Auto companies ‘in full panic’ over rare-earths bottleneck

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Auto companies ‘in full panic’ over rare-earths bottleneck

STORY: Car executives have once again been driven into their war rooms.

They’re concerned that China’s tight export controls on rare-earth magnets – crucially needed to make cars – could cripple production.

Cars today use rare-earths-based motors in dozens of components.

They include side mirrors, speakers, oil pumps, wipers, and sensors for fuel leakage and braking sensors.

Electric vehicles use more rare-earths than combustion engine cars.

Industry leaders are worried that the situation could become the third massive supply chain shock in five years.

A semiconductor shortage wiped away millions of cars from production plans between 2021 and 2023.

Before that, the pandemic shut factories for weeks.

This time, as the rare-earths bottleneck tightens, the industry has few good options.

That’s because China dominates the market.

It controls around 70% of global rare-earths mining, 85% of refining capacity and about 90% of rare-earths metal alloy and magnet production, according to industry data.

The fate of automakers’ assembly lines has been left to a small team of ******** bureaucrats as it reviews hundreds of applications for export permits.

In Europe, the region’s auto supplier association says several plants have already shut down, with more outages coming.

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