Brief

US-China Trade War Affects Materials for New Energy Technologies

Tin metal-Malaysia used to be the largest producer of tin in the world

New energy technologies require mineral resources such as copper, cobalt and lithium. A shift in the global energy system from fossil fuels- driven by cost reductions that are making new technologies  are increasingly competitive and by government policies to fight global warming and local pollution-is expected to result in steep increases in demand for some metals and other materials.

Demand for copper, for example, could rise by 275 to 350 per cent by 2050, according to research by Yale University in the US. The World Bank estimated in 2017 that action to limit the rise in global temperature to 2OC from pre-industrial levels could a seven-fold increase in demand for cobalt and an eleven-fold increase in demand for lithium by 2050.

 Chinese companies have been investing to secure supplies of these minerals, buying up mines in countries from Australia to South America.

Simon Moores of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a research firm, said the importance of technologies such as electric vehicles and battery storage meant “whoever controls these supply chains controls industrial power in the 21st century”.

Concern about mineral supplies has been growing in the US administration and Congress and has been heightened by China’s warnings of plans to curb export of rare earths. China accounts for mote than 80 per cent of world rare earths production.

The US commerce department has published a report in 2018 looking at 35 critical minerals, which found that imports accounted for more than 50 per cent of US domestic demand for 29 of them, and 100 per cent for 14 of them.

The list of the 35 critical minerals include the following:

  1. Aluminum (bauxite), used in almost all sectors of the economy.
  2. Antimony, used in batteries and flame retardants.
  3. Arsenic, used in lumber preservatives, pesticides and semiconductors.
  4. Barite, used in cement and petroleum industries.
  5. Beryllium, used as alloying agent in aerospace and defense industries.
  6. Bismuth, used in medical and atomic research.
  7. Cesium, used in R&D.
  8. Chromium, used primarily in stainless steel and other alloys.
  9. Cobalt, used in rechargeable batteries and superalloys.
  10. Fluorspar, used in the manufacture of aluminum, gasoline and uranium fuel.
  11. Gallium, used in integrated circuits and optical devices like LEDs.
  12. Germanium, used fir fiber optics and night vision applications.
  13. Graphite (natural), used for lubricants, batteries and fuel cells.
  14. Hafnium, used for nuclear control rods, alloys, and high-temperature ceramics.
  15. Helium, used fir MRIs, lifting agent, and research.
  16. Indium, used mostly in LCD screens.
  17. Lithium, used primarily for batteries.
  18. Magnesium, used in furnace linings for manufacturing steel and ceramics.
  19. Manganese, used in steelmaking.
  20. Niobium, used mainly in steel alloys.
  21. Platinum group metals, used for catalytic agents.
  22. Potash, mainly used as fertilizers.
  23. Rare earth elements group, primarily used in batteries and electronics.
  24. Rhenium, used for lead-free gasoline and superalloys.
  25. Rubidium, used for R&D in electronics.
  26. Scandium, used for alloys and fuel cells.
  27. Strontium, used for pyrotechnics and ceramic magnets.
  28. Tantalum, used in electronic components, mostly capacitors.
  29. Tellurium, used in steelmaking and solar cells.
  30. Tin, used as protective coatings and alloys for steel.
  31. Titanium, used as a white pigment or metal alloys.
  32. Tungsten, used to make wear-resistant metals.
  33. Uranium, mostly used for nuclear fuel.
  34. Vanadium, mostly used for titanium alloys.
  35. Zirconium, used in high-temperature ceramic industries.

Source: www.usgs.gov.

Reference for article: Ed Crook Financial Times, June 12th, 2019.