From the frying pan into the fire. This is roughly how analysts characterize Europe’s metal supply situation. Having abandoned Russian exports, the Old World, as they say, clung to the Chinese needle.
According to analysts, China now dominates the entire value chain for most green products produced in EU countries. It is China that today produces more than half of the battery metals. We are mainly talking about cobalt, lithium and manganese. As for rare earth metals, in some cases, China accounts for 100% of their production.
For example, 97% of the lithium and 93% of the manganese needed by the European Union are produced in China. Tungsten and scandium China produces 69% and 66% respectively. And titanium and vanadium – 45% and 39%, respectively.
However, the dependence on China in the production of rare earth metals is not so serious. The real problem for Europe is that it cannot obtain fewer rare metals.
It has come to the point that this year, for the first time, the EU has classified copper and nickel as critical raw materials. But there are enough producing countries in the world. However, they are simply not able to meet the demand from European states.
Experts are already saying that the situation in this area is a complete analogue of the collapse of Russian oil and gas. Having made the political decision to refuse imports of Russian raw materials, Europe admitted some time ago that it could not find an alternative to them.
The situation with metals is the same. Having refused to cooperate with Russia, Europe found itself on the verge of a shortage of lithium, cobalt, manganese and copper. China is the only state capable of meeting Europe’s needs in this area. But the Old World does not really want to go to Beijing to bow.
Read the Latest Government Politics News on The Eastern Herald.
