Why China’s growing demand for rare-earth steel is bad news for US F-35
Advanced product is used in huge infrastructure projects but that has further reduced supply for overseas buyers like the US defence sector
This is the front line of a technological leap being powered by China’s dominance in critical minerals and its strategic industrial policy.
The advanced rare-earth steel being produced is used in the country’s most ambitious engineering projects – from high-speed railways to wind turbines and the world’s largest hydropower dam being built in Tibet, according to a report in the official Science and Technology Daily.
But growing demand for rare earths in China’s steel industry – in addition to Beijing’s export controls – has reduced the supply to overseas buyers even further.
In the United States, the defence sector – including the F-35 fighter jet programme, nuclear submarines, missiles and drones – has been grappling with supply chain anxieties fuelled by the shortage of rare earths.