On April 4, just 24 hours after Donald Trump announced the taxes that he was going to apply to the importation of most products from abroad, The administration led by Xi Jinping responded. And he did it with forcefulness. In early December 2024 He chose to prohibit The export of some critical minerals to the US, among which were three essential metals for the chips industry: Gallium, Germanio and Antimony.
Shortly after the Chinese government added two more critical metals to its list of export restrictions: the Scandio and the 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 because they have a fundamental role in the industries of integrated circuits, telecommunications and the manufacture of storage devices.
The ability to put pressure from China had not yet been extinguished. Just ten days later, on April 14, the Administration did not hesitate take another step forward With the purpose of putting in check, in addition to the industries that I just mentioned, those of electric cars, aeronautics and advanced armament. To achieve this, it effectively suspended, in addition to the export of the most valuable rare earths, that of high -power magnets that have a critical role in the industries that I have cited in this same paragraph.
Tungsten hunting and capture
Tungsten or Wolframium (W) is a relatively scarce metal in the earth’s crust. It is very dense and extremely hard (understanding hardness as its resistance to being scratched), but its most exotic physicochemical property is that it has the second highest melting point of all the chemical elements that we can find in the periodic table only behind the carbon (nothing less than 3,422 ° C). It has a very wide range of applications, but, curiously, from World War II it is much appreciated for its suitability when intervening in the tuning of the armor of some vehicles and in the manufacture of ammunition.
In February China announced that I was going to respond to US sanctions by enabling export controls of the strictest tungsten
China currently controls 83% of the world’s tungsten, which has placed this country in a very comfortable position that allows it to drastically limit the amount of this metal that reaches rival powers, among which is USA. It is just what you are doing. In February, the Chinese administration announced that I was going to respond to US sanctions and its allies enabling export controls of the strictest tungsten. From that moment on, the price of this mineral has progressively increased to its historical maximum. Today Wolframio is 55% more expensive that in February.
Beyond China, the main producers of Tungsten are Vietnam, Russia and some countries in Central Africa and South America. Anyway, Europe, Japan and South Korea are trying to ensure their supply of this metal by implementing political measures that seek to promote local production with the purpose of reducing China’s dependence. The US is even considering the possibility of replenishing its strategic tungsten reserve after selling it for many years.
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