Will China be the "OPEC of Rare Earth Metals"?
From the Times Online:
And what are the trade implications:The Chinese threat of an export ban on minerals critical to the modern world may end a phase of polite negotiation between Tokyo and Beijing on the issue. A senior Japanese official told The Times that if China does ban some rare earth metal exports by 2015, Japan may use the WTO to block such an action.Global supply of the rare-earth metals [the “green” lanthanide metals used in hundreds of environmental and military technologies], which are vital to the mechanisms of hybrid cars, wind turbines, iPods, lasers, super-efficient light bulbs and radar systems, is 95 per cent controlled by China.
The country’s dominance of the market is the result of a deliberate, 20-year bid by Beijing to cast itself as the “Opec of rare earth metals”