China has imposed new export controls on a group of minerals such as antimony – crucial to the US defence industry as a fire-retardant component used in machine bearings – a move that could send prices in the defence sector skyrocketing.
The lesser-known metal antimony is used in ammunition, infrared missiles, nuclear weapons and night vision goggles, as well as batteries and photovoltaic devices. Last year, China produced nearly half of the world’s antimony.
The limits, which came into effect on Sunday, apply to six antimony-related products, including antimony ores, antimony metals and antimony oxides.
About 22,000 tonnes of antimony were consumed in the US last year. China calculates Belgium accounted for 63% of US imports of antimony metal and oxide last year, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Belgium, the next-largest supplier, offered a share of about 8%.
China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement that the content was being banned “to safeguard national security and interests and meet international obligations such as nuclear nonproliferation.”
A Chinese villager weighs antimony ore collected from an illegal mine in Langshuijiang. China is now restricting exports of the substance.
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The US and other countries are struggling to reduce their dependence on China for critical materials for the defense and energy sectors. Yet, China still remains the biggest arms importer. Major import sources For 25 essential minerals, including tungsten, germanium, magnesium, barite, antimony, most rare earths, indium, graphite, gallium and arsenic.
This is the latest in a series of export restrictions imposed over the past year.
In December, China banned the export of technology for making rare earth magnets, followed by a ban on the export of technology for extracting and separating the critical materials.
Last year, it imposed export controls on gallium, germanium and graphite as part of a retaliatory trade war after the US restricted exports of advanced semiconductor chips to China.
in the first cold war Soviet Union, “We were anti-Soviet and didn’t import things that were sensitive to national security,” said former National Security Council (NSC) official Rob Greenway. “We were a net exporter everywhere. Because we’ve become a net importer everywhere, we have huge vulnerabilities, and our regulatory framework has not kept up with that in any way.”
Often used as a fire retardant, the little-known metal antimony, mined in facilities like the one above, is used in ammunition, infrared missiles, nuclear weapons and night vision goggles, as well as batteries and photovoltaic devices. China produced nearly half of the world’s antimony last year.
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Last year, China under Xi Jinping imposed export controls on gallium, germanium and graphite as part of a retaliatory trade war after the US restricted exports of advanced semiconductor chips to China.
“Our Partners – Japan, South Korea, Scandinavian countries, Central American countries — they’re very frustrated, because not only do they have the same problem, but we’re not making it easy for them,” said Greenway, now a director at the Ellison Center for National Security. “In some cases, we’re making it easy for China. We’re taxing Taiwanese exports, including semiconductors, more than Chinese exports.”
Antimony prices have nearly doubled this year to a record high of $22,750 a tonne and are expected to rise further because of export controls.
The new rules require vendors to apply for approval from the Chinese government through a license to sell any dual-use civilian and military materials and technology, a process that typically takes three months.
“China’s new restrictions on antimony — which is used in everything from night vision goggles to nuclear weapons and tanks — will require exporters to apply for certain licenses, which the Chinese Communist Party could delay or outright refuse,” said Rep. Rob Wittman, a Republican-Va. Wittman leads a working group on critical minerals policy in Congress.
“As the largest producer and processor of antimony, the CCP is employing the same strategies it did for gallium and germanium to assert its market dominance and put Western economies at risk – which is why we must move our critical mineral supply chains away from China.”
A US company, Perpetua Resources, wants to produce domestic antimony with support from the Pentagon and the US Export-Import Bank. It faces opposition from environmental groups and has first production scheduled for 2028, provided it gets a permit later this year.
But China’s restrictions have prompted the company to look for ways to ramp up production.
“We are looking at some things during construction to be able to produce antimony as quickly as possible for some strategic needs,” Perpetua Chief Executive Officer John Cherry told Reuters.
“America) Department of Defense The critical nature of antimony and the low supply available are known. We are hearing from many different sources about the supply shortage of antimony, that the market is very tight and getting tighter every day.”
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In a less-than-supervised move, China too lcopying exports onto superabrasive materials, Industrial diamonds with the highest level of hardness, and the machines that make them. Such materials are used across industries in the US and are essential in the defense and energy sectors.
“This has the potential to literally devastate the American economy. It’s really scary,” said former senior citizen Nazak Nikaktar. Department of CommerceT officer.
“This is not a glamorous field, but it’s a national security obligation to alert the world to it — it would take two to three years to build the capacity (for superabrasives) in the United States to support the defense industrial base.”
