China has responded to the US by putting the global chip industry against the strings. This is your strategy

Last April 4 The Chinese government formalized its response to the tariffs approved by the administration led by Donald Trump. On April 10 China will impose a 34% tariff To all Imports from the US. The choice of that day is not casual. And is that the tariffs approved by the Donald Trump administration will take effect on April 9. Just a day before.

Presumably the Chinese government has chosen to keep a few days of margin in the hope of reaching an agreement with its American counterpart and relax a little tension. However, China’s response to the US does not only happen to establish new tariffs; He has also chosen to suspend the import licenses of products belonging to six US companies, as well as imposing More export controls of some rare earths.

This is not at all the first time that the Xi Jinping government decides to pressure the US and its allies establishing limitations to the export of these raw materials. In fact, on December 21, 2023 the Chinese administration decided to restrict export of some of its rare earth processing technologies, shaping a maneuver that seeks to defend their strategic interests in full confrontation with the US and its allies. And at the beginning of December 2024 He chose to prohibit The export of critical minerals to the nation currently governed by Donald Trump.

The US is going to run out of the scandio and beaming from China

Since last December China does not export to the US three essential chemical elements for the semiconductor industry (Galio, Germanio and Antimony), as well as some materials that are characterized by their extreme hardness, and which, therefore, can be used for military applications. However, in response to the last tariffs approved by the US The Chinese government has decided Include in its list of transition metals subjected to export controls the Scandio and Disposio.

These chemical elements are probably less known than metals prohibited by China previously, such as Gallium or Germanio, but are at least as important as the latter. In fact, the Xi Jinping administration has chosen them because it is fully aware of the deep impact that these restrictions will have Not only in telecommunications industries and the manufacture of storage devices, which directly affect, but in the entire global supply chain linked to the semiconductor industry.

The scandio is usually used in the radiofrequency modules used by smartphones, base stations and Wi-Fi modules, while the Disprosius is involved in the manufacture of reading and writing heads used by hard discs, and also in the manufacture of electric cars. He China Ministry of Commerce It has prohibited the US export of these metals with immediate effect, so Chinese companies can no longer export products containing scandio, disposium, gadolinio, terbio, lutecio, samarium and ititrio.

Presumably the export licenses of these critical minerals will only be granted under certain very strict conditions. However, the ban not only conditions the export of finished products containing these metals; also Denies the export of these gross mineralsin the form of metal or as compounds. Some of the companies that will with all likelihood suffer from the new prohibitions of China’s critical minerals are American, such as Broadcom, Qualcomm, Seagate or Western Digital. But there are also Taiwanese and South Korean companies, such as TSMC or Samsung. In the short term it seems that global geopolitical tensions will not love.

Image | Skyater

More information | China Ministry of Commerce

In Xataka | The US will not be able to contain the technological development of China. Experts from the chips industry forecast it