Worried by an increasing dependency on the raw materials used to make smartphones, televisions and energy-saving lights, the EU on Thursday launched a new strategy to secure access to rare earth (RE) minerals and to reduce reliance on suppliers such as Chile, China and South Africa.
The EU is predicted to need about 60 times more lithium and 15 times more cobalt for electric vehicle batteries and energy storage by 2050. Its demand for rare earth materials in permanent magnets used in several technologies could increase 10-fold over the same period.
The COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting the world’s increasing reliance on electronics and technology for remote work, education and communication, and the 27-nation EU enters a widening race to secure supplies for its communications, health, defense and space sectors along with the US, China and Japan.
“We have to drastically change our approach,” European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said. “We are largely dependent on unsustainable raw materials from countries with much lower environmental and social standards, less freedoms, [and] poor, unsustainable economies.”
The EU gets about 98 percent of its rare earth minerals from China. Turkey supplies 98 percent of its borate, while Chile meets 78 percent of Europe’s lithium needs. South Africa provides 71 percent of its platinum.
The European Commission has said that the EU’s mining potential is underused.
“We need to diversify supply and make better use of the resources within the European Union, where we would apply the highest environmental and social standards to that effect,” Sefcovic told reporters in Brussels.
The strategy aims to set up a European raw materials alliance with industry, investors, the European Investment Bank, EU member countries and others to help secure raw mineral supply chains.
The commission wants to start a partnership with Canada and interested African countries starting next year.
INVESTOR RESILIENCE? An analyst said that despite near-term pressures, foreign investors tend to view NT dollar strength as a positive signal for valuation multiples Morgan Stanley has flagged a potential 10 percent revenue decline for Taiwan’s tech hardware sector this year, as a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar begins to dent the earnings power of major exporters. In what appears to be the first such warning from a major foreign brokerage, the US investment bank said the currency’s strength — fueled by foreign capital inflows and expectations of US interest rate cuts — is compressing profit margins for manufacturers with heavy exposure to US dollar-denominated revenues. The local currency has surged about 10 percent against the greenback over the past quarter and yesterday breached
MARKET FACTORS: Navitas Semiconductor Inc said that Powerchip is to take over from TSMC as its supplier of high-voltage gallium nitride chips Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday in a statement said that it would phase out its compound semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN) business over the next two years, citing market dynamics. The decision would not affect its financial targets announced previously, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker said. “We are working closely with our customers to ensure a smooth transition and remain committed to meeting their needs during this period,” it said. “Our focus continues to be on delivering sustained value to our partners and the market.” TSMC’s latest move came unexpectedly, as the chipmaker had said in its annual report that it has
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
ELECTRONICS: Strong growth in cloud services and smart consumer electronics offset computing declines, helping the company to maintain sales momentum, Hon Hai said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday announced that its sales for last month rose 10 percent year-on-year, driven by strong growth in cloud and networking products amid the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company, also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), reported consolidated sales of NT$540.24 billion (US$18.67 billion) for the month, the highest ever for the period, and a 10.09 percent increase from a year earlier, although it was down 12.26 percent from the previous month. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said its cloud
RSS