Vietnamese tin mine along the northern border close to China. By Eppic Adventures @ Shutterstock.com
China has a near monopoly on rare-earth metals production and processing. Many countries are looking for alternatives to China in their supply chains. Reuters’s Francesco Guarascio and Ju-min Park report that Vietnam may be the location of new rare earth projects meant to diversify away from China. They write:
HANOI/SEOUL, Aug 22 (Reuters) – Korean and Chinese magnet firms, including an Apple supplier, are set to open factories in Vietnam, according to documents and people familiar with the plans, amid a push to diversify supply chains away from China and defend against Sino-U.S. tension.
South Korea’s Star Group Industrial (SGI) and China’s Baotou INST Magnetic would join companies in sectors as varied as electronics and automobiles in shifting assembly lines against a backdrop of increasing trade restrictions, with clients even requesting the move, the people said.
China is dominant in magnets and the rare earth metals they are made from. The magnets are central to the manufacturing of such products as electric vehicles, wind turbines, weapons and smartphones, making the sector strategically important. Even so, there has been only limited effort to challenge China’s lead.
Neighbouring Vietnam, however, has untapped rare earth deposits second only to China’s, as well as a fledgling processing industry, giving the country the potential to be a much bigger competitor, industry insiders said.
SGI’s Vietnam project, for instance, targets 2025 output of 5,000 tons of high-end neodymium (NdFeB) magnets per year, enough for 2 million electric vehicles (EVs).
Still, Vietnam produces just 1% of the world’s magnets, showed Adamas Intelligence data cited in a U.S. Department of Energy report, compared with China’s 92%.
Moreover, some Chinese factories can produce 10 times as many magnets as SGI’s project, and China dominates the mining and processing of the ores.
Nevertheless, Vietnam’s rise is significant.
SGI’s plant at full capacity would produce nearly 3% of the 2022 global output estimated by Project Blue, a critical materials consultancy. That equates to nearly half of U.S. imports of neodymium magnets last year, U.S. trade data showed.
Moreover, U.S. officials have signalled growing interest in Vietnam’s rare earths potential amid discussion to upgrade bilateral ties this year, and South Korea signed a deal with Vietnam in June to boost its supply chain of critical minerals.
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