Re: Rare earths
If China either turned off the tap, or hiked the prices (by politically punitive amounts, not economically rational ones) I'm wondering how long the disruption that caused would last? Long enough to be noticed, or not? I'm sure major users of the end products have stock on hand, but would their reserves last until alternative supply chains are fully operational?
The reserves would run out in two or three months max, likely much sooner. To bring alternative supply chains on line will take at least a year, more likely two or three and that is without all the protests and delays (rightfully) brought by environmental protection groups. The real problem with rare earths is that they occur in low grades in other ores and require some pretty intensive processing, which isn't exactly environmental friendly, which was one of the main reasons the supply of them was out sourced to (amongst others) PRC.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
