The car industry says they will shut down in about 2 weeks without neodymium. It’s essentially not possible for China to be unaware of this.
“During this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday...”
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Maybe a bit off topic here but the plethora of politically oriented Sunday talk shows is a strange cultural phenomena. Hard to believe that some people spend a good portion of their Sunday’s watching talking heads blathering on about their world views and opining on everything under the sun. JMHO
We buy gold
We buy electric motors
“The world’s production of neodymium was about 7,000 tons in 2004. The bulk of current production is from China. Historically, the Chinese government imposed strategic material controls on the element, causing large fluctuations in prices. The uncertainty of pricing and availability have caused companies (particularly Japanese ones) to create permanent magnets and associated electric motors with fewer rare-earth metals; however, so far they have been unable to eliminate the need for neodymium.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium