How far is Europe from securing its rare earth future?
China, which has been the long-standing dominator of rare earths and its supply chain, imposed strict restrictions on rare earth exports on October 8. Many dependents on China’s rare earth, including the US and the EU, faced impacts, but later on, managed to strike a year-long truce. Beside China, the EU also entered into rare earth supply agreements with Canada, Namibia, Chile and others. Meanwhile, the bloc is also targeting to become self-reliant with 10 per cent extraction, 40 per cent processing and 15 per cent recycling. We are here to analyse if self reliance with no trace of domestic rare earth mining would be feasible for Europe.
EU’s imports of rare earth from China
As per the report of Statista, the EU imports nearly half of its rare earth from China, followed by Russia, which accounts for almost 29 per cent and then Malaysia at 20 per cent. In 2024, the EU imported a total of 5,984 tonnes of rare earth from China, 3,676 tonnes from Russia, and 2,579 tonnes from Malaysia. Other countries like Japan, the UK, Vietnam, the USA, and Norway also export rare earth to the EU.
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