China's Strategic Mineral Export Controls: A New Chess Move in Global Trade
In a move that has sent ripples throughout the global trade landscape, China has recently imposed export controls on five key minerals: tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum, and indium. These minerals, crucial for various defense and high-tech applications, have now become a focal point in the ongoing geopolitical chess game.
The Minerals at Stake
* Tungsten: Known for its exceptional heat resistance and hardness, tungsten is essential for manufacturing cutting tools, armor-piercing projectiles, and high-temperature applications in aerospace and defense.
* Tellurium: Primarily used in solar panels and metallurgy, tellurium is vital for renewable energy technologies and certain types of steel production.
* Bismuth: With applications in pharmaceuticals, alloys, and ceramics, bismuth is critical for various industries, including nuclear and chemical.
* Molybdenum: Valued for its strength and corrosion resistance, molybdenum is crucial in producing high-strength steel alloys used in construction, automotive, and defense.
* Indium: Primarily used in LCD screens and semiconductors, indium is essential for consumer electronics and advanced technology applications.
Why China's Move Matters
China's dominance in the global production and supply of these minerals gives it significant leverage in international trade. By imposing export controls, China can:
* Influence Global Supply Chains: Restricting access to these minerals can disrupt manufacturing processes and potentially increase costs for industries reliant on them.
* Gain Strategic Advantage: In a world increasingly focused on technological and military advancements, controlling the supply of these minerals can provide a competitive edge.
* Respond to Trade Tensions: This move can be seen as a response to trade restrictions or tariffs imposed by other countries, adding another layer to the complex web of global trade relations.
Global Implications and Responses
China's export controls have raised concerns among importing nations, particularly those heavily reliant on these minerals for their defense and technology sectors. In response, countries may:
* Seek Diversification: Explore alternative sources for these minerals or invest in domestic production to reduce dependence on China.
* Promote Recycling and Substitution: Develop strategies to recover and reuse these minerals from existing products or find alternative materials for critical applications.
* Strengthen International Cooperation: Collaborate with allies to counter China's influence and ensure access to these vital resources.
The Future of Critical Minerals Trade
China's recent move underscores the growing importance of critical minerals in global trade and geopolitics. As technology advances and defense applications evolve, the demand for these resources will likely increase, making their supply a strategic asset.
The world is watching closely as this new chapter unfolds, with potential implications for global trade, technological competition, and international relations.
Molybdenum, btw, is what gives gun barrels that distinctive “gun metal blue” colour. Also, rare earth metals are why everyone is so interested in Greenland all of a sudden.
Following on my earlier comment about Greenland Canada and Ukraine...
A lot of weird shit going on.
I saw a report about a bunch of our bombers sent to Eastern Europe. And I think I recall two or three other signs of increased fortification against possible Russia action.
At the same time, we've got the fucking Saudis mediating negotiations between Putin and the US over Ukraine and Ukraine is not at the table?
WTF?
Maybe Trump is further down the western Bell ski slope than I thought.
We also have the huuuuuuge Problem with the Trump family sitting on $2 billion dollars of Saudi money which with a typical deal structure to generate 40 million a year in fees plus 20% of profits.
Where is this going. Is it already in Bitcoin? For the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve mother of all pump and dump scams? Could be but I am pretty sure Trump cares about legacy as much as money at this point. So might be more like load up on Bitcoin. Talk about Strategic Bit oin Reserve. Dump into the hype.
Also Trump has a deal brewing with KKR and others. No idea what yet. Could be anything. TikTok or Crypto or his Social Media Scam. Or a deal with foreign private biz that Trump Org has stated they are pursuing but not foreign govt deals (LOL. Yeah, done with government officials would be a private deal)
Saudis are also second largest X shareholder after Musk. Qatar has a stake to.
Misdirection is an essential element of Comedy, War, Politics, Scams and more.
Enemies and criminals are everywhere. This may turn out to be one of the craziest times ... Well I'm not sure. I was going to say that Civil War or the American founding but they were still plenty of people of good character then. There are too few now. We had all our best conservatives in the Senate vote to confirm insanely unqualified people with three of the four being Democrats with long list of dequalifications.
Hegseth is right out of central casting for photo ops but who the hell is running the defense department? As war with China and Iran looms. Russia is a question mark when it should be the same category as Iran. And all this reduces North Korea to a wallflower which it isn't.
Things are looking much like what TXIconoclast predicted in the '90s
All of this is layered on top of inconceivable debt levels that almost none of the population understands. We got people focusing on the state of debt that they ignored during Trump term when he ran up the debt twice as fast as Obama who who ran it up unprecedentedly fast. And no one, Not even the gay Soros Treasury Secretary or David Stockman here or anyone of note talking about the off books LTUL debt which is $80 Trillion in addition to stated debt of $36T.
Getting the debt down a reasonable levels is going to require austerity. Fighting China Iran and Russia would not be a good thing especially if we have austerity first. War inflicted austerity is one thing. Pre-war austerity is bad. The depression and old man Joe Kennedy for the reason we stupidly delayed entry in the World War II. Of course Joe Kennedy hated the English. But still
There's a lot of convergence going on
We need to be eliminating threats and eliminating them quickly and decisively
There is no reason for us to back off on Ukraine
Russia can be imploded from here very very easily which I believe was a goal all along just as it was the goal of the US under Reagan. TXIconoclast knew what was happening 6 years before it happened. But he had Howard Raifa at HBS.
What at the moment we've got over 50 trillion dollars of GDP allies against Russia's 2. Even adjusting for purchasing power parity, it's still 3 to 5 times bigger.
Russia is totally dependent on oil. Ukraine dinged some Russia refineries. They could be dinged more. I understand efforts are underway to shut down RF shadow fleet.
So appears pressure is being put on Russia. But a Ukraine Deal is beyond stupid.
Putin is as I sessed with Ukraine for Legacy as Xi with Taiwan for same reason
Dealing with them is like dealing with terrorists. Truce is a gift to allow them to rebuild
If China moves on Taiwan 2027 or surprise (not really 2026. The only reason for stating when you're going to go to war is because you're planning on going to war at a different time)....Putin takes Ukraine and who knows how much more.
Latvia is never talked about except as part of the Baltics but is has the northernmost port that doesn't freeze over in the winter immensely strategic to RF.
A lot of this revolves around who really owns Trump. Saudis? Musk? No One in Long Run?
Trump is attacking Zellensky Which is pretty much insane under any scenario Is this only embolden's Putin. The only scenario I can think of it would make sense as if Trump is setting up to sandbag Putin with a crushing attack when talks break down. But I don't think Trump has the balls to do it
Trump is a s***** negotiator and developer and the art of the deal is all b*******.
You don't negotiate against yourself which is what he's doing by attacking Zelensky
Then we have Tulsi as DNI which just causes me to wipe out every time I think about it as it's beyond insane.
I mean she was the vice chairman of the Democratic Party. Who congressional voting scores one point below Kamala. She's no conservatives she's no GOP. Her perfect reason for leaving the left was over the cosplay eunuchs, our term.
Musk doesn't know shit outside his areas of expertise and he and Trump are now the most corrupt in US History
One option would be a simultaneous attack on Iran and Russia.
Especially their oil capability.
Because any action against one benefits the other greatly with higher prices.
But if Iran and Russia Oil output and/or delivery capability were crippled simultaneously...both could implode quickly. This would hurt China as well.
A dual attack would have to be fairly severe as far as oil goes. Because dinging both were just driving the price up so they could bring in as much revenue with less output.
It would have to ding them hard enough that The production loss would mean less revenue even at much higher prices.
So that does not mean a 20% or 50% ding
Also Europe cant withstand skyrocketing oil prices long but it is cheaper than a devastating war.
Another option could be a lightning devastating attack on Iran that vaporizes the government and military but doesn't destroy the oil so we can take over the oil fields and keep it flowing and let Iranians purge the Muslims (with some of our help)
Having Israel secured would be a prerequisite for all this and it already reasonably so though mob up will take forever unless Gaza cleared.
The biggest problem here
Saudis Putin Xi are very likely each much smarter than Trump
Trump doesn't listen and his real agenda is opaque
He and Musk can never be trusted
We've been saying this before they hooked up
I mean what has happened since they hooked up already It's just astounding and nobody is making an issue of it. The left doesn't really understand it and the right won't say a word even the ones that don't like Trump
Trump totally flipped on ending almost government benefits which should have been the first thing cut, flipped on Crypto, is giving Musk tariffs (Remember Musk was begging for these in the spring before he bought Trump)
And mushrooms literally going around closing agencies like CFPB because it was going to start regulating X because of its payment system which is about to roll out and firing people at other agencies like FAA and FDA that were investigating or about to investigate his businesses
This is corruption at the highest level imaginable
Gaetz was insane which makes Bondi look good but she isnt and took a $25,000 campaign donation from Trump and suddenly lost interest in pursuing the Trump University case. That is just qualifying for someone to be an AG of a state no less the USA.
Now the max Trump weirdness was summer 2020
June 22nd he tweeted about China printing millions of ballots and then did nothing about it
That was f****** weird as s***. We have the capability to track those balance from the factory to the court to the USA port to the warehouses. He did nothing.
Then the most weird and I can't find the tweet anymore which is suspicious itself It was only up briefly and I haven't been able to find it in an archive maybe you have capability
In August 2020 he tweeted that he had to go away for a little while because wealthy bad people wanted to hurt him.
I don't understand why everybody doesn't remember this. I've had some people remember when I've asked him about it and they're prompted. But no one talks about it no one seems to remember it
That was the same month as his brother died
Unfortunately I don't recall if the tweet was before or after the brother's death.
I don't know if the death was suspicious or not. I do know that red flag collector Patrick Byrne claimed That Melania was told that Trump had been threatened. But I don't think he ever mentioned when she was told.
Trump is a big bully p****. He steamrolls people that can't fight and he caves quickly with people that can.
We can't think of a more important question than who the f*** threaten Trump August 2020 that made him tweet that.
Obviously for him to tweet that that was not a routine random meaningless threat It was something he took seriously. And as I recall he did disappear for a week or two.
I have no idea how they send it up being so f****** long. I was just going to make an add-on comment. But you're smart and knowledgeable so there's few people that we can talk about stuff like this with.
Will be interesting to see what you have to say. DM is fine if you prefer