22 hours ago, lannarebirth said:

 

There is virtually nothing that is produced in China that America "needs". The customer has the power in this situation. That doesn't mean Trump won't blow it. That's certainly possible, but the US is holding the better hand IMO.  As awful as Trump is, I'm not going to fault him for going after China on trade, though I'm sure I won't like how he does it.

China have the rare Earths.

Until 2018, the amount produced by China increased to some 120 thousand metric tons. The following elements are among rare earths: cerium (Ce), dysprosium (Dy), erbium (Er), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), holmium (Ho), lanthanum (La), lutetium (Lu), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), scandium (Sc), terbium (Tb), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), and yttrium (Y).

 

For high-tech products and future technologies these are needed.

A far underestimated lever that China has with it.

Edited May 16, 20197 yr by tomacht8

3 hours ago, tomacht8 said:

China have the rare Earths.

Until 2018, the amount produced by China increased to some 120 thousand metric tons. The following elements are among rare earths: cerium (Ce), dysprosium (Dy), erbium (Er), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), holmium (Ho), lanthanum (La), lutetium (Lu), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), scandium (Sc), terbium (Tb), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), and yttrium (Y).

 

For high-tech products and future technologies these are needed.

A far underestimated lever that China has with it.

Currently but, rare earth metals are not particularly rare in the Earth's crust, significant reserves exist elsewhere with a lot more to be discovered.  The US used to produce a lot but stopped because production can release radioactive contamination, an environmental issue. Not too long ago Molycorp developed advanced refinement methods, but shelved plans because profit is too low as long as China floods the market. Actually China and the US have a lot of synergy, they just need to work through the relationship.

Edited May 16, 20197 yr by rabas

37 minutes ago, rabas said:

Currently but, rare earth metals are not particularly rare in the Earth's crust, significant reserves exist elsewhere with a lot more to be discovered.  The US used to produce a lot but stopped because production can release radioactive contamination, an environmental issue. Not too long ago Molycorp developed advanced refinement methods, but shelved plans because profit is too low as long as China floods the market. Actually China and the US have a lot of synergy, they just need to work through the relationship.

All right, but China currently has the monopoly on the mining of rare earths, especially in the heavy earths.
If China decides to stop delivering tomorrow, many high technology companies would be in trouble.
Many countries have failed to build up an independent production. In the case of a trade war, that would not be possible overnight. China could definitely use this as a trade weapon.

Edited May 16, 20197 yr by tomacht8

1 hour ago, tomacht8 said:

All right, but China currently has the monopoly on the mining of rare earths, especially in the heavy earths.
If China decides to stop delivering tomorrow, many high technology companies would be in trouble.

Then China's economy, massively based on manufacturing for these companies, would collapse, look at their current financial situation. China and the West are very interdependent. And that is good. Neither side has any interest in collapsing each other. As I said, both sides know they have a strong interrelationship. 

19 minutes ago, rabas said:

Then China's economy, massively based on manufacturing for these companies, would collapse, look at their current financial situation. China and the West are very interdependent. And that is good. Neither side has any interest in collapsing each other. As I said, both sides know they have a strong interrelationship. 

If neither of those sided includes Donald Trump, then I agree with you.

interesting interview ,Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation, the guy who helped craft Trumps econ policy.

also Steve Bannon,on cnbc recently

 

Edited May 17, 20197 yr by cbtstorm