The restrictions led to a 51 per cent drop in China\u2019s rare earth magnet exports that month, compared with March, posing a \u201ccritical challenge\u201d to the global car industry, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie.<\/p>\n
France has become Europe\u2019s leading player in efforts to break dependence on China. It has more \u201cstrategic\u201d critical raw material projects than any country under an EU scheme aimed at increasing European supplies of certain metals, with nine out of a total of 47 projects, two of which relate to rare earths. <\/p>\n
But it is still far behind China and several companies said they had been overwhelmed by an influx of requests from carmakers and industrial groups looking for the materials used to make permanent magnets for applications such as fighter jets, wind turbines and EVs. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very frustrating because there is lots of demand and we don\u2019t have enough capacity to respond,\u201d said Erick Petit, chief executive of permanent magnet maker MagREEsource, which is developing one of the projects supported by the EU\u2019s Critical Raw Materials Act.<\/p>\n
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Rare earth minerals are not especially rare \u2014 the challenge is finding deposits that are economically viable to mine \u00a9 David Becker\/Reuters<\/p>\n
Solvay Chem, a unit of the Belgian chemicals company, has been inundated with \u201cdesperate\u201d pleas from customers concerned that a shortage of rare earths will leave them with \u201cimmediate problems\u201d, said its president, An Nuyttens. \u201cWe\u2019re getting calls every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some executives said a number of niche trading houses that buy and sell rare earths were getting \u201cgreedy\u201d and quoting prices up to 10 times higher than \u201cnormal\u201d.<\/p>\n
Over reliance on China has long been recognised as a key vulnerability by EU policymakers as the country supplies 98 per cent of EU rare earths magnet demand, according to European commission data.<\/p>\n
The minerals are not especially rare \u2014 the challenge is finding deposits that are economically viable to mine. Separating and processing them is complex, and China has become dominant by investing heavily across the supply chain. Its companies have benefited from less strict environmental rules and state support that western rivals have struggled to compete with.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s place at the centre of Europe\u2019s efforts to develop a rare earths industry comes from its history as a significant processor of the metals before it was outpaced by China. It also has abundant and relatively cheap nuclear energy, and investors have been enticed by President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s re-industrialisation push.<\/p>\n
Solvay has had a plant in La Rochelle, on France\u2019s west coast, since 1948, which in its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s produced as much as 15,000 tonnes of rare earth oxides per year. It said in April it would restart the production of heavy and light rare earth oxides for advanced magnet technology, using mined materials from non-Chinese sources. <\/p>\n
Rh\u00f4ne-Poulenc, a French chemicals group that was bought by Solvay in 2011, had an almost 50 per cent global market share in rare earths processing until the mid 1980s, said Emmanuel Hache, a researcher at France\u2019s Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris). <\/p>\n
\u201cExpertise is a big part of the puzzle and France has a lot of it,\u201d said Caroline Messecar, an analyst at price reporting agency Fastmarkets.<\/p>\n
Carester a Lyon-based start-up founded in 2019, was on track to produce heavy rare earth oxides from 2026, also from non-Chinese sources, said its president, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Carencotte. <\/p>\n
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Caremag, a subsidiary of Carester, in March secured \u20ac216mn from Japanese investors and the French government for a rare earth recycling and refining facility in Lacq, south of France \u00a9 Romain Perrocheau\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
A subsidiary of the company, Caremag, in March secured \u20ac216mn from Japanese investors and the French government for a recycling and refining facility in Lacq<\/a>, south of France, under the CRMA. The project has already allocated 70 per cent of its expected production over 10 years to customers, including carmaker Stellantis. <\/p>\n UK-based Less Common Metals is planning a \u20ac110mn plant in the same area to turn oxides into the rare earth metals and alloys that go into permanent magnets. The plant is contingent on LCM securing funding and long-term buyers, it said.<\/p>\n LCM, one of few companies outside China that can produce rare earth metals and alloys, a vital step between the separation of rare earths and their use in the permanent magnets used in cars and turbines, had been \u201cworking around the clock\u201d to support customers, said chair Grant Smith. <\/p>\n Petit from MagREEsource, a spinout from France\u2019s National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS), said the domestic industry needed more political and financial support, and buyers who were prepared to pay a premium for locally made magnets.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re very happy with the support\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009But compared to what\u2019s done in the USA or the support in China, it\u2019s unfortunately not enough.\u201d <\/p>\n Recommended<\/p>\n
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