China’s weaponization of rare earths in its trade war with the US will spark a much greater focus on American supply security for critical minerals, according to MP Materials Corp., the only US miner of the key materials used in smartphones and defense applications.
“Regardless of how trade negotiations evolve from here, the system as it existed is broken, and the rare-earth Humpty Dumpty, so to speak, is not getting put back together,” the miner’s chief executive officer, Jim Litinsky, said on an earnings call last Friday.
China, which dominates global supply, put export restrictions on seven types of rare earths last month, widely viewed as a response to President Donald Trump’s trade assault. Companies including Ford Motor Co. have warned of shortages, and US negotiators had hoped to address rare earths in their Geneva appointment with Chinese officials, according to people familiar with the matter.
For the rest of this article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-12/china-s-rare-earth-curbs-have-changed-psychology-at-us-firms?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_content=business&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin