with WTO rules. At the same time, it hoped that other countries with rare earth resources in the world would also actively develop rare earth resources and jointly bear the responsibility of global rare earth supply.
2012
In March 2012, a senior official of the U.S. Department of Commerce revealed that the United States, the European Union and Japan had begun to sue China to the WTO due to China's restrictions on rare earth exports.
On March 13, 2012, the United States, Japan and Europe resorted to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism for export tariffs, export quotas and export quota management and distribution measures of China's rare earth, tungsten and molybdenum related products. The two sides failed to negotiate. On July 23 of the same year, the WTO established an expert group as the ruling body of the case.
The European Commission launched the issue of "innovative partnership for raw materials" and proposed to ensure the sustainable supply of raw materials in Europe by strengthening the innovation of the whole raw material value chain.
In September 2012, the director general of EU trade held consultations with representatives of the Chinese government on its anti-dumping case against China's solar cells. The European side said that the European side understands that the case is of great value and has its particularity. It is in the interests of both sides to avoid trade conflicts. In the process of filing the case for investigation, the EU is willing to hold consultations and discussions with China on the case and jointly explore solutions to the problem under the WTO rules and EU legal framework. The industry of both sides can also decide to carry out consultations independently.
2013
The EU issued the implementation of the raw material plan as an extension of the 2008 and 2011 reports.
On December 2, 2013, the EU held a dialogue with the United States and Japan on key raw materials, reviewed the list of key raw materials, and discussed the establishment of a joint database
In December 2013, the joint research center of the European Commission released a research report entitled "key metals in the low-carbon economy of the EU energy industry", which investigated the supply of raw materials in the manufacturing of low-carbon energy technologies. The study found that eight rare metals are at high risk of shortage. The growing geopolitical scope of EU's dependence on imports and other reasons. Among the eight "key" raw materials, six are rare earth metals (dysprosium, europium, terbium, yttrium, praseodymium and neodymium), and the other two are rare metals gallium and tellurium. Three rare metals (rhenium, indium, platinum) and graphite have medium and high risks, which indicates that the market of these metals needs to be monitored to prevent the deterioration of the situation from causing the risk of supply chain bottleneck.
2014
The joint research center of the European Commission released a research report entitled "key metals in the low-carbon economy of the EU energy industry", which investigated the supply of raw materials in the manufacturing of low-carbon energy technologies. The study found that eight metals are at high risk of shortage, including six rare earths (dysprosium, europium, terbium, yttrium, praseodymium and neodymium) and gallium and tellurium. Dysprosium is considered to be at high risk. It is estimated that the EU's demand for dysprosium will account for 25% of the global supply from 2020 to 2030 to meet its applications in hybrid and electric vehicles, wind turbines, etc.
From March 10 to 11, 2014, the EU and Latin America held a dialogue on raw materials, exchanged successful experiences and discussed how to enhance regional and bilateral cooperation.
In April 2014, the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission decided to temporarily implement zero import tariffs on pure and mixed forms of scandium and yttrium rare earth metals. These metals are used to obtain ultra hard materials. This measure aims to reduce the shortage of scandium and yttrium in the markets of Customs Union Member States, because these rare earth metals are almost not produced in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The implementation of zero tariff on the import of these rare earth metals will help customs union member States develop high-tech industries. In addition, the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission decided to increase the import tariff on rolls of some types of rolling mills from 0% to 8.3%. This is to improve the investment power of enterprises in customs union member states and help to expand the utilization of production equipment.
On April 26, 2014, the United States, Japan and the European Union preliminarily ruled that China lost the rare earth trade lawsuit against China, which was confirmed by the Ministry of Commerce on the evening of April 26. Yang Guohua, deputy director of the Department of treaty and law of the Ministry of Commerce, responded that at present, the Ministry of commerce is evaluating the ruling report of the WTO expert group, which emphasizes that the Chinese government still has the right to appeal to the WTO, and the case has not been "closed". According to the WTO appeal process, the Chinese government still has up to 90 days to decide whether to appeal.
The key raw materials report was published in May 2014, which pointed out that raw materials are an important part of the EU 2020 strategy and have an important impact on industrial policies in the era of globalization and improving the efficiency of resource use in Europe. EU 2020 strategy aims to improve the sustainable development of raw materials, which is also the development trend of non-ferrous metal industry in the future. The strategy advocates the non-ferrous metal industry to improve transparency, deepen the understanding of metals and their risks, enhance innovation and participation, and improve the recycling of metals.
On May 26, 2014, the European Commission issued the latest list of key raw materials, expanding the scope of the list from 14 to 20, namely: antimony, beryllium, borate, chromium, cobalt, coke, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, indium, magnesite, magnesium, natural graphite, niobium, platinum group metals, phosphate rock, heavy rare earth, light rare earth, metal silicon and tungsten. According to the report, the EU has two main considerations in selecting key raw material types: economic importance and supply risk. The main changes in the new list compared with the original list are as follows: first, rare earths are divided into two categories: Light Rare Earths and heavy rare earths; Second, remove tantalum from the list; Third, six key raw materials have been added: beryllium, borate, coke, magnesite, phosphate rock and metallic silicon. According to the report, in the global supply system, about 90% of the 54 categories of raw materials monitored and evaluated originate from non EU regions, and China is an important supplier of many raw materials.
In June 2014, the EU launched a mining policy seminar with participants including Canada, Australia, Chile, South Africa and the United States. The main topics include mining technology, land use planning and reducing pollution and waste in the mining process
On June 20, 2014, the "high level meeting on raw materials" was held, which proposed to reduce the dependence on key raw materials, improve the supply conditions of raw materials inside and outside the EU, promote the EU to be a pioneer in the raw material industry, select substitutes and reduce the negative impact on the environment and society.
In September 2014, the EU launched a Greenland seminar to discuss the raw material cooperation between the EU and Greenland, involving the Greenland government, mining companies, EU end users and suppliers, and mining support service providers in Greenland.
In November 2014, according to the European Defense Agency, Europe needs to jointly determine which raw materials are crucial to its defense field and ensure that the supply of these materials will not be interrupted. The European defense agency is planning to carry out new research on this issue. It said that the main purpose of this action should be to "alleviate, reduce or even eliminate" dependence on non EU suppliers providing these key materials. In the preamble of the bidding document issued for the study scheduled to be launched in 2015, the European Defense Agency said: "if the supply of raw materials used in the field of national defense technology is interrupted, it may endanger national defense strength, including the ability of the national defense industry to develop and support national defense technology and equipment."
On December 9, 2014, the EU announced the establishment of the Institute of raw materials innovation and Technology (raw materials EIT), which aims to integrate R & D and innovation resources in the field of raw materials in Europe, improve innovation capacity, meet the challenges of raw material supply, change the EU's dependence on imported raw materials, promote economic growth and improve global competitiveness.
2015
On March 17, 2015, the European Union proposed three principles for "responsible procurement of conflict minerals (gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten - 3tgs for short): 1. Do not lock specific mineral sources: enterprises should not only stop procurement for the regulated areas, but also know whether there are conflicts in other regions, such as South America, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. 2. Purchase of minerals other than 3tgs: in addition to prohibiting the purchase of 3tgs and other minerals, other minerals can still be purchased. Only the enterprise must recognize that other minerals may also come from other conflicting mineral sources, so the scope must be expanded during subsequent investigation. 3. Do not establish mandatory norms first: enterprises should voluntarily declare themselves according to the OECD program and become "responsible importers" after being verified by a third party.
On April 14, 2015, the International Trade Committee (inta) of the European Parliament discussed the legislation on conflict minerals and voted to recommend a compulsory certification management system for tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold from conflict areas such as Congo. The reason why the EU intends to regulate and manage conflict minerals is to prevent funds from falling into the hands of illegal armed forces in conflict areas. The EU is the world's largest importer of tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold, accounting for 35% of Global trade.
On November 18, 2015, Jane's defense weekly published a report entitled "Research on raw materials by the European Defense Agency". According to the European Defense Agency, Europe needs to jointly determine which raw materials are crucial to its defense field and ensure that the supply of these materials will not be interrupted. In the preamble of the bidding document issued for the study scheduled to be launched in 2015, the European Defense Agency said: "if the supply of raw materials used in the field of national defense technology is interrupted, it may endanger national defense strength, including the ability of the national defense industry to develop and support national defense technology and equipment." Rare earth elements entering the national defense industry include dysprosium, erbium, europium, gadolinium, neodymium, yttrium and praseodymium. The European Defense Agency said that these elements are "indispensable for military supplies, aerospace, military monitoring systems and military engine catalytic converters, permanent magnets, batteries, isotope batteries, lasers and X-ray tubes".
U.S.A
2008
In 2008, the U.S. National Research Council issued two reports, military materials management in the 21st century and minerals, critical minerals and the U.S. economy. Among the 36 strategic key materials listed, including 8 rare earth elements such as cerium, europium, lanthanum and neodymium, it pointed out that the minerals at greatest risk in the United States are indium, manganese, niobium, platinum group metals and rare earth elements.
2009
In April 2009, the Ministry of defense submitted the national war plan to Congress