

Is China playing a clever capitalist or malicious miscreant?


I. Once the U.S. Was a Rare Earth Leader



Neodymium wide




II. Tough Talk


Rare Earth miner






III. Is the U.S. Being Unfair?




iPhone 4S


Source: Reuters

Comments     Threshold


cheaper to buy full assembly
By Yofa on 3/19/2012 5:02:47 PM , Rating: 5
when it's cheaper to get a fully-assembled magnet assembly than it is to just buy the raw material, then yes, there is some unfairness involved.

china's policies are forcing north-american magnet designers to either pay ludicrous prices for the raw material, or do the right thing business-wise and get the assembly made in china, by a company that gets domestic pricing for the raw material, and shipped over for less than the cost of the raw material.

that means you're sending over your designs overseas so it can easily be duplicated. and the material still gets exported in the end, so the environmental concern excuse doesn't stand up. it's monopoly tactics.

RE: cheaper to buy full assembly
By Goty on 3/19/2012 6:24:43 PM , Rating: 2
China does this frequently. Want to do business here? Give us all of your designs so we can make cheap knockoffs and pocket the profits ourselves.

RE: cheaper to buy full assembly
By TSS on 3/20/2012 2:07:19 AM , Rating: 3
So china is always looking for the best deal for themselves. That's no different then the US or the EU.

I'd argue the fool here would be the person who would rely on somebody else to not do so.

The fool, in this case, is clearly the US for not keeping the mines operational at a low volume, with the option of scaling it to full production within a short timeframe. Instead i'm sure US presidents loved the possibility of shutting down the mines and getting some good graces from the enviromental movements.

China's still in the wrong though. Nothing good has ever come from a trade war. They are a new player in the global markets, the last time this happened (the 20's and 30's) they really weren't a significant power.

And we all know how that trade war ended.

