3 months ago
1
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced successful her Union Budget 2026 code that the authorities volition enactment the mineral-rich States of Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu successful establishing uncommon world corridors to beforehand the mining, processing, research, and manufacturing of captious minerals.
This announcement arrives arsenic China — the ascendant unit successful uncommon world production and exports — leverages its mining manufacture arsenic a strategical bargaining spot successful its ongoing tariff warfare with the U.S. While the U.S. remains the second-largest importer of Chinese uncommon earths aft Japan, India is besides heavy babelike connected China for these materials.
Chart 1 shows India’s full uncommon world imports implicit the years and China’s stock successful India’s imports.
As observed from the chart, India’s uncommon world imports person been expanding implicit clip from $14.1 cardinal successful 2014 to $17.5 cardinal successful 2024. Over 45% of these minerals travel from China.
China’s dominance successful uncommon earths stems not lone from assets availability but much truthful from its longstanding spot successful mining and probe capacity. Rare world elements (REEs), contempt the name, are not peculiarly scarce.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), they comprise 17 metals, typically grouped into airy uncommon earths (LREEs) — including lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, samarium and europium — and dense uncommon earths (HREEs) specified arsenic gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium. Promethium is not included successful the database arsenic it is radioactive and does not hap successful mineable quantities.
They are captious components successful cleanable vigor technologies specified arsenic electrical vehicles and upwind turbines, arsenic good arsenic successful defence applications. Rare earths are besides indispensable for high-tech devices including smartphones and hard drives.
Although uncommon world deposits beryllium successful countries specified arsenic Brazil, Australia, and India, China holds astir fractional of the planetary reserves. It is besides the world’s largest producer, contributing implicit 60% of planetary accumulation successful the past 5 years. Beyond extraction, China dominates the worth concatenation with astir 92% of planetary refining capacity, according to the IEA. Moreover, successful the past 5 years, China has been the largest exporter, supplying adjacent to 30% of planetary demand.
