The reason for the rise in the cost of metals – the trade war between China and the United States Recently, the prices of metals that are used to make electronics have increased significantly. This is due to the restrictions imposed by China on the extraction and export of rare earth elements. Discuss
Even in the last year, the cost of rare earths has become much higher, TechSpot reports. So, lithium has become more expensive by 150 percent, holmium – more than twice, neodymium, praseodymium – by more than 73 percent, and copper, tin, aluminum, cobalt, copper, terbium oxide – by 82 percent.
< p class = "jsx-4247481572">Some experts believe that China is to blame for the rise in prices and the lack of elements for the production of smartphones, PCs and other equipment. He controls at least 85 percent of all processing of rare earth metals and 55 percent of world production. He also limited the supply of rare earth metals to other countries.
in the United States and thus reducing the country's dependence on China. At the same time, one of the largest Chinese organizations Shenghe Resources has a minority stake in MP Materials (an American company whose activities are related to the production of rare earth metals).
In addition, America is forced to ship a large part of the concentrates (about 50 thousand tons annually) to China for processing.
It is assumed that Apple, Amazon, Dell, Facebook, Logitech, Sennheiser will soon have to raise prices for their products. Now the American company Sonos has announced the future rise in price of technology. The manufacturer plans to increase the cost from $ 10 to $ 100 starting this month, depending on the product. It will be clear after a while whether this trend will continue, the author concludes.