Rare Earth Shockwave: China’s Metal Curbs Jolt Tech Industry as Trump Threatens 100% Tariffs
On October 9, Beijing dropped a bombshell announcement that sent tremors through the global tech and manufacturing sectors. China’s Ministry of Commerce unveiled new export controls on rare earth elements, vastly expanding an earlier round of curbs from Aprilreuters.comreuters.com. Five additional rare-earth metals – holmium, erbium, thulium, europium, and ytterbium – were added to China’s restricted list, which already included seven key rare earths from prior controlsts2.techreuters.com. In effect, 12 out of the 17 rare-earth elements are now subject to Chinese export licensing and quotas, covering well over half of the rare-earth periodic tablets2.tech. These metals might sound obscure, but they are fundamental ingredients in modern high-tech hardware and defense systemsts2.tech.
