Maybe, but so long as we have plenty of transformium, we'll be just fine... 😉
Posted on 12/04/2024 12:54:56 AM PST by Olog-hai
China announced Tuesday it is banning exports to the United States of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications, as a general principle, lashing back at U.S. limits on semiconductor-related exports.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced the move after the Washington expanded its list of Chinese companies subject to export controls on computer chip-making equipment, software and high-bandwidth memory chips. Such chips are needed for advanced applications.
The ratcheting up of trade restrictions comes as President-elect Donald Trump has been threatening to sharply raise tariffs on imports from China and other countries, potentially intensifying simmering tensions over trade and technology.
China’s Foreign Ministry also issued a vehement reproof.
“China has lodged stern protests with the U.S. for its update of the semiconductor export control measures, sanctions against Chinese companies, and malicious suppression of China’s technological progress,” Lin Jian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said in a routine briefing Tuesday.
“I want to reiterate that China firmly opposes the U.S. overstretching the concept of national security, abuse of export control measures, and illegal unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction against Chinese companies,” Lin said. …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
This is why it’s important to national security that we produce as much of what we need as possible, and not be dependent upon our international rivals.
Surprised that this is necessary as ChiComs have infiltrated every research lab and tech companies.
Gallium is the 34th most abundant element in the crust. This is comparable to the crustal abundances of lead.
About 118 tons of germanium were produced in 2011 worldwide, mostly in China (80 t), Russia (5 t) and United States (3 t). A recent study found that at least 10,000 t of extractable germanium is contained in known zinc reserves, particularly those hosted by Mississippi-Valley type deposits. In 2007, 35% of the demand was met by recycled germanium.
The abundance of antimony in the Earth's crust is estimated at 0.2 parts per million, i.e., THREE TIMES more than silver at 0.07 ppm.
In other words: YAWN.
Regards,
If we have trouble with supplies, it’s probably because of eco-extremists and government over-regulation on mining.
they’re pretty sanctimonious after murdering millions of people recently with their bio-engineered bat virus they unleashed. Me no likey the chinese
And the destruction of the US domestic mining industry, plus the destruction of the industries that supported it.
Trump will make sure that we’ll be digging out our own soon enough.
I don't know what the term for it is in economics, but in the case of these elements - which are vital in the manufacture of microchips - they are not directly mined. Rather, they are mostly recovered from mine tailings, fly ash, and other waste products. And much is recycled from scrap electronics. So the problem isn't that that rich-ore reserves have been depleted, or that only some countries (China) possess the resource. Rather, these elements are nigh ubiquitous - but in relatively low concentrations. The problem is thus in the technical difficulty of recovery.
Coal flue dust - a waste product of coal-burning power plants - is an example. It's an excellent source of gallium. China has lots of such plants. The U.S., meanwhile, is shutting down its coal-burning power plants.
See the problem?
Anyway, back to the economic phenomenon to which I was referring: If the market price of gallium, for instance, were to, say, double, the U.S. would suddenly find itself up to its ears in domestic sources of gallium which it would then be economically feasible to exploit.
And we use only a couple of hundred tons or couple of thousand tons annually of these elements in the electronics industry. While they are vital there, it's not like a doubling of prices would hurt us much. (Would be like jacking up the price of the specialized twine you use for very narrow purposes - in the grand scheme of things, no biggie!)
Regards,
Exactly. And China funds the eco-extremist cults.
We’re going to be in a huge bind if they ban the export of unobtainium.
Then you aren’t paying attention at all.
We can’t do ‘XYZ’ here at this time because the tech and industrial pyramid was destroyed by feckless government. It will take time to rebuild all that and there are hurdles to overcome to do that. We *should* start now, *but* we need to realize it may be years before we can rebuild the lost capability.
Look at what happened to Germany in the interwar period between WW1 and WW2. They *lost* all of their naval shipbuilding capacity for capital ships in the wake of the Versailles treaty and in fact lost most of their naval architects. In the interwar period, the new Reich tried to rebuild along the lines of the Risikoflotte with surface combatants. They poured the equivalent of billions of dollars into their surface combatant programs - but all they could produce were compromised and inefficient if not outright dangerous designs (German destroyers breaking in half and sinking for no apparent reason comes to mind...). There wasn’t a single actually good German surface combatant in WW2 because they’d lost the expertise, they’d lost the support industry, they’d lost the capability and they didn’t have nearly enough time to get it back before the war was upon them. We are in that same situation now - I am pointing this out because *you* seem to believe that just snapping your fingers and imposing tariffs will instantly restore an industry or capability that we destroyed and reality doesn’t work that way. We have to reconstruct that capability, and yes, we have to start now - but we won’t see results in the short term and we should not expect them.
The eco-extremists will be screaming “Dig, Baby, Dig!” when they discover that the newest iPhone, iWatch, stupid trending iGottahaveit is not available.
Exactly. Trump might be playing China. If they ban the exports and it is vital for national security,he can declare a national emergency on that and suspend all environmental restrictions on mining it in the US
I found your take on the WWII German navy interesting. You said “There wasn’t a single actually good German surface combatant in WW2”. What about the Bismarck and Tirpitz?
Great posts — thanks for the education!
If they were really playing hard ball they could ban exports of pharmaceuticals. It would take a while for the U.S. to catch up. Why we buy drugs from China (or anything for that matter) is simply dumbfounding.
Suddenly, Democrats are in favor of tariffs
Maybe, but so long as we have plenty of transformium, we'll be just fine... 😉
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